Abstract

Can creative forms enclose functionally-efficient
spaces? Do functional considerations restrict
creative design products?
The question of creative form versus function is one
that is very debatable, and has been in question
for a long time in both architectural education and
practice. Milestone fi gures of architecture all have
their different views on what comes fi rst, form or
functional spaces. They also vary in their defi nitions
of creativity. Apparently, creativity is very strongly
related to ideas and how they can be generated.
It is also correlated with the process of thinking and
developing. Creative products, whether architectural
or otherwise, and whether tangible or intangible, are
originated from ‘good ideas.’ On one hand, not any
idea, or any good idea, can be considered creative
but, on the other hand, any creative result can be
traced back to a good idea that initiated it in the
beginning (Goldschmit and Tatsa, 2005).
However, how can a good idea be classifi ed,
which ideas are useful and helpful, and how can
they be characterized, are main questions that this
research work aims to answer. This paper attempts to
discuss and compare various, and often opposing,
viewpoints of both students and teaching staff, at
the possibility of striking a balance between exciting
forms and functional precision in the design studio.
The research examines the confl ict that students
often face when assigned with a design project,
and the diffi culties they experience in translating
theoretical and fundamentally-important data into
a novel architectural interpretation. Furthermore, the
investigation aims at relating the continuous, nonlinear
process of review and modifi cation, customary
to traditional design-studio approaches, to the fi nal
products students submit as part of their design-studio
applications. The fi nal issue in question is the role of
criticism and assessment in the forms of juries or crits,
assessment criteria, and whether this traditional aspect
of design-studio education truly provides architectural
students with the constructive criticism they need
amid feelings of tension and limited time constraints.
The Architectural Engineering and Environmental
Design department at the Arab Academy for Science
and Technology (AAST) is exploit as a case study for
the research work presented in this paper.