A systematic review of design creativity in the architectural design studio

Creativity is fundamental to design problem-solving. This paper sets out a systematic review of the literature in relation to its role in the architectural design studio in order to identify central issues that impact upon this activity. Challenges and best practices in relation to systematic reviews are outlined, and the procedure followed in this context is set out in detail. This involves an iterative evaluation process that resulted in a pool of 17 papers for analysis. Eleven themes emerged in the analysis of the papers, which were organized into five key categories dealing with: pedagogy, cognitive approach, interaction and socialization, information representation, and measuring ideation and creativity. A discussion of these categories contributed to the comparison and connections between the selected papers, and the identification of critical issues and directions for promoting creativity in the architectural design studio.