1. Introduction
Design problems, and urban design problems, in particular, are ambiguous, lack clear initial conditions and completely specified goals and requirements, and demand the generation of innovative solutions [
1,
2]. For these reasons, urban design is a complex problem-solving activity that commonly requires a variety of methods such as heuristics, design principles, standards and guidelines to support the design activity. These approaches, however, have been criticized for being too simplistic, too specific, and hard to interpret [
3]. Another important limitation is that they generally fail to deal with complex issues [
4]. There are many reasons for this as complexity is bothersome for students and professional designers. Among these are the background and level of expertise of the design agents involved in the process, the broad and diverse body of knowledge necessary for an integrated design solution, and the difficulties to predict successful solutions based on a vast number of design variables that are hard to seize [
5]. As a consequence, how to equip designers with adequate methods to tackle ill-defined urban problems has remained a major challenge both in professional practice and in education. In this regard, design patterns are considered a powerful resource containing comprehensive and easy to understand information, which can be applied to resolve conflicts between social and physical aspects of the design [
6].
The present interest with patterns is related to Christopher Alexander, who authored “The timeless way of building” and “A pattern language”. In these books, he introduced a theory and practical approach to architectural and urban design [
7,
8]. The notion of patterns was first introduced as an alternative approach for tackling ill-defined problems [
9] in the architectural and urban fields [
7]. The use of patterns as a kind of language was also found relevant in domains like software engineering, web design, and human-computer interaction, where they were acknowledged as a promising technique for assembling and reusing software architectures [
10,
11,
12,
13].
Patterns are concerned with problems related to specific design situations that explain how solutions can be efficiently applied. Basically, a pattern is composed of three parts which represent a relation between a context, a frequent design problem, and the fundamental nature of a solution to tackle the problem [
8]. Moreover, pattern representations also inform how they are related to other relevant patterns, and present solution examples by means of visual and text information. According to Alexander [
7], a suitable pattern language includes solutions containing recurring features and principles that are common in many feasible ways of solving the problem at hand.
Chung et al. [
14] found that patterns differ from other approaches such as heuristics and guidelines in that they offer concrete solutions to specific problems, instead of abstract suggestions. Consequently, rather than replacing these methods, they can complement them. By providing design examples, patterns can be seen as more generative than reductive tools. Another advantage is that they aid in structuring problems, and creating functional and well-integrated design solutions [
15]. While facilitating schemas to reinterpret a problem in terms of other smaller problems [
7], patterns are considered as a prescriptive design approach that enables a fast generation of alternative design solutions. Some researchers consider that they enhance the chances for flexibility and adaptability to changing design conditions, leaving enough room for design creativity and innovation [
16]. However, when used inadequately, they can also lead to fixation and the repetition of known solutions [
17,
18].
Urban design problem-solving is an increasingly complex activity demanding a thorough collaboration between members of a team [
19]. Dealing with urban problems requires effective communication within teams with different goals, interests, and views of the problem. Consequently, the main challenge for design teams is how to generate mutual knowledge and integrate individual perspectives into shared ones [
20,
21]. Enhancing communication can contribute to this end with a positive effect on both the design process and the outcome [
22]. In this vein, using design patterns can be instrumental in keeping a fluent communication and exchange of information about recurrent design situations. This tool can enhance the interaction and shared understanding among team members and can assist in the efficient coordination of design activities [
3]. The information contained in the patterns can provide critical guidance to urban designers on how to make appropriate decisions about the design task at different levels of scale and detail [
23,
24].
The design studio is at the core of most urban design curricula and it is the place where students learn to think as a designer while dealing with design problem-solving tasks. In addition to problem solving and communication, an important emphasis in the studio is set on design creativity and innovation [
25]. During the design studio sessions, students are supposed to reflect upon the creativity of their designs [
26] while they develop their thinking and learning skills [
27]. The production of creative outcomes is concerned with an exploratory activity demanding non-routine and original thinking. However, to consider a design as creative, originality is not enough, and some kind of value is necessary [
28]. In addition to originality, the usability and aesthetic values of a product are also important. These are the three basic properties of any creative design [
29,
30,
31]. However, producing creative designs is an intricate activity that entails taking risks to challenge unfamiliar, complex, and ill-structured situations [
32]. Unfortunately, most traditional studios are governed by a hidden curriculum that allows them to regulate the quality of the design outcomes [
33]. Instead of advancing agendas in support of the development of creativity, they prefer to avoid unwanted hazards and to strengthen the status quo urban theory. Under these circumstances, how to help students defy traditional and more conservative educational systems and equip them with efficient tools to support design creativity has remained an open question.
As an educational method in the studio, design patterns have the potential to enrich traditional teaching systems, such as the
Ecole de Beaux Arts. This approach, which continues to be largely influential in many schools of architecture and urbanism, stresses individual knowledge transfer from tutors to students [
34,
35]. Patterns can help to simplify the complexity of urban problems, as requested in the design studio. By facilitating criteria for valuing experiences, ideas, personal views, these instruments aid students to develop and consolidate their knowledge and creative skills gradually [
36], while they gain independence from their design studio tutors [
37,
38]. Griffiths and Pemberton [
39] proposed ways to use pattern language in design education, such as connecting patterns with design theory, using existing patterns in practical exercises, and exploring and identifying new patterns. Practicing with patterns in the design studio helped to enhance design team interactions and improve the creativity of the outcomes. Some researches stressed the importance of empirically studying the use of patterns in both design practice and design education [
3,
40]. However, works on design patterns are mostly historical or anecdotal, and empirical studies are scarce. To the best of our knowledge, this tool was never explored in the context of task-related activities carried out by urban designers working in a team. Therefore, an empirical investigation was carried out to study how urban design patterns can assist design teams during the conceptual stages of the design process, and how these affect the final design outcome as perceived by professionals and students. One general objective was to test whether students and urban designers have similar conceptions of the creativity of the designs produced with the aid of patterns. A second objective was to explore how the use of design patterns helped students to deal with the task and exchange information with the other team members during the process. Another objective was to identify what the main factors characterizing the design activity are, and how they contribute to the creativity of the design outcomes, mainly with regard to the originality, functionality, aesthetic value, and the overall value of the design solutions. Implications for practice and design education were also considered.
In spite of the limitations of carrying out the research in a lab environment conditions, and the relatively small study sample, the study contributes to gaining a further understanding into the use of patterns in support of the urban design activities developed during the conceptual stages of the design process. It also fostered the present state of knowledge about the potential use of this approach in the urban design studio as a complement to other traditional education models.
4. Discussion
This study dealt with the use of patterns as urban design aids. It centered on the analysis of correspondences and divergences between urban designers and design students in the assessment of the creativity of design outcomes. Four significant variables defining design creativity were considered and included: originality, functionality, aesthetic value, and overall value [
42,
43]. The high degree of correspondence between the two judges that assessed the final outcomes confirms that the expert judgment of design creativity is a reliable and genuine method of assessment.
The results were obtained from a factor analysis carried out with the twelve variables analyzed by the students on the use of urban patterns. It was found that the four factors consisted of ‘analysis and assessment of the design’, ‘design innovation’, ‘team cohesion’, and ‘design reflection. The most dominant factor is ‘analysis and assessment of the design’ representing variables such as ‘clarifications of ideas’, ‘analysis of ideas’, ‘evaluation of ideas’, and ‘definitions of problems’. These results may indicate that when students are asked to assess the use of design patterns, their focus is mainly set on the analysis and evaluation of the design, including both problem and design ideas [
48]. On the other hand, the aid of the design patterns in the synthesis design activity—concerned with the development of design solutions—was evident in the second dominant factor represented by ‘design innovation’, which included the variables of ‘stating new ideas’ and ‘producing innovative solutions’. The study by Stempfle and Badke-Schaub [
49] suggests that in the usual thinking process of design teams, the generation of the solution ideas is followed by evaluations, except when there are questions or clarifications. If an evaluation yields a positive result, then the solution is normally accepted. Otherwise, new solution ideas are pursued. It is remarkable that overall, the use of design patterns was perceived by the students as an instrument for analysis and evaluation, rather than as a means for supporting the generation of novel design solutions. This result is in line with previous studies arguing that patterns are effective in structuring problems [
15], and those that raised questions regarding their contribution to design creativity and innovation [
16]. Another interesting result is that whereas the most dominant factors centered on the design task, the less important ones focused on the team activities.
The results from the regression coefficients between the four factors emerging from the factor analysis and the assessment by the students of the design outcome indicated that the assessment of the originality of the urban design corresponds mainly to the ‘novelty of ideas and solutions’. It is not surprising that when students are requested to assess design originality their attention is directed towards innovation. However, different results were found from the regression coefficients between the four factors resulting from the students’ factor analysis and the assessment of the originality of the design by the urban designers. According to their view, ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’ was the dominant factor but with a negative contribution to the originality of the design. As commented before, it is possible that students used the urban patterns more as an analytical tool to structure, inspect and judge their ideas and outcomes, than as a means to generate innovative ideas. In this sense, employing patterns for analysis and evaluation operations characterizes the design as a convergent activity [
50]. As a result of this, the generation of novel solutions (characteristic in divergent design activities) was to a certain extent limited. This claim is supported by the findings of the factor analysis presented above, where the ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’ was more dominant than the generation of new design outcomes.
Findings from the regression equation of the factors that predicted the evaluation of the functionality of the design by the students corresponded to the ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’. Whereas the assistance provided by the patterns was largely on the assessment of the design task, this dominant factor had a positive impact in enhancing the functionality of the design. Nevertheless, different results were observed from the regression coefficients between the four factors and the evaluation carried out by the urban designers on the functionality of the design. In their view, ‘team cohesion’ had a positive contribution to the design use. One of the biggest challenges that design teams must face is to ensure that members exchange information and interact in a manner that they promote cohesion and collaboration [
51,
52]. Thus, it is suggested that the higher the cohesion and knowledge integration among team members, the better the contribution of the design patterns to the functionality of the urban design outcomes [
19,
22].
Findings from the regression equation of the factors analyses that predicted the evaluation by the students on the aesthetic value of the outcome corresponded also to the ‘team cohesion’. Judgments of aesthetic value, also called judgment of sentiment and taste [
53], hinges on the capability to discriminate at a sensory-emotional and intellectual level [
54]. Scholars refer to aesthetic assessment as the ‘critical reflection on art, culture and nature’ [
55]. In design, aesthetic judgment is concerned with the sensory and affective appreciation of an object. Aesthetic assessment is subjective and personal, and in many cases is a matter of taste. Therefore, arriving at a common understanding on how a beautiful object should look like demands from the team to realize how the other members appreciate and criticize the design. It seems that for this to happen, some level of team cohesion must be attained. On the other hand, results from the regression analysis between the four factors and the evaluation by the urban designers indicated that the aesthetic value of the urban design corresponded to the ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’. However, this variable had a negative contribution, suggesting that when used for convergence activities [
50], design patterns may be detrimental to the development of aesthetic solutions.
The regression analyses that followed the factor analysis and the assessment by the students of the overall value of the design corresponded to ‘team cohesion’. It is apparent that gaining a common understanding of the design contributed to align the views of the team members about the value of the final design solution [
51]. Nevertheless, the assessment carried out by the urban designers indicated that the overall value of the design solution mainly corresponded to the ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’. Once again, this variable was found to have a negative contribution, suggesting that the aid provided by design patterns as an assessment tool was counterproductive for the general value of the final solution.
5. Conclusions
This study contributed to gain a further understanding of the use of design patterns as an approach in urban design problem-solving activities during the conceptual stages of the process. Empirical evidence was provided for the first time to figure out the role of this tool in task-related activities that occur during the design process by designers working in a team, and its effect on the creativity of the final design outcome.
It was possible to understand how the availability of concrete solutions helped to deal with the task, interact with other team members, and arrive at a final solution. Moreover, a focus was set on how urban designers compared to students assess the final design solutions.
From the perspective of the students, the aid provided by the urban patterns was mainly concerned with the task, and thereafter with the interaction of the team. Overall, this tool assisted in the analysis and assessment of the design, and thereafter on the generation of novel ideas and solutions. It is remarkable that urban designers and students had dissimilar perceptions regarding the contribution of the different design factors to the creativity of the final design solution. The former considered that using design patterns for the ‘analysis and evaluation of the design’ had a negative contribution on most aspects of the design, and as a consequence, it limited the creativity of the final outcome. In contrast, the latter believe that this and the design innovation factor had a positive impact on their designs. However, irrespective of this, both students and urban designers agree that the use of patterns mainly aided in enhancing the functionality of the design, and to a lesser extent in improving its originality and aesthetic value.
Meaningful implications for design practice and design education can be derived from the result that, overall, the employment of urban patterns helps to enhance the functionality of the design. It is confirmed that these tools can be used to complement other approaches such as design heuristics and guidelines, providing more concrete aids. The solution examples that patterns afforded while dealing with specific urban problems showed to be helpful, suggesting that this tool can serve to overcome some of the weaknesses observed in these design methods. Their simplicity was very helpful to efficiently reduce the complexity of urban problems, as demanded in the design studio. A disadvantage, however, is that their well-structured knowledge and powerful descriptive power affected the ability to generate creative solutions to some extent. Specifically, patterns can be applied to structure the task in an effective way and to resolve urban situations mainly characterized by complex functional conflicts. They can also assist design teams, mainly heterogeneous ones, to develop a common language to enhance communication exchange and to create mutual understanding among team members.
The investigation also advances the present state of knowledge about the usage patterns in the urban design studio. That students demonstrated to be able to employ patterns to integrate and share their knowledge, also gives hope that this approach can be considered as a complement to more traditional education models, e.g., Ecole de Beaux Arts, which continue to be largely present in many schools of architecture and urbanism nowadays. Implementing educational programs in the urban design studio can grant avenues for genuine and efficient ways of using patterns. The approach offers an alternative to the long-established method characterized by transferring knowledge and skills from teachers to students. By teaching how to apply and adapt examples of successful schemas and solutions in practice, students will be able to enhance their skills, expertise, and body of knowledge in fast and efficient ways. As said before, there is some evidence of correspondence between the assessments made by urban designers and students regarding the assistance provided by the design patterns in the different aspects of the solutions. However, the greater divergence consisted in their perception on the contribution of the different factors to the final outcomes. Reducing divergences may enhance the chances of promoting learning in the urban design studio.
Limitations of this study, however, should be noted. The empirical research was carried out in a lab environment, which allowed for the isolation of study variables effectively. However, a disadvantage of using this method is that it differs in many ways from real-life design situations. Consequently, it is possible that the type of assignment given to the students might have influenced the way that they dealt with the task, and the limited repertoire of design patterns might also have impacted the produced outcomes. Another limitation is the low number of judges that evaluated the design outcomes. Although there was a high degree of agreement between the urban designers, using a larger group of judges in a future study would enable a better generalization of the current findings. In a similar vein, a larger number of participants could translate into a comparative study among students with different levels of expertise. Running a study on a yearly base would also enable to keep track of the role patterns in the development of knowledge and skills, and the ability to produce suitable solutions. This can contribute to a reflection on a broader picture of the significance and value of the design patterns at different levels of the urban studio. A future study can also employ more complex tasks, where the use of patterns by heterogeneous samples is explored, including multi-disciplinary teams composed by urbanists, architects, and environmental engineers.