the impact of social interaction and communications on innovation in the architectural design studio社会互动的影响和通讯的创新建筑设计工作室.pdf

Buildings 2012, 2, 203-217; doi:10.3390/buildings2030203 OPEN ACCESS buildings ISSN 2075-5309 /journal/buildings/ Article The Impact of Social Interaction and Communications on Innovation in the Architectural Design Studio Bhzad Sidawi University of Dammam, College of Architecture and Planning, 31451 Dammam, P.O. Box 2397, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia; E-Mail: Bsidawi@.sa; Tel.: +966-3-8577000; Fax: +966-3-8578739 Received: 22 April 2012; in revised form: 7 June 2012 / Accepted: 26 June 2012 / Published: 5 July 2012 Abstract: Design is a social phenomenon and researchers suggest that social interaction, negotiations and communication between designers are essential to initiate creativity. Within the design studio environment, a number of factors affect the healthy social interaction and design negotiations, such as the teaching style of tutors and the culture that governs a design studio’s environment. This may in turn affect the utilization of the outcome of negotiations in the design project. Design studio students from the third to fifth years at the College of Architecture, University of Dammam (UD), the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), were surveyed to find out how far the design studio’s culture and communication would impact the production of innovative design projects. The results show that frequent communication and the establishment’s shared grounds are essential to develop knowledge and