Inside the Designer: Understanding imagining in spatial design Inside the Designer | Page 7

Inside the Designer
Chapter 1:
Towards
Imagination in Design
Of all the questions we can ask about design, the matter of what goes on
inside the designer’s head is by far the most difficult and yet the most
interesting and vital (Lawson, 1980, p. 94).
More than three decades after Lawson (1980) made this statement,
the matter of ‘what goes on in a designer’s head’, or imagining and
mental problem solving, remains just as mysterious and just as
pertinent, possibly more so given the social and environmental
challenges facing humankind. It is within this context that I introduce
this book.
This book is concerned with expanding understanding of imagining in
the spatial design disciplines of architecture and interior design. Its
genesis is in doctoral studies that I undertook in 2010. With this
knowledge you’ll come to appreciate the rather formal nature of this
book and the structures that make it a research based study.
The impetus for this book began in the interior design studio with a
desire to better understand how I could enhance the learning of my
design students. Informing this were observations and concerns about
the initial stages of designing and how much was developed ‘in the
student’s mind’ (the imagining process) before it was externalised and
made available for evaluation and comment. Despite attempts to help
my students develop drawing skills quickly so as to represent and
expose their thinking and imagining (which is what we are led to
believe we need to do as design educators), there was an inherent
reluctance, even resistance, by the students. While this may be due to
several factors including lack of confidence and inability to represent
ideas, interestingly, further reading showed this to be a preference for
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