Creativity in Teaching Design: A Balance Between the Academic and Intuitive Approach, the AIRP Experiment

Teaching the design practice at the university level, and especially at the university of technology challenges the ageless questions of art and design during the engineering design process. Basically, our role is to train and to foster the development of skilled professionals who produce products that are pleasing, safe and economically bearable. At the forefront of this goal we see different approaches confronting each other. Scientists, including ergonomists, are looking for strict and exhaustive pre-design studies that present two pitfalls to creativity: copy and paste and monodisciplinary responses. On the contrary, creatives argue our greatest discoveries and creations are born from chance and the most recognised designers are self- taught free thinkers. The aim of this paper is to present a method to reconcile these two points of view: interdisciplinary problem-solving workshops, which began ten years ago and solve difficult situations in various fields while simultaneously creating ingenious solutions impacting the technological advancement of products, services, and environments for the aging population.