Exploring undergraduate architectural students’ perceptions towards evidence-based design

Abstract

The change of social and architectural values in recent decades call for more scientific rigor in architectural designs. In the architectural context, evidence-based design (EBD) refers to the judicious use of the best available evidence from research and practice to make informed design decisions. EBD has rarely been incorporated into undergraduate architectural education as a systematic design methodology. The current project has engaged undergraduate architectural design students with fact-based predictive design thinking and equipped them with essential knowledge and skillsets to carry out EBD. The project employed pre- and post-surveys to examine students’ perceptions and experiences about design values, design methods and EBD before and after the introduction of EBD. Results showed that students’ design methods shifted from intuition- and practice-based methodologies towards fact- and research-based ones. Compared with the pre-survey, students displayed a stronger intention to develop and implement clear design values in future projects and appreciated the learning of factual knowledge and incorporation of building occupants’ needs and preferences in their design processes.