ABSTRACT
With this innovative approach to design, the new generation of AEC professionals needs to be educated how to develop not only traditional or routine projects but also projects incorporating novel designs and construction processes. These professionals need to be creative, and be able to develop unknown (or unproven)
solutions which are feasible, surprising, and potentially patentable. Currently, AEC professionals are no longer being seen as leaders or innovators but more as followers – using deductive problem solving rather than seeking opportunities, using their creativity and developing inventions. This resonates with thinking derived from innovation literature (Akintoye, Goulding and Zawdie, 2012; Elmualim and Gilder, 2014). As a result, designers and engineers in particular have seemingly lost their ability to innovate. This is partly attributable to ‘inappropriate’ education that has historically focussed on production rather than creativity. This is just the opposite of what happened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when designers and engineers were seen as the ‘true drivers’ of change. During this time, high-level education was aligned to incentives (e.g. the highest salary rates), which helped design and engineering schools attract the most talented students, and these graduates were capable of meeting all technological and socio-cultural challenges of the quickly expanding societies (Arciszewski, 2006; Arciszewski and Rebolj, 2008; Arciszewski and Harrison, 2010a, 2010b). For instance, the construction of some monumental buildings during this period in history created not only technological solutions, but also cultural revolutions, leading to a fundamental change in the way design and engineering were perceived.
