ABSTRACT

As policymakers begin to embrace design to answer the wicked problems, designers have a moral obligation to ensure the proposed answers are evidence-based and grounded in deep theoretical understanding. Thoughtful engagement with design theories and evidence has the power to positively transform everyday lives, creating great places where people thrive. One factor limiting the transformation towards evidence-based practice is that the myth of the creative genius dominates. Renowned architectural theorist Juhani Pallasmaa worries that an intellectual research-oriented approach to design might limit creativity and dull empathetic imagination, insight, and innovation. Design is both an art and a science. Empathic intuition, iterative non-linear cycles of design thinking, and the inspirational flash of the creative insight should always be the critical building blocks of the design process. The film’s opening scenes are indeed fairly promising, with the use of expressionistic aesthetics that set the mood for suspense and nightmarish uncanniness.