ABSTRACT
The transmission process has a social-psychological dimension too, one which, in beginning design especially, reinforces its conservatism. Beginning design is the most conservative of the phases of architectural education because all agree that the foundations of architectural design should be the last thing to be messed with. To enlarge: many teachers turn beginning design students into sitting ducks for criticism by setting projects that are well over their heads in scale, realism, or complexity. No teacher can adopt the program statement of another, and it is nearly always disappointing when the teachers of a coordinated year—be it beginning design or later—share the same one. Beginning design students are enthralled and awed by the opportunities they have to be creative. Beginning design studio, therefore, is probably not the place to teach students about creativity's down side as a very concept.
