The Metaphor of an Ensemble: Design Creativity as Skill Integration

The metaphor of an ensemble is used in this paper to understand and explain creativity in design. By analyzing skill integration at a domain and task level the paper proposes that from the viewpoint of creativity, design can then be considered as an ensemble of different skills, emergent from the specificity of the situation in which the designer operates. When design skills are considered as a composite, rather than as isolates, and are situated rather than absolute, they allow for flexibility in action and afford room for creativity, as different combinations of skills may lead to different creative design products.