INTERIOR DESIGN EDUCATION: DESIGN THINKING APPROACH TOWARDS CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION WITHIN VIETNAMESE CONTEXT

Creativity is viewed as one of the key aspects that drive civilization forward and would be significant in handling the varied changes in the future. In the field of design education, promoting creativity is not about how to teach creativity itself, but rather how to understand, harvest and build up the creativity that students have already processed and used. In contemporary Interior design education, graduated students will be expected to go into the field, serving clients and employers effectively and also can lead the market as a change-maker. Creativity in this matter is much broader and more universal than what people typically consider "artistic" fields, but manifests itself as innovation in which shaping ideas to become practical and attractive proposition for users and can change the lives of billions of people. Based on the "Higher Education Reform Agenda" (HERA), a government action for Vietnamese education for 2010 - 2020, the Design Department of National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE) has adopted an innovative program which crossing the area of interior and spatial design through applying Design thinking approach towards creativity and innovation. The study was carried out within the bachelor level in Interior Design at National University of Civil Engineering (NUCE) - Vietnam. The program was organized around the module "Design studio 5", with a focus on cultural and educational interior design. Within the framework of this study, the course was redesigned and taught for fourth-year undergraduates (N=19) in the autumn semester 2017 in order to prepare future designers to deal progressively with more complex problems. A number of factors have been outlined as a framework of Design thinking towards creativity and innovation were found to influence students in a specific Design studio, including formation of a problem-based learning approach, building a supportive environment through collaborative and multidisciplinary approach, the implications of human-centered design approach in educational settings and the importance of creating motivation through experiment and formative assessment.