Group/ungroup/regroup: A dynamic assemblage of collectivity in drawing ideas

Abstract

This paper aims to elaborate further on collectivity in architectural design education, especially in formulating design problems and ideas. Many studies have looked at important aspects such as communication, group management, and cooperative orientation or the quality of the collaboration that takes place. However, only a few studies have looked into the specific aspects of teamwork related to how group formation mechanisms relate to the design process. This study was conducted in the form of a design workshop as the main activities. A case study was also employed in the research strategy, mainly to provide context to the issues that participants responded to in the design workshop. The findings of this study are dynamism related to the collaboration that is based on the nonlinearity of thinking between individuals, the composition of group members that changes throughout the activity process, and the impermanence of groups, from the problem formulation phase to the drawing ideas. This study shows that the group formation mechanism can take place dynamically without any conditions set strictly in the activity, but rather by giving designers the freedom to discuss and develop their working mechanism.