Design thinking for the built environment: A case study of a first-year undergraduate subject

Design Thinking is a relatively new approach and has been mostly only employed in design courses in the higher education sector. In the first semester of 2019, Queensland university of Technology has introduced a design thinking unit for the Bachelor of Urban Development course. The cohort of students enrolled in this unit were from Construction Management, Urban and Regional Planning, and Quantity Surveying disciplines. This study investigates the effectiveness of Design Thinking as a problem-solving approach for the first-year students studying built environment related majors. The students enrolled in the unit were surveyed at the beginning and end of the semester followed by a focus group. The effect of Design Thinking on students’ skills such as collaboration and problem-solving was proved to be positive