Comparative study of impacts on design thinking by using autoCAD and manual drafting in the schematic design stage

Drafting is a key component in architectural studies. The medium of drafting matters in design thinking. This study was set up to find out if and how drafting media would be effective in stimulating design thinking in the early stages of design ideation. In the architectural learning system, computer aided drafting is not encouraged by lecturers in the early design ideation stage, the reason being that many lecturers believe that computer aided drafting will limit design thinking at this stage. However, drafting is a skill which designers could personalize by adding his/her techniques in order to add aesthetic value to the drawing. This scenario is common in architectural practice. This article aims to find out in what manner the medium of drafting could generate an impact on design thinking of students at the early design stage. For this study, fifty students of an Interior Design degree program were observed, and twenty students were selected based on type of drafting technique: ten students used computer aided drafting and ten students used manual drafting at their schematic design stage. The schematic design stage of the design process has been selected for this study. Qualitative methodology has been adopted in conducting this study and data has been collected through interviews conducted at 2 levels of the process. The collected data has been analysed through a thematic analysis. Furthermore, the results of the project have been analysed parallel to the data gathered from the interviews to measure design thinking capability