Creativity among Undergraduate Architecture Students of University of Uyo, Uyo, Nigeria, 2009 - 2012

Architectural design is a process that relies on creativity to arrive at acceptable solutions in the bid to alter, shape and create or re-create the built environment for satisfactory human use. To achieve this, design skills have to be developed either through apprenticeship or formal education. The main objective of this study is to examine how architectural design creativity is assessed by educators in the University of Uyo, Nigeria. Poor design output by majority of students has become a cause for concern. The study population consists of all the twelve lecturers involved in design studio mentoring. Qualitative research methodology was used involving interviews and examination of official documents relating to architectural design. The findings of the study reveal that three major criteria are used for the assessment as follows; Investigativeness/understanding of the project, application of lessons from existing projects, and the ability to proffer novel solutions. Based on these, a standard assessment format was developed with marks or points assigned to each unit for ease of appraisal. The study also reveals that five of the studio mentors use checklist method and brain storming sessions to boast creativity. The assessment of creativity is subjective and is based on the assessors’ interpretation of the design. The paper concludes by advocating that creativity concepts of decision making, problem solving, originality, imaginativeness, ingenuity, adaptation and resourcefulness should be applied to design studio mentoring and assessment