Abstract
Design is a social phenomenon and researchers suggest that negotiations and communications between designers are essential to initiate creativity. Within the design studio environment, a number of factors affect the healthy social interaction and design negotiations, such as the teaching style of tutors and the culture that governs a design studio environment. This may, in turn, affect the utilisation of the outcome of negotiations in the design project. Design studio students from the third to fifth years at the College of Architecture, UoD were surveyed to find out how far the design studio culture and communications would impact on the production of innovative design projects. The results show that democratic communications and establishing common grounds are essential to develop knowledge and would influence positively the design outcome. On the other hand, the research found that negative personal and design studio environment's qualities would hinder students' creativity. However, to develop students' design/innovative abilities, the researcher recommends that certain measures should be considered. These would include shifting the focus of architectural design pedagogy from the production of solution-based to innovative-based design projects, transforming the design studio into an interactive and friendly learning environment and the development of interactive and communications skills of tutors.