Subject Code & Name: AR25205 – Tools for Design Thinking
Regulation: R-2025
Semester: II (Second Semester)
Branch: B. Arch. (Arch)
Credits / L-T-P: 4 Credits | L-T-P: 0-0-4
Course Objectives
- To enable the ability to perceive the built environment through multiple modes of exploration such as observation, analysis, speculation, interpretation and representation.
- To introduce fundamentals of human cantered design thinking, including basic user interface (UI) and user experience (UX) concepts in the physical world.
- To foster design thinking using both digital and physical modes of representation.
- To equip students with tools to interpret, transform, and communicate architectural ideas from observation to speculation.
Full Unit-wise Syllabus
Observation, Perception and Reflective Exploration
This studio lays the foundation for design thinking by guiding students to understand how we perceive the world through sensory exploration and reflective observation. It begins by developing the ability to observe spatial, tactile, visual, and acoustic stimuli in both natural and built environments, and reflect critically on them. Students will investigate subjective and objective views, and differentiate between intuitive and analytical modes of understanding space. Through a sequence of structured modules, the studio transitions into diagrammatic and model-based analysis. Students will engage in exercises involving memory mapping, sketching, journaling, and intuitive representations. These help cultivate sensitivity to everyday spatial experiences and build awareness of how people perceive and navigate their environments.
User Interaction and Experience in Space
The second phase explores basic concepts of user interactions and experience focussing on how people interact with spatial elements in real world. Students will analyze simple spatial settings such as corridors, parks, and waiting areas to identify user needs and behaviours. Design as a continuous process in time as in streets and public spaces. They will create interaction maps and touchpoint diagrams to understand human-scale interface within space, materials, and circulation patterns, laying the foundation for human-cantered design.
Diagrammatic Thinking and Analytical Diagrams
The third phase delves into diagrammatic thinking, where students learn to abstract ideas, spatial relationships, and functions through graphic tools. They will experiment with bubble diagrams, functional zoning, conceptual sketches, and movement mapping. Case studies of buildings and spaces will be analysed using visual storytelling to reinforce critical thinking and clarity in communication. Illustrator, Photoshop, and hand-drafting methods will be integrated during this stage. In the following module, the studio explores the built environment through analytical diagrams, layering spatial parameters such as circulation, zoning, light, thermal comfort, and use-patterns to decode complex environments. Case studies and comparative methods will be employed, with outputs in both digital and analog formats.
Model Making and Conceptual Project
In the final phase, students will transition to model making as a means to test and express design ideas in three dimensions. They will explore physical materials and simple digital tools to investigate form, scale, and massing. Students will create conceptual, realistic, and generative models using foam, wire, clay, cardboard, and resin, POP and different tactile materials as well as tools like Sketch Up, etc. Students will then integrate insights from observation, user interaction, and diagrammatic analysis to develop a small conceptual project. The course will conclude with a reflective portfolio and oral presentation highlighting their design journey and thinking process.
Course Outcomes (COs)
- CO1: An understanding of diagrams and models as tools for observing, recording, and reinterpreting spatial and conceptual realities.
- CO2: An ability to understand important attributes of the built environment through diagrams/models.
- CO3: Ability to project thoughts and strategies through models, sketches, abstracts, and digital tools for conceptual ideation, communication and design thinking.
- CO4: Achieved training and practice in knowing user experience and spatial attributes.
Assessment Pattern (Quick Note)
- Weightage: Continuous Internal Assessment 60% | End Semester Examinations 40%
- Internal methodology: Three Assessments with equal weightage. Each assessment shall incorporate continuous marking of the work and performance during the particular assessment period. Each assessment weightage – 33.33%.
Source: Official Anna University – B. Arch. R-2025 Syllabus
Last Updated: September 2026
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