Potential implications from the methodological application of Design Thinking in urban design processes. Analysis from the designer's experience

Abstract

This research aims to identify the potential implications of the Design Thinking methodology applied to Urban Design processes, as a useful tool to guide situated design processes and innovation facing complexity, learning through the process based on reflective action learning among others. The study analyzes the experience of urban designers and academics on developing urban design projects within the framework of the Master in Integrated Cities Design (MDCI in Spanish) at the Universidad Viña del Mar, Chile (2019-2020), who implemented an Urban Design process under the hypothesis that it serves as an innovative tool in three aspects: empathy, iteration, and scalability. It takes a phenomenological qualitative research methodology and analyzes both the common and distinct experiences of urban designers and academics at the MDCI project laboratory that they recognize as relevant in the process. The experiences were evaluated through group interviews. The data analysis was done through coding methods based on Grounded Theory, identifying those experiences relevant to the Urban Design process that promote the capacity for innovation in the production of urban space. A total of nine innovation dimensions relevant to Urban Design are identified insofar as Design Thinking promotes a focus on the process and not on the final project, encouraging situated knowledge that explores the territory through experimentation based on artifacts and experiences and aims to open ongoing questions. All of this promotes learning through the process of iteration where the Urban Designer takes on the role of facilitator of design processes, promoting forms of local governance for a specific issue and incorporating diverse disciplinary and experiential approaches to address the urban problem.