Fostering creativity in construction education: finding the meaning of creativity within construction industry

Abstract

Many industries today attempt to meet their global challenges through two simple words: creativity and innovation. Construction industry more related to being a creative industry find no exemption. It constitute of realising buildings in Architecture and infrastructure in Engineering through technological interventions. It is an industry that relates to artistic, scientific and technical knowledge. Education in construction industry should also consider this complex nature and fostering creativity will differ from one subject area to another. One such basis for determining a definition and identifying a nuance of the creativity would be to interpret the creative definition into the education objectives: Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes. The composition of these three may differ from one discipline to another but a similar mechanism could be used to educate to foster creativity in any knowledge base either artistic, scientific or technical. First step in this process is to find a working definition to creativity or innovation in the particular knowledge base, discipline or field. It could be done by simply asking “what does it meant to be creative in construction industry?” for the purpose of this paper or asking a similar question pertaining to any industry in a similar manner to kick-off a series of inner thoughts.