Educating the Reflective Digital Practitioner

The chapter discusses the processes of a designer’s reflection-in-action when employing simulation-based design tools. It revisits Donald Schön’s seminal work on the Reflective Practitioner, considering the current technological mileu where simulations of physical or environmental behavior educate future architects on how to reflect in action during the design process, rather than analyzing and modifying their design a posteriori. Schön argues in favor of the idiosyncratic element in design decision making which is based on practice. Hence, the digital practitioner of our times develops an intuition and knowledge that derives from the exposure to simulations and computational tools. The chapter will expound on processes of experiential learning in architecture and discuss the findings and experiences from architectural studio case studies that employed computational tools for form-finding to provide real-time feedback on the behaviour and geometry of the projects. The curriculum aimed at combining teaching strategies, digital media and design processes towards the objective of educating the reflective digital practitioner of the future.