Cultivating the next generation designers: Group work in urban and regional design education

This article will contribute to filling the knowledge gap about learning from group methods in (urban and regional) design education, with action research results based on real teaching activities in TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment (A&BE), conducted and coordinated by the authors. Constructive alignment of the teaching triangle and feedbacks from students are used to assess the necessity and effectiveness of group work in achieving learning objectives in the chosen courses. The conclusions of the article focus on pros and cons of group-working in urban and regional design education, with highlighted common challenges in implementing group work, such as proper distribution of workload among group members and assessing individual performance, as well as specific challenges of certain courses, such as stimulating ‘out of the box thinking’ in the setting of ‘role play’ and supervising interdisciplinary groups in the setting of research and design studio.