Author: Oliver Broadbent

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Back to face-to-face conceptual design teaching

I am very happy to be teaching once again face-to-face at the Institution of Structural Engineers. Today we ran our first in-person Introduction to Conceptual Design for Structural Engineers in two years. 

In this session we placed a strong focus on developing the confidence to think conceptually, making sure we are bringing wide enough inputs to the process and how to stay motivated to keep coming up with design ideas when other factors – time pressure, distraction, cognitive ease – make it hard to.

A new development since we last ran the course face to face is that Will Arnold and I are now running Net-Zero Structural Design training too. These courses are designed to complement each other and so now there is a now much stronger focus on zero-carbon thinking in the conceptual design course. 

For info on upcoming conceptual design and net-zero design courses check out the More Courses tab.

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Introducing plans for the Constructivist Regenerative Design Learning Lab

In 2022, we plan to launch the Constructivist Regenerative Design Learning Lab. The Learning Lab will be a six month experimental programme for 15-20 individuals that aims to broaden and deepen understanding of regenerative design principles for the built environment sector. This initiative has been made possible through funding from the Royal Commission for the exhibition of 1851. While we firm up the details, this post provides an outline of how we intend the lab to work.

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New alumni group for Training After Declaring

Image of participants in a workshop called Training After Declaring a Climate Emergency

News is we’ve launched an online alumni group for people who have attended our course ‘Training on what to do after declaring a climate emergency’. One of our aims for the course is to create a community of peer support for people who are trying to make organisational change in the climate emergency.

So far two cohorts of trainees have completed the course, and we will be launching our third cohort later in the spring. With the launch of the alumni network we are bringing together these two cohorts so that they can start to provide each other with mutual support.

The training is for people who been handed the task of figuring out what to after their organisation has declared a climate emergency. It is also for people who are trying to figure out how to get their organisations to make that declaration.

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Trainee feedback: training on what to do after declaring a climate emergency

We asked members from our first cohort of ‘Training on what to do after declaring a Climate Emergency‘ participants what they thought of the course and why other people should think about going. Here are some of the things they said.

The support of the group alongside discussion of change models and tools was transformative in developing insight on how I can make positive change and resolve to take action. I would highly recommend it to those seeking to develop personal or organisational strategies in response to the climate emergency.

Julia Ratcliffe – Director – Scale Consulting
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Designing your learning process – week one of IDBE

At Constructivist we talk lots about models for learning and also about models for understanding design. In this workshop we are combining the two: thinking about how to design your learning process. It’s my contribution to week one for a new cohort of students on the Cambridge Masters programme Interdisciplinary Design for the Build Environment.

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The Return of Training on what to do after declaring a Climate Emergency

It’s been a year since many engineering and construction firms declared a climate and biodiversity emergency. Six months since the pandemic struck. But the climate clock is still ticking and the world is still heating. Are we one tenth of the way we need to get to in this decade to avoid the worst kind of climate breakdown?

In hindsight, making the declaration is the easy part: the difficult part is knowing what to do next. That is why we created the course ‘Training on what to do after declaring a Climate Emergency’. It recognises that the emergency status is a new operating paradigm for most organisations, and that within those organisations there will be individuals and teams whose job it is to work out how to respond. We created this course to support those people.

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All online for an introduction to conceptual design

This month our face-to-face and webine cohorts for our Introduction to Conceptual Design for Structural Engineers course joined to form one online group, enabling us to deliver to both groups despite lockdown.

The course splits conceptual design up into three phases: establishing the brief, creative thinking and convergent thinking and provides simple models for understanding each of these phases.

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Constructivist Creativity Reading List

Creativity reading list

This is the Constructivist Creativity Reading List. These are the books and book chapters that have changed the way I think about creativity and that inform the training that we do at Constructivist. Where a book relates to a specific course, I have made that link, but most of these books are generally applicable. I’ve also linked in other articles I’ve written about these topics where relevant.

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