Creative conceptual design teaching: It's not about rebar curtailment!

Experts state that the dominance of detailed design teaching on traditional university curricula is misguided for several reasons. The conceptual stage of the design process is where key decisions about a structure are made. High-level engineering input at this stage can have a profound effect on the economic and social success of a structure and is where engineers can provide the most value to a project. The experts state that a creative design toolkit can help students to address these issues effectively. The aim of the creative toolkit is to give students starting points for the creative structural engineering design process, and techniques to help them move through a brief. The toolkit developed has two components, such as an engineering toolbox that lists many rules of thumb of use in early stage structural calculations and the second component involves guidance on how to approach a loosely defined problem.