Navigating the Space between Soft Lead and Mixed Reality with Design Students

This chapter addresses the challenges the complex non-linear design process creates for interior architecture students belonging to a generation reportedly suffering from high levels of fear of failure while having to navigate a wide variety of drawing tools. Next to creative curiosity, and knowledge in subject areas ranging from design elements and principles to building codes, graduates entering the industry need to demonstrate high proficiency levels in media starting with soft pencils, via complex architectural drawing software all the way to mixed reality technologies. The creative mindset of current design students appears to be focused on fast results. Most consider creative risk-taking, which requires the willingness to investigate only partly formed design ideas, to be frightening, and consider the request for multiple iterations of an idea to be a waste of time. Educators who believe in the importance of exploration and iteration, especially during early design phases, presume connections between students&s; avoidance behaviour and shallow design solutions. Each drawing tool has inherent possibilities and limits and needs to be incorporated appropriately into the process of designing. Crucial to designers&s; success are informed decisions about what to do next and which tool to choose. This requires an understanding of each tool&s;s purpose and limits, not just mastery of the mechanics of drawing software. Educators struggle with how to enable students to navigate the design process across different media. The chapter reports pedagogical approaches to the full range of design tools from sketching, through two- and three-dimensional drawing and rendering software, to virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. We share recent successes with theoretical grounding to relax sketch inhibitions, best practices to address frustrations with software challenges in studio environments, and explorations of gaming engines that allow students to test and experience their interiors virtually.