Ideation workshop: Ideas thought through

Thursday, 3 September 2026

Ideas thought through

Le Corbusier, the Swiss-French architectural designer, emphasised the ideation process saying that nothing should be built without thought out, or "no action before thought". That is, rather than engaging in impulsive construction, Corbusier's philosophy tied physical form directly to rigorous planning, proportion, and underlying concepts, that is, his five principles of modern architecture introduced in 1926, that is, pilotis, the free floor plan, the free facade, horisontal ribbon windows, and roof gardens. Corbusier's intellectual position, guided by "unity of intent" makes sense but what happens to the demand that creative ideas are thoroughly "thought out" in the age of AI? And so, while GenAI ideas may feel "thought through" in that they may appear brilliant although derivative, they may fail "real-world tests". That is, GenAI performs recursive calculations rather than true reflective thought and is not, unlike human thought based on critical thinking, moral reasoning and lived experience. GenAI ideas, then, need human oversight.

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Welcome

This blog is for ideators engaged in design and architecture.

An idea was needed, well thought out, clearly presented.

Le Corbusier

Also:

https://design-ideation.blogspot.com

https://twitter.com/DesignIdeation

IDEATION WORKSHOP

LEARNING OBJECTIVE: To raise awareness of design ideation* and provide participants with an opportunity to reflect on their own design practice through the use of ideation tools**.

FORMAT: Self-directed, hands-on studio activity where participants work alone or collaboratively, in pairs within the group. Driven by curiosity, the workshop is informal but rigorous, non-judgmental but constructive and ends with ideas presentation to the whole group (plenary).

THEME: Each workshop has an ideation theme or task agreed beforehand. Themes can relate to place, function, artefact, or narrative, and be either common, universal or specific.

IDEATION PROTOCOL: The workshop has an optional research component whereby participants keep track of their ideation process using a protocol specifically designed for the workshop ("Reflection-in-action").***

WORKSHOP RESOURCES: Participants should have their own sketching kit and simple crafting tools for making "stuff".

LEARNING OUTCOME: Participants gain greater awareness of design ideation and the role of ideation tools in their own creative practice ("learning by doing"). The Ideation protocol acts as a self-diagnostic tool ("Reflection-on-action").

TIMESCALE: Each workshop lasts 3-4 hours (morning or afternoon session) or, alternatively, a full working day.

PARTICIPANTS: The workshop is suitable for design students (all levels) and practitioners alike. Group size: 6-12. The workshop language is English.

CONTACT: To participate, please contact Ben at studio.ben.jonson@gmail.com

* Design ideation is seen as a matter of generating, developing and communicating ideas, where 'idea' is understood as a basic element of thought that can be either visual, concrete or abstract. It is a purposeful activity (in the sense that a design is of practical service) that goes beyond the randomness of "brainstorming", but stops short of evaluating ideas per se. Idea development means moving from the general to the particular of the idea (through filtering and refining), and idea communication means the need for ideas to be externalised, or nobody else would know about them.

** Ideation tools are design tools which are purposefully used to help generate, develop and communicate ideas and include freehand drawing (sketches), words (spoken and written), sketch modelling (physical models), and computing (2D/3D software and AI technologies).

*** The workshop can be a vehicle for research in and of itself.