Design Thinking for Innovation in Sustainable Built Environments and the Integration of an Inclusive Foresight and Design Thinking Framework

Abstract

The search for new methods and tools to successfully address sustainability challenges is gaining momentum, due to the growing awareness of sustainability issues. Over the past two decades, design thinking (DT) has become a phenomenon in a wide range of contexts, and has recently drawn research attention as an innovative approach for handling complex socioecological problems. This review paper analyzes DT processes covered in sustainable built environment (SBE) articles that focus specifically on DT and innovation, with a view to suggesting/developing an affective new model for sustainability research. The research design was developed following Denyer and Tranfield's method. The author reviewed documents using the evidence from all open access English language articles related to this issue between 2000 and 2022 identified using a Scopus database search in order to clearly identify and analyze the challenges and opportunities for innovation growth in SBE using a DT and innovation framework, 50 articles were selected based on the PRISMA statement and plotted on a modified Ansoff Matrix. This systematic literature review indicates that research regarding DT for innovation in SBE is challenged by the matter of how to identify new contexts and new solutions for future-oriented sustainability. It is also proposed that a wider range of stakeholders are required to help optimize the solutions being generated. The results reveal research gaps in integrating foresight and DT into sustainability research. A model of inclusive foresight design thinking (FDT) is proposed to guide future research to support the practical application and enhance the viability of DT in sustainability.

Design thinking for innovation in sustainable built environments: a systematic literature review

“…Instead of performing only a systematic literature review, this study deploys a citation analysis to explore the influence of DT on innovation in SBE. This complements previous research (Tantiyaswasdikul, 2023) by providing a more comprehensive understanding and proposing a new, undetected impact of DT on innovation in SBE.…”

“…Previous research by the author (Tantiyaswasdikul, 2023) attempted to identify the existing connections between DT, foresight and sustainability; indicated the practical applications of DT for innovative and sustainable future solutions in the built environment; and proposed a framework combining DT and foresight as a foresight design thinking (FDT) model to guide future research on DT in sustainability. This study presents further research aimed at clarifying the sources and impact of SBE.…”