This essay is a summary of the book “The Multi-Skilled Designer: Cognitive Foundation for Inclusive Architectural Thinking.” Using the theory of multiple intelligences from cognitive psychology, and developments in psychometric research, the book advocates eight skills to incorporate skill diversity in design. Design problems of 21st Century vary far too greatly—in terms of their content, scale, and complexity, and demand a repertoire of skills. To consider multiple skillsets is to recognize the presence of individual differences, representations, and approaches in design. This allows a shift from formalist practices of architecture that emphasize graphical and formal logic skills, that tend to produce the same type of designers and privilege a narrow section of designer thinkers.
Intrapersonal Skills
Designers with strong intrapersonal skills are aware of their own emotional states, feelings, and motivations. Intrapersonal skills consist of introspective and self-reflective capacities, strengths or weaknesses, uniqueness, and the ability to predict one's own emotions. Intrapersonal skill involves the sensitivity to one’s own wants and fears, and one’s own personal histories. Intrapersonal skills in design could be described through (i) the ability to pursue emotions and meaning in design through personal memories; (ii) the ability to explore metaphors and analogies in design; and (iii) the sensitivity to personal knowledge. Such use of intrapersonal skills in design practice is evident in the works of Daniel Libeskind and Peter Zumthor.
