Designing for innovation: from model-use to thinking in models

As typical problem solvers, structural engineers often face new and complex problems, recently for instance due to digitalization or climate change. Often, such problems cannot be approached using established methods. Instead, structural engineers need to rethink existing problem-solving processes and develop new approaches. In this paper, we propose that an inductive approach of thinking in models is essential to address complex new problems in structural enigeering and generate innovations. Based on a literature review, we explore the meaning and importance of this approach and illustrates it with two examples of practice. Hereby, we aim to provide an account of the potentials of this approach in structural engineering to design for innovations and seek to contribute to a change of mind-set in engineering practice as well as in research and education.