Empathy development has been recognized, discussed and implemented in design practice for more than 20 years. Although empathy is also addressed in design education, the understanding of its potential impact on students’ creativity and the depth of its application are limited. Empathy development is often seen as a part of the early stage of a project research, but not a main thread weaving through the whole design process, nor as the main mechanism contributing to students’ creative performance. A strategic planning process for empathy building in project driven studio teaching is also rarely elaborated. Through a brief review of how empathic research has evolved in design, this paper proposes an empathy focused framework in a design studio teaching context. A case study was described and analyzed to demonstrate the effectiveness of such a framework in a studio to cultivate students’ creativity.