Frustration and the Creative Process

"It it only by interacting with other people that you get anything interesting done."

-Freeman Dyson

The last 4 days I have been marathoning some pretty tough stuff completely unrelated to thesis. It has become a joke among my team that we are fine, in fact, in good shape to finish up all of our work... provided we take a 60 day extension right now.

For those four days I have been sneaking off to draw adjacency diagrams, concur that they don't fit the site/would be terrible spaces, and go back to my "real" work. At the climax of this frustration I was helping a friend with a program and he asked about my thesis. I explained that I was designing studios for people that don't traditionally have studios. He said something like, "oh, sweet, like a bunch of studios here [he pointed all along the mall area]" I said no, "like two."

Pretty much instantly after that exchange I realized that the site along the mall is not large enough to comfortably fit a couple large, contiguous spaces. And also that large contiguous spaces would have little variety in views, material or experience in general. It would also exclude any peripatetic (walking) areas between spaces. I have begun breaking down the studios smaller and smaller.

The advantages seem to be many. Because the studios become numerous they begin to cover more space and will interact with more buildings. The closer these pods are to different buildings the more flexible they become. I think few would relish the idea of walking 10 minutes across campus, working at their studio for half an hour and immediately walking back. The studios feed of their host buildings and the occupants of those buildings.

Of course the challenge of this new strategy will be to still create an interchange of people/ideas now that the studios are segmented. I think that lounges and the restaurant/cafe/bar between studios will mix people while still allowing separate identities.

the most valuable thought from this round has been:
maybe problems don't have solutions until you ask the right questions.

splitting the studios (still no place for the restaurant/cafe/bar) allows greater diversity of location. experience

p.s. Freeman Dyson is a pretty creative guy;
Check Out the Dyson Sphere

The Creative Process (a step by step guide)

"Most writers - poets in especial - prefer having it understood that they compose by a species of fine frenzy - an ecstatic intuition - and would positively shudder at letting the public take a peep behind the scenes"

-Edgar Allan Poe, excerpt from the Philosophy of Composition

This post probably should have been first, or at the very least second. At least I am getting to it early. Two of the books I researched were based on psychology (Creativity: flow and the psychology of discovery and invention + Understanding Creativity) and both delineated very similar processes that made sense to me. Also if anyone has any interest in Poe, especially the Raven, they should Google "the Philosophy of Composition". Very interesting and quick. As an article of full disclosure, some critics think it was facetiously done by Poe because of the mathematical precision he attributes to his methods. Luckily it is not the linchpin of my argument and you can see if he sounds sincere or not.

I am still in stage one, pretty sure anyways, which is Preparation
preparation deals with information gathering, it can be intentional or not. Focused or unfocused. Either way(s) the information gathered coalesces in one's mind to form a clear picture of the problem and the solution.

That's the idea anyways In the vein of Preparation, digesting and gathering information here is some site analysis which I believe to be critical in designing a responsive, well adapted building.

site location

student demographics/ locations

sections
not only do the sections relate the scale of the spaces along the Mall (the pink east west running pathway) but the longitudinal section (bottom one) shows the character of the buildings which ranges from bad 70's modernism to a sort of gothic - mansion

climate data

sun angles

Space Adjacency

"I have become convinced that architectural designing is a prototype of the kind of artistry that other professionals need most to acquire."

-Donald Schön

Program: (square feet)
8000 - studio space
120 to 450 - critique area or meeting area
300 - lounge area
100 - information display area
800 - peripatetic space

(this is circulation space, the peripatetic method was a technique used in ancient greece that consisted of walking around, talking and thinking about ideas. Walking is a semiautomatic activity which allows the brain's subconscious to take over more responsibility and make connections that the conscious might not)

600 - 8 water closets 4 lavatories
150 - supply loading
500 - mechanical
100 - custodian cleaning
3200 - Restaurant / Cafe / Bar

Process Blog

this blog will follow my master's thesis in architecture

Thesis statement:

I intend to explore creative methods and processes and how they can enhance our built environment. Understanding and utilizing one's creative process is essential to advancing human achievement. Without aberrant schema there is no mutation, there are no new species of technology or art, no advancement. Environments, processes and methods that cultivate creativity are essential to human progression. Understanding the framework from which these devices derive is fundamental to accepting their validity.

Abstract:
The creative process is a key element to generating great architecture, art and science. In order to best utlize this process one must understand different types of creativity, environments that inspire creativity, different processes and techniques and how the conscious and subconscious handle creative thought and creative production. To architecturally explore creative process as it applies to and/or derives from psychology, philosophy, art and/or design is essential to guide and increase creativity. Communincating what is found is equally as important as finding it. A structure with the primary purpose of communicating and allowing creative thought, an architectural muse to inspire creative production, is intended.

Last September with that thesis statement and abstract, I began reading, researching and writing about what I have found and assimilated. I wrote a "book" covering the research and my design intent.

This blog will follow my process as it relates to the design portion of the project. Hopefully it will help me make connections about my own creative process and shed light on the subject in general.