ACTIVE IMAGINATION AND THE ORIGINATION OF DESIGN IDEAS

Many artists work in various medias to attain greater clarity of their active imagination throughout the design process, arriving at a concretization of an idea. For the architect, the conceptual development of a design idea is discovered through an ever-increasing awareness of the site, the building program and usually, encapsulates a stated objective by the owner. These tripartite identifiers are only a beginning, however, as an architect’s conceptual development may also include consideration of social, economic, geometric, and emotional qualities to name only a few. The point of conceptual origination is an evolution of awareness and an understanding into the nature of the problem. For example, “although. a building’s FAR is calculated over the entire site, should the building footprint orient vertically and reduce its footprint, this spatial arrangement allows for open space at ground level.” “The urban context limits vistas, but also enhances individual privacy, suggesting an internality to the building’s enclosure and spatial objectives.” In both cases, a comprehensive understanding of the context and the building’s use, establish rational design parameters and set an “origination point” for the architect to explore.

Referencing the example of views noted above, by orienting the building’s primary views into an adjacent courtyard, suggests a spatial orientation - that of borrowing neighboring spaces to establish private areas. How that spatial assumption contributes to the formulation of a concept, which is then translated into an actual building design, however, represents only a starting point in the process. The circuitous route between the understanding the problem, the concept, and the resulting building design, tests the individual architect’s creativity in developing the concept, and the viability of the design itself. The final form of conceptual ideas change over the design process and are reassessed when the concept is constructed and used by the owner.

The circuitous path of design development spoken of here, is mysterious, namely due to the design result is literally unknown. The basis of solving a design problem rests upon aforementioned tripartite information and the shear creativity of the architect. For example, with the Plinth Building and the Spinnaker Building, both follow a rather evolutionary path (layered concepts that build upon one another), until the concept of seeing over, or, looking into, was realized as a final design objective. With these two examples, once the basic orientations are developed, a cascade of design ideas are hierarchically considered in light of the established deign objective, with ideas weighted against the design objective and support the concept. Of course, through this lengthy process, many ideas are considered and do not necessarily result in an imagined design solution but something altogether unexpected and unique. Unique solutions are a testament to the process itself and generally met with enthusiasm.

Curious then, is the mystery of how and when ideas establish themselves and synchronize within the architect’s mind. The simultaneity of pattern and function, expression and rhythm, form and science, geography and utility, beauty and poetry, congeal in flashes of insight and intuition at unexpected times throughout the design process. The realization of the design - no longer a series of separate and distinct ideas but as an “object itself” - signals when the design process, in a very abstract manner, reaches “singularity”, culminating at the apex of the design process with a building design that responds to the tripartite information and the corresponding emotions of its spatial configuration.