Architects can significantly enhance their creativity by drawing inspiration from various sources such as art, nature, history, culture, technology, and other disciplines. The four stages of creative thinking – preparation, incubation, illumination, and verification – help architects synthesize ideas and turn them into tangible designs. Architects who embrace diverse perspectives, collaborate across disciplines, and utilize innovative thinking techniques are better positioned to push the boundaries of creativity and deliver designs that resonate.
To stimulate creativity, architects should visit buildings, attend lectures, sketch simple forms of construction, and research and gather inspiration from various sources. Experimenting with different forms of art can also help grow their creativity.
To be a creative person, architects should study what they like and pay attention to how it was used in their work. Exercise, keep a notebook, listen to new music, go to galleries, explore, go to the library, and do something completely. Viewing paintings, sculptures, installations, and other forms of art can trigger new ideas and creative approaches.
To improve their design skills, architects should follow 10 strategies of the creative design process, which include tools, resources, and example projects. These tips can help boost creativity and overcome various obstacles with their architectural projects. In summary, embracing diverse perspectives, collaboration across disciplines, and using innovative thinking techniques can help architects push the boundaries of creativity and deliver designs that resonate with their clients.
📹 The Single Most Important Skill for Architecture
Can you guess what the single most important skill is for an architect? DRAWING TOOLS FROM PACIFIC ARC My Kits: …
How do you influence creativity?
Creativity is a vital aspect of any artistic endeavor, and it is often hindered by mental blocks. To develop creativity, it is essential to practice, discover quality in quantity, look to the ordinary, collaborate with others, experiment with different styles, have confidence, and give your brain a refresh. These tips help you overcome mental blocks and return to your passion for creating unique ideas and projects. By following these seven tips, you can overcome mental blocks and regain your passion for the arts.
Where do architects get their inspiration from?
Biomimicry is a technique where designers and contractors create buildings that resemble the natural environment. This approach is a proven method of extracting pure ideas, as seen in the efforts of many designers to increase their LEED ratings. One way to improve this is by installing ladder access for roof hatches, making it convenient and safe for maintenance. Another method is purpose-driven, where designers consider fitting their designs with the project’s purpose.
This method helps shape the creation of the building by considering various forms of presenting the project’s aim and essence. Overall, biomimicry is a valuable tool for designers to explore and incorporate the natural world into their designs.
How to increase creativity in architecture?
To enhance creativity as an architect, explore diverse design disciplines and cultures, drawing inspiration from nature, art, and historical architecture. Engage in creative exercises, sketching, and collaboration with professionals to gain new perspectives. Experiment with technology, materials, and construction methods, and allocate time for personal projects that challenge conventional thinking. Stay curious and fear failure for innovative solutions.
What is the creative process in architecture?
The creative process in architecture can be divided into three stages: preparation, ideation, and evaluation. Please be advised that ScienceDirect employs the use of cookies and that consent is required for the site to continue functioning. Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B. V., its licensors, and contributors. All rights are reserved, including those pertaining to text and data mining, AI training, and analogous technologies. The open access content is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4. 0 International license.
How do designers get inspiration?
Designers can find inspiration for their designs not only through digital means but also introspection, social interactions, surroundings, music, nature, and architecture. To spark creativity, designers must thoroughly learn about the problem they need to solve. The preparation stage of the design process involves client inquiry, familiarity with the industry and product, and user research. This helps lay a solid foundation for creative design choices to emerge later. By observing and engaging with the world around them, designers can kindle their creativity and create a robust blaze.
What is the inspiration for architectural design?
Architectural inspirations can come from various sources, including nature, art, history, and different cultures. Some architects draw inspiration from natural forms like mountains, rivers, or forests, while others focus on technology, sustainability, and societal needs. Frank Lloyd Wright and Antoni Gaudi, for example, drew inspiration from nature to create iconic structures like Fallingwater and the Sagrada Familia, showcasing how design can mirror natural forms, blend into the landscape, and complement the surrounding ecology.
How do you inspire architecture?
Architects can gain inspiration from various sources, such as other designers, travel, conferences, and seminars. By observing their work, they can learn from their successes and challenges, adapting their techniques to suit their own projects. Travel exposes us to different cultures, styles, and environments, broadening our design vocabulary. Attending conferences and seminars provides a platform to engage with peers, share knowledge, and see how others have tackled similar problems. These experiences enrich our creative toolkit, allowing us to approach design challenges with a well-rounded perspective.
Seeing the work of others is an obvious aspect for architects, but it can also have a negative impact on self-esteem. Traveling allows us to see other cultures and how people solve similar problems in different ways, which can be mind-expanding. Immersing ourselves in something different, such as architecture, can push things that we’ve stopped seeing or experiencing in our day-to-day existence front and center.
What makes architecture creative?
The architect’s imagination is the capacity to generate a multitude of images and illusions in the mind, which enables the creation of architectural works with considerable autonomy. This represents an optimal introduction to the domain of architectural creativity.
How do you inspire design?
Designers can find inspiration for their designs not only through digital means but also introspection, social interactions, surroundings, music, nature, and architecture. To spark creativity, designers must thoroughly learn about the problem they need to solve. The preparation stage of the design process involves client inquiry, familiarity with the industry and product, and user research. This helps lay a solid foundation for creative design choices to emerge later. By observing and engaging with the world around them, designers can kindle their creativity and create a robust blaze.
How do I get creatively inspired again?
The article provides 10 tips to help creatives regain their creative flow. These include practicing daily, getting inspired by others’ work, limiting oneself, creating gifts for loved ones, trying different settings, keeping a journal or sketch diary, making a plan and sharing it with others, and giving permission to create something bad. Creatives often feel the pressure to only create their best, which can lead to the dreaded creative block.
This block can be frustrating, personally devastating, and can disrupt creative flow for days, weeks, months, or even years if left unchecked. To overcome this, it is essential to practice, limit oneself, create gifts, try different settings, keep a journal, make a plan, and give permission to create something bad.
📹 My Strategy for Developing Architectural Concepts
An architectural concept is a design tool for: 1. The millions of decisions you have to make on any single project. 2.
Honestly, I thought you were going to say “time management”. What seems to get (forgotten… overlooked… misunderstood?) in undergrad is you can’t manage your time well if the skills needed to perform the work are underdeveloped. You have absolutely hit the nail on the head on all fronts. Feeling all the feels! And thank you for the supplies company – definitely checking it out!
I’m a retired millwork detailer. I worked for a high architectural millwork company in R.I. I whole heartedly agree that sketching is GREAT. At job site meetings the best architects I worked with had their roll of yellow tracing paper where we could work out issues and I left with a sketch to put into my AutoCAD shop drawings. AND use a fine point sharpie, pen or pencil so the details actually show up. I hated getting marked drawings where I could not read the hand writing or make out the detail in the SK. At the end of the day you are telling a story. Your medium is pencil and paper, SketchUp, AutoCAD etc. I can’t read your mind so if it is not on paper I can’t detail it and it is not real.
Oh with me it’s the opposite! I wish I could draw every single project, beginning to end! Unfortunately to get a job in the industry we need to know so many softwares now that we need to include 3D models in most of our projects…. but it is 100% a really important skill that is being forgotten rather quickly. As always I love your articles, Dami! ❤🥰
Absolutely! I see so many colleagues start in 3D software. They then get too much time invested in a concept that may be bad & are hesitant to abandon it bc they’ve “already put so much time into it”. There’s also less experimentation. And 3D renderings give clients the false impression that an idea is 100% resolved. A looser sketch indicates that it is still a loose idea. Thanks for your content. So great!
There was some interesting synchronicity here; as a programmer I’ve been considering ditching pen & pad for an ipad, one of the reasons being that my notepad is a dis-ogranised mess, so I find it difficult to use notes I make. A friend (who’s an amazing programmer, and probably the smartest person I’ve ever met) said “I don’t think they’re substitutes. i use paper for developing ideas, not so much recording them.” It seems that maybe the speed (as you’ve referenced) combined with a lack-of-expectation-of-perfection in sketching out ideas grants you a certain freedom that’s hard to find with digital mediums – creativity requires a bunch of “meh” ideas before you find something great, so the quicker you can sketch out an idea to see if it’s viable, the better.
Agreed whole heartedly! No mater the direction you follow, sketching is really important. Architecture, Engineering, or Design Studio…all facets of sketching to share ideas and concepts is critical in business. You never know where you’ll end up in business. Architectural Mill Work was so much fun for me. I guess I liked the creative aspect of the work. Ultimately, do to a down turn in the architectural industry in the 80’s, I ended up in Mechanical Engineering. And now Electrical Engineering. But by far, the creative aspect of Architectural Millwork design was the most fun I ever had. And sketching was a huge part of that! And that ability helped me tremendously in the Automotive world as well. Well done Dami. This rings SO TRUE! I like this one a lot. Thanks for your efforts.
Great article, I am first year student and it gave me idea to start practicing sketching. Congrats on reaching 100k subs! Offtopic: Is that normal that after half-year I still feel like I am on the basic level of understanding the architecture and what defines a good architecture? The only thing that I learned is how to express the idea on the paper.
Sketching was taught in the Landscape Architecture Extension program at UCLA by short Japanese man who used the “kleanex box” method for drawing basically anything. He was able to unable aspiring landscape designers to instantly sketch any structure by grouping such boxes into a composition easy to understand.
My career was in Industrial Design or product design. The methods and skills are very similar. Sketching is vital and can become a conversational tool to move quickly through ideas while you interact with clients and team members. I am retired and during the growing pains of computer aided design I burned a lot of time trying to do conceptual design on primitive software. The engineers liked being able to convert it to parts produced by machines. Often I sketched on paper before hitting the workstation. It was high pressure being at the lead of a project. I used a design methodology to structure the process and find a solution that pleased the manufacturer and the end customer.
Totally agree. I work as a technician in a architecture school and i have noticed over the years (won’t say how many) a decline in sketching by students and allso model making by hand. Students are now pretty much on their laptops 8 +hrs a day. Sketching is a very powerfull communication tool which is invaluable when students are out in industry.
Watching your articles, it brings to mind that being a website designer (that’s what I do) is much like being an architect. When developing a web page, I draw out what the page should look like by hand. As I draw out the page, I make notes of any special functionality required. Once the drawing is complete, then I’ll copy it to a designing software to provide a cleaner view of what I want. Keep putting out the great articles!
YES! Thank you for explaining why this is such an important exploration and communication tool! And thank you saying that it doesn’t have to always be pretty. I do all kinds of scratchy figuring out on trace or a sketchbook to work out thoughts floating around in my head – sometimes they are beautiful, often they are not, but they always move the design forward.
I love this, simply because it a subjects I teach, I start by asking a student to communicate to me a design for a building, and I then tell them I can not understand their language sketching is the only means of communication. This came from my experiences when I was working for a large building materials manufacturer, I travelled the world sorting out problems and mentoring staff, some days I would be on a site where no one spoke English or French, my only other language or very basic German, So I would get out my pencil and sketchbook and start drawing the problem, and how we might solve a specific detail, instantly the operative was asking to interact, drawing his version of the problem, yes and no are universal, but so are the pencil paper and a few ink pens, “Words Fail See Sketch”
…. is to be able to visualize what you’ve created! Most architects are super bad in visualizing their own creations. I am 3D generalist with over 35 of experience in 3D and rendering, lighting, modelling etc. and I should learn sketchup and learn how to read 2D plans, to pull up a complex building. Or is it the architect who should be able to do that? ^^ I lost a lot of projects, money, and the architects their desired visualizations quality, exactly because of that issue.And no one talks about that.
Lol she said she was a late bloomer because she “didn’t get it” until she was in 2nd year! Lady, I “didn’t get it” until I was like 26 or 27! Lol I was lucky to have a boss who was previously a professor and took time to explain lots of things to me. Working for him was honestly a much better education than my actual schooling
Not lying but I honestly guessed that you were gonna say sketching and even some of your reasons such as communication. IMO: in most scenarios, not just in architecture, sketching is a very important skill. You don’t have to be really that good in drawing but being able to at least convey them well will be good enough.
It’s funny, I’m the best sketch artist but in our country but in our country software is valued more🤔 I have this method of placing a chair in a room or in front of a house and remodel and sketch it in front of the client,and it doesn’t impress as much as showing them a 3d render model😅😅 I wish I was in another country😢
Many Architects hate this fact. I love it!! I must confess that I’m not an architect. . . . . .never been to that school. . . . . . .but I’ve loved drawing spaces, recreating existing spaces, criticising spaces, buildings or structures and creating, in thought or rough sketch, using whatever is available. . . . .drawing on the back of receipts, on the soil, my achy arm (spontaneous). .etc That was before I walked into a bespoke furniture shop at lunchtime and had to wait for the staff to get back from lunch. As I waited, I saw a bunch of magazines and of the lot I picked an Architectural Digest Magazine (I had never had the opportunity to hold one let alone flip through one, so you can imagine how happy I was) As I went through it I came across a page that had a very rough sketch and it’s final product. I can’t explain my shock, wonder and amazement to you. Was this page telling me that what I had been doing in a few pockets of my life was legitimate? . . . . . .of value. . . . . .and not just a thing to pass or fill idol time? It’s at this point that the proprietors son walked back into the shop from lunch and he noticed how taken I was by what I was reading. He asked about my interest in the magazine and I showed him what I thought I had just discovered. He affirmed my find and asked me into his office where he showed me a very, very rough sketch he was working on pointing out that once he got satisfied with his sketch, he would hire an architecture student from campus to translate his drawing (render).
The most important thing in architecture is structural integrity. Which is something that can be a complex calculation between many factors. While trying to strike a balance between functionality, durability and artistic expression. Passion is irrelevant next to the shear willpower and dedication it takes. To see every project through to completion. No matter how big your passion is for architecture. Eventually you’ll reach a place of redundancy and fatigue. Endurance and fortitude however are not equal to aptitude or talent. Some of the greatest architect are known for just one project. Which more often came down to fortitude or endurance more than their passion for the project.
Thanks for going over this. I’d love to see more architecture content directed at hobbyist and people who might like to learn how to go from construction to architecture. I’d maybe like to design my own home one day, and I’d love to learn architecture on my own time until then. I always get a lot out of your articles, so thank you for making them.
Lots of roofs and walls in architecture and so yes I seen this article I did and then I went and build a hut in side of street and they took down because got hit by a car and it blews up my building now poor no food no home same clothes for many days and nights but then I get a bath and a home because I save a woman from a train accident what can I say interestingbkife I’m very lucky
You are so right Dami about sketching!! The reason sketching works so much better than anything on the computer is because your mind doesn’t have to deal with the “how to draw” issue when you are sketching! Your hands are the innate interface you have been using since birth and they require no thought when it comes to “how to draw” when using a pencil or anything similar! Even an Apple Pencil is no contest to a regular one, for that same reason! But the balance of “when” to start using the computer is an elusive point, because sketching tends to skew the dimensions to suit your imagination and I found that I have to frequently go back and check. My solutions often do not work in a measured drawing and that is disillusioning. The “Brilliant idea” turned out to be pretty foolish, so “back to the drawing board”!! 🙂
True, that’s why on 2 years of study in University we focus on hand sketch even we already use 3D. no need a pretty drawing as long people can understand it. On real job it still the most powerfull skill, for example you are on a project meeting and try to solve a problem, sketch take a few second. At the end all the drawing will be done by the draft person.
Thank-you for highlighting this in your vids. I’ve been pushing a need, yes need, for our designers, and even our technicians, to be able to sketch. It’s how we communicate with each other, without clients, our consultants, even our contractors. Computers are very accurate, yes. However, they command a high level of accuracy and information before you can start laying out a plan or elevation. If you start on the computer too soon, you end up with the computer’s functions driving your design. One of my university professors said to us that our creativity flows easier when the tool is easier to use. A felt pen or a pencil will let the ideas flow much easier that typing, moving a mouse, or struggling with a particular command to get what you want. It blocks the brain’s idea making. Improve your sketching and you will improve your designs and your communication skills.
I usually think of sketching as the most direct and fast brain-to-reality method if realising and searching for ideas. Yes it is even faster inside the head but. I think aside from sketching the best skill for architect and any creative person would be an ability to see his work from outside. To see it with the eyes of different group of people and to imagine how it works. Not only it saves time by killing useless mediocre ideas but also make process less linear and more fun. Kinda grows brain too,
You are 💯 right about sketching!! Our instructors used to tell us that a lot! But I wanted to ask how did you reach the level of drawing out what you envision? I do have a skill of drawing real life buildings and capturing perspectives I see, but when it comes to drawing what I imagine its super difficult. So if you have any advice on that it would be great🙏🏼
I love your website! I’ve literally been perusal it for days straight while doing work and outside of school after I recently discovered your website. Ive Literally watched the same article three times sometimes😅…its also my dream to become an architect and you’ve been so helpful in showing what it’s really like and how to make a portfolio. Also one of your articles was very useful for when I was trying to find inpiration for research for a project for school
Dami, you are my senpai. I have learned essential lessons I needed to know about architecture literally in just a matter of hours in contrast to my 5 years in architecture school. Yes, I have been perusal your vids for hours and I could never get tired of listening to you speak. Thanks for being an inspiration and please don’t stop creating! You have played a major role in creating a spark in me to fall in love with architecture again.
Hi Dami, I was wondering what is your experience with internships in architecture school? Did you apply to any and if so what year? I am currently a first year student and I think the way you described your first year experience is extremely relatable. I see all my friends of different majors getting into internships and it kinda stresses me out if I should be looking out for internships as well.
Concept development is one of the most important aspects of architecture; one where most struggle to come up with. You made a fantastic point when you clearly stated that good ideas are different iterations of an existing item. This is one opinion about great architecture I’ve been looking for for a long time, and I’m happy to have finally found it on this website. You’re a wonderful teacher, Dami, and I can’t wait to see the final drawings of the library. Wishing you all the best.
you are literally the best teacher. just pulled an all-nighter and I was about to go sleep but couldn’t miss perusal you. I was so low because of work stress but you filled me with so much positive energy. I am so glad your website has been with me in these difficult thesis times. THANK YOU. ps. I have my jury in a week or two.
I just ran into this article and I appreciate it so much. Im currently in my third year of undergrad and my semester project is a library proposal. I interviewed my local librarian and she was so helpful. She gave me many resources, helpful ideas and even some case studies. I’ve been stuck on the design aspect of my concept but this has given me many ideas
Omg the cheesecake analogy lol. Loved it. I actually worked in healthcare for 4.5 years before deciding on getting my M.Arch and specifically in cosmetic contact lens optometry(and even cosmetically with glasses), it’s A LOOTT about helping the patient understand what they want and balancing that with what they need with their prescription 😊 it’s weird how interpersonal communication is truly present in every field. I’m excited to see how it translates for me once I work in the architecture field! Great article 💛
Found this article from a YouTube list promoting featured creators on the rise on the front page, and I’ve gotta say I wish I found your content sooner! It is well produced and the information is delivered concisely. You can tell someone is knowledgeable in their area when they don’t need to fall back on ‘filler words’.
Great article. In the past 5-10 years I’ve come to appreciate the many parallels that occur in design cycles in different field. I’ve heard stories similar to yours from software engineers and high school shop and art teachers. It’s super interesting how you apply client focus and accountability to your decisions. Thanks for sharing!
I had a small library in my thesis last year. After perusal your article, I feel so much regret not focusing on that area more. I love how you described the library as one of the most interesting typologies, showcasing how society relates to information. My thesis was a Center for Indigenous Archaeology. For indigenous peoples, passing on their knowledge to future generations is crucial to their culture’s survival, and I regret taking the library aspect of it for granted. Thank you for this! <3
As a musician I’ve seen many argue that constraints make a person more creative as they have to come up with solutions, and there are those who of course argue against it, that without constraints you can be more free and encourage experimentation and for inspiration to happen by going down new paths. Music, and art, can certainly benefit from those freedoms, if your willing to take a riskier path that doesn’t guarantee a financial reward (and if that is a priority). Certain restraints might help you make a song with more mass appeal, it can also speed up decision making, like in your example where you can ask yourself, or your band members (or clients if your doing a commissioned song). It seems even more practical in architecture to have those constraints given the cost in time and money for the firm. That said with both music, and at my day job, I like allotting time for creative challenges, be it a challenge that involves working around artificial constraints, or one of completely free form creative expression, with an unlimited budget and time. If done right they should be voluntary and fun, help build a sense of team, or shared experience for those who do it that builds some kind of bond, while also allowing for the potential for growth in unexpected ways, or stumbling into something that could actually be helpful on a future real world project. It might not be applicable to every work environment, but those shared experiences can become sort of shorthand of something that either worked that might be usable in a different project, or failed and can serve as a warning when a realwork project is heading down a path that has already been shown not to work in previous exercises.
Macroconcept is the guiding star in how projects are perceived — I very much like to fill them with sociologist approaches and analysis, and set targets on efficiency ( generating more library users) to account for success to bring a tacit change to a neighborhood, city, for example. I guess you account for it by creating meeting rooms and similar, but incorporating rituals — of and for people — through the help of architecture — as well as integrating the other layer of clients, community stakeholders like schools and clubs, and anchoring them to the living project.
Architecture is one of the oldest and most prestigious professions in the world. I am glad to see such a giant leap you took in your professional life so quickly. Moreover, you look very elegant when you present yourself without glasses. It’s not a sarcasm but I truly believe that. I am looking forward to meet you in person.
Dami, do you think there is a significant difference between a library and a school? Libraries represent a democratization of knowledge accessibility, which is basically education. Taken to it’s logical end, I can see a library becoming synonymous with a school. Currently the differences are almost superficial in that schools set a curriculum, and provide feedback (grades) on what you are learning. I can see libraries of the future providing this as a community service as a natural extension of what they do already. I’m curious what you think.
Great idea, Dami. I like your concept to place in the library design. You guided us go through the whole big picture in the design. It’s pretty cool sketch. I’m really interested in library design. One model I did in my class architecture with concept of boogie woogie – Mondrian for exterior design and modern space for interior design. I hope I can see more articles in your website. Thank you!👍
Dami…kindly forgive me–for this will be the first comment I am going to post that is not dealing with your profession and/or something to do with your philosophical (you’ve never seen STAR WARS?! You have GOT to get OUT more!!) viewpoint(s)! This will be entirely visceral–and unimportant for anything other than that…which in THIS case, is; I never quite noticed it before, and don’t quite know or realize how I could have missed it–and that is: How quite STUNING you are. Not merely just “pretty”–but quite literally an undeniable Beauty!! Perhaps it was seeing you without glasses, and with your hair down and relaxed, loosely cascading about your shoulders. Just caught me off guard, is all. Thanks for letting me ramble!! HUGS!!
Here is an architectural concept for you,,,,,913 octagon shaped blocks of flats with the surface area of the Gisa pyramid at the height of the statue of liberty would house every person in England whilst offering every inhabitant an integrated terrace garden the same size as an average British garden today….Doing so would leave 99.999901% of the total land mass free for rewilding agriculture industry and leisure.. modern civilisation isn’t a solution is it,,,,,,,,lol
It’s interesting that the concept which you settled on fits all these categories (listed @ 14 mins). I wonder: do you think that what you settled on was “objectively correct”? You hint at this earlier — there should be some true, solid base upon which you justify your architectural stuffs. Why can’t you use that base and find the concept in the opposite direction? Could you look at all the criteria listed (necessary program, etc) and settle on a form from there? Or is it just too complex?
If I may add a couple of points. 1. Though it could be inferred, it could be made more explicit how concepts should form the core tenets of the story of the project. The story is what allows clients, laypeople, and evwn colleagues a way into the project should the concepts be too abstract. The story is often also what is marketed. 2. I am having trouble with the courtyard as a “concept.” You were alluding to it, that a concept should be the reference point for project decisions, which I wholly agree with. However, a courtyard, is not so much a concept but an architectural response/solution in support of a concept. Thus I found this the weak point of the project, for what its worth. One point you hit though, concept development is THE hardest part of a project and in practice outside of academia is not given enough time and attention.
You must watch Star Wars Episode IV this weekend. “I don’t want to watch Star Wars.” YOU must watch Star Wars Episode IV this weekend. “I must watch Star Wars Episode IV this weekend. Dami~ Star Wars is a journey. it’s about the world culture and archi-culture. Your team and content help me so much in the planning and the understanding of design. Thanks a million.
A doughnut seems far off, then again… maybe not. The Changi Jewel is kind of Doughnut shaped…. with a waterfall in the hole (uhh yea I cant find a way to phrase that better, sorry kids.) I’m Super into this design idea, Dreaming of moving to BC and getting into UBC (currently in architecture Tech) I’ve found that design is my passion, I’m designing a researchers house in a marshland bird sanctuary for a project right now. Ironically my research lab does sort of look like a doughnut, but with a fireplace chimney in the center…
People in bullpen environments doing library work with headphones on: The current “library” architecture in the typical American office. Rows and rows of people lukewarm distracted, and the kinesthetic extroverts told to sit down and be quiet. It’s like they tried to mash together the blue collar toolroom with the white collar bullpen and then everyone just sort of copied it.
Good content but by 8:13 I got peeved and quit: can’t she speak with her hands at rest? Deep thoughts properly articulated don’t need gesticulation… well for reasonably intelligent people, and for fools, no talk is of use anyway. Fidgeting mesmerizes but disturbs comprehension. Are you after the traffic of fools or trying to educate on architecture?
6:10 omg I can’t 🤣. Your face and whoever added the CC. 4:19 It’s also amazing how you can make a few lines look like an occupied space. Is that someone with a walker on the top floor? If so lol, that’s a nice touch. I’m not an art. but I have a dreamboard I like to add to. The past few days, funny enough, I drew from the courtyard concept without realizing it. As soon as you showed clips it made sense because I think subconsciously I was going back to a familiar place. Love the info you deliver in your articles and whoever edits them. Love how you go into the fantasy realm and question what-ifs too.
No joke!! my current project this semester is also an interior renovation of a historic library carrying 17th century books and archives, with constraints that I can’t change any of the existing building’s walls/ceiling/floors… Not even to replace the wonky floors from uneven load in the second floor! Most of the worndown teakwook cabinets are also attached to the wallboards so they’re set & not movable. Currently struggling to find the solution to accomodate incorporating suitable ventilation, rearranging the archive storages, while still expressing the design integrity in the loose furnitures that need restoration..
Love the articles you put out, There a bit long. I know it’s hard to get all the great information you put into them. Do you or have you done any TEDx Webinars.? I am a tradesman in higher-end homes, nightclubs, and restaurants in Sothern California and abroad. One thing that I think is important is understanding the flow lines between the different parts of the prosses of building from beginning to end whether new construction to retrofit Etc…
Libraries are where homeless people sleep. I see no other purpose for libraries. Stop building them. Their time is over. I say this as someone who appreciated libraries in the days before the internet. Don’t try to hang on to something that no longer has sufficient purpose, especially when it is at public expense. Public libraries are waste of public funds. It sounds like your needs and purposes are for a community center. When you need a community center, don’t build a library, build a community center.
Thanks for the article, covered a lot of what I am in search for. What more could I look for when designing an urban park ? I am thinking of a park 700 x 40 meters, for people that want to take a walk, and simultaneously to give entrance for people crossing it. I do not think that it gives much space for much. And I do not want spaces within that gather to much people, due to the residents in the neighborhood.
This article has been parked on my home page for weeks. I viewed it once and then it never left. Yes, you are, or is it “is” smart and you is, or is it “are” attractive. But parked for weeks. OK I do enjoy your articles and most I watch more than once. Don’t worry I am 78 and harmless. Maybe. Keep up the good work. PS: It really has been parked on my home page for weeks.
I feel there must be far more discussion on, “There is no original design.” That so much sounds like a challenge to me and it would really hurt to admit you are correct. Immediately, my mind began thinking of spiraling beams of a sharp dome with scattered skylights.. then maybe mirrors to the effect of an infinite height with the scattered skylights creating a fractal-like pattern of complexity. Has anyone done this? Even if they had, does it still count as original being as I didn’t know? That is just looking up. What if the space below mixed both fire and water with a crystalline slanted slab on which to lay back and look upward from different angles, listening to waterfalls designed to mimic the fractal and methane fires in scattered places, perhaps moving as the consequence of water features, such as different kinds of water wheels. In any case, not just an unmoving flame… at least some turbulent wind near them. Would this be original? Would this lead to people serendipitously meeting as they lay near each other and speak of the discoveries of the sun moving over the windows, reflecting through the mirrors, and meeting both fire and water? Would this be an otherwordly place to inspire the mind? Maybe originality is just so rare in the modern world. Maybe every glimmer of it should be cherished like a portal into a new world.
maybe its bc i have ADHD but the language around architecture makes me despise learning about how to work in an office and makes me dread it. you have an idea and explain it big deal. why does it have to be more than that? “the program” etc is so annoying. i heard all about it in first year architecture classes and now i want to get my masters in arch but the language really puts me off.
I appreciate the website, and there is generally some good information on the profession. However, this article sounds like designers should be throwing ideas at a wall to see which one will stick OR which program can be shoehorned into an otherwise unrelated form rather thank letting the form following the function. The ideas that every building needs an umbrella idea to hold it together is a common misconception created by university professors who don’t build much. There is no reason that a building project can’t be a series of ideas layered and woven together that will do several things at once in order to facilitate the program. It need not be distilled to the architectural equivalent of a soundbite. The good news is that a broken clock is right twice a day, so it can work sometimes. I do appreciate that the “real client” should be the user, but we all know that the “real client” is the one that pays the bills. This is why the market economy has generated so many poorly performing buildings.
In your example of ‘you like cheese cake’, that reminded me of Frank Llyoyd Write. I read somewhere that when he was with a new client, the client would tell him what they want and his response would be to tell them ‘no you really dont want that, what you really want is….’ and then he would go into detail of how he envisioned how the project should be. Something like that Jedi mind trick “the drones you are looking for are not here”.
i am currently working on my final degree project and sometimes i feel lost when it comes to decisions, concept, ideas an what to look at the moment you feel you´re in a pivotal point of the proccess, but i feel very seen by the method you followed for this particular case, mine is very similar. Also i think a major ingredient here is to be confident and stand up to any choice that makes sense. After all, concepts works as a light to follow during those uncertain moments…….. thank you
Hi I loved this article and the transition of ideas and the to and fro with how one should go about brainstorming ideas, I wanted to ask if there was a follow up article that showed how these ideas are actually culminated into a project because there are so many informed decisions to be made and at times i feel those decisions are overpowered by the though of “what if im really just copying of the web or what if this design ideas is too immature to follow through with it”. Id love to see the folloing article or the continuation of the article. But everything apart I really enjoyed the process and the content.
I’m just not sure about libraries trying to turn themselves into community centers. A library use to be the place you go to find information. We have more information at our fingertips now, but a lot of it is bad information. Libraries should look to facilitate information finding in a world where useful information can be buried and hard to find.
15:35 Strategies. My day to day life consists of comparing new data to old data, do things fit? Are there logical inconsistencies? If there are apparent logical inconsistencies; am I overlooking something? If I want a new concept I address the issue to my unconscious mind and see what happens over the next day or so.
that long house looks so amazing. I wish i could visit it. Looking at that makes me upset to look at native amaerican towns. Why would Natives make buildings that look like the rest of the world. And they wonder why so few if any tourist come. If native americans built their towns with buildings that fit their culture they would have to limit traffic.
📺💬 Developing Archi8tecture Concepts / 📺💬 /📺💬 / 🧟♂🗯🗯🗯💦💦 📺💬 He does not stop anyway but leaves him / 🧟♂🗯🗯🗯💦💦 🥺💬 I see of those examples design and your explanation, I don’t have much knowledge about house architecture but working, using program and UI and your drawing is nice. 📺💬 เอาจนยุ้ยฟังไม่รู้เรื่อง ( พากย์ ) / 🧟♂🗯🗯🗯💦💦 🥺💬 ผมเห็นว่าไร้สาระ
I loved the progression of your ideas, I too also thought of doing a courtyard for my thesis but my initial massing idea subtracts a volume from the middle going through the entire volume. So it loses that “donut” shape haha but I found it interesting that we came to a similar idea. Your connections and analysis was great to hear!
Thank you so much, Dami Lee. I inspired by you since 2020 and thanks for your guidances in this website, it helps me a lot in my university life in Architecture. Developing Concept is by far one of the most challenging thing in Architecture, this article really helps in redirect our thought and make us think and design in a bigger pictures. Thank you for this! ^^
Thank you for making this article! I took so much from this article and the kicker is I do not do any work in architecture or anything related. I work in workforce development, giving jobs to to teenagers. From getting input from every member of the team to breaking up your research into categories, it helps me organize our team and our mission. Which article was the follow up to this? Looking forward to more!
I’m here because me and a friend are about to start a minecraft world and I thought I could maybe get some visual inspirations for my space in game 😂, not quite what I was looking for but I ended up enjoying what you talked about even though I have no interest in architecture to the extent that your normal viewers probably have but I fee like I learned some things that I could incorporate with my main interest and what I studied which is photography. Gonna keep perusal your articles, keep up the good work! 😊
If you haven’t already thought about Hawaii regional architecture, not Hawaiian architecture because those two are very different, we really like to play with extending the exterior environment into the interior of a structure and inviting the interior environment to mingle with the exterior all while being seamless and with the least possible impact to the natural environment surrounding the building.
Yo you are so intelligent. As the years go by, and I finally get my surveyors license (it is taking me some time, and you clearly made better decisions in your teens and twenties than I did lol) I hope one day we work together on a big building project. Props to you for building this career for yourself. Respect ✌🤙🤘🖖
@14:30 Are you kidding me ? Extremely surprised to hear an Architect make such a statement. How can you say there is no original creation??!! Say that to Alexander Graham Bell and all the great inventors in history. You may be copying or making iterations from what you see on the internet and in books in your practice of Architecture, that does not mean others do not come up with original ideas. RESPECT INVENTORS WITH ORIGINAL IDEAS !
FORGET SCHOOL – YOU DESTINATE TO WORK OR YOU DESTINATE TO SCHOOL .. THE FIRST ARCHITECT DID NOT HAVE A SCHOOL ONLY A SKILL DEVELOPED AND OTHER FOUND LOVE INTEREST . FEEL YOU WAY THROUGH, I SECURED BET ARCHITECURE WAS INVENTING THROUGH FEELING AND OR EMOTIONAL RESPONSE . TERRY I BALIMTORE / LABITMORE AI IS LOVE NOT ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Oink Oink.. I am looking at your Picture.. sitting by the window.. Looking UP at the Moon.. and just being able to fly across the Moon.. asking the Angel if I can borrow two Wings.. I have written another Letter.. I want to give you this Letter that is in my Hands.. when I came Home.. I saw the Angel waiting for Me.. My Heart broken into pieces and started to Miss YOU all over again.. When can I see YOU again.. when can I see YOU.. WHY do I keep on missing YOU.. and I am looking at the Angel.. Can I borrow the two wings again.. I made a Promise to YOU that I am going to give YOU another Letter.. just to tell YOU how I truly feel.. just to share to YOU about what is deep in my Mind.. deep in my thoughts.. just to tell you that I love YOU.. Only if YOU can accept the Letter I give.. will you take the Letter again.. When I saw the Angel.. who was waiting for me.. I would ask this Angel.. How can I be an Angel.. because I just want to be close to YOU.. even though I do not ask for your Love.. I am not asking YOU.. can YOU love me.. it is what is in my Heart.. who is the One loving YOU.. I am truly feeling like I am filled and Full just by loving YOU.. and the Angel would look at me.. if I become the An angel.. I can’t ever be with YOU.. but can be Near YOU.. be close to YOU and Just love YOU from the Far.. from the distance just to be there and just to love YOU and Only thing I can do is miss YOU.. and I would ask the Angel.. am I able to share.. tell and write letters to YOU.. the Angel tells me.
Oink Oink.. I am missing You.. I don’t know why I can’t find YOU anywhere.. as I am Looking at the waters.. the waves of the waters coming to the shore.. and On this Beach.. I been asking for YOU.. the Bottle I send to YOU.. I wrote a Note Inside and Put into the empty Bottle.. and it is called the Message in the Bottle.. I can’t find the Bottle here on this Beach.. and wondering did it get to YOU.. YOU told me that when I write YOU a Note and put it into the empty Bottle and toss it into the Waters of this Ocean.. of course I would come to this Beach.. and I would be walking in the sand.. Looking for a Bottle.. and YOU told me before YOU left.. when I come to this Beach.. and with an empty Bottle.. Put a Note inside and write YOU something and if the Waters and the Wind allows to reach across and it gets to YOU.. reaches YOU on the Other side.. and if YOU read it.. you would write Back on a Note to let me know that It has gotten to YOU.. the Day YOU left me I remember we came here to the Beach.. and we spent the whole day at this Beach and telling me all kinds of Dreams YOU had.. and even we saw the Night Comes UP.. looking at the stars and the Moon up in the sky and YOU told me.. it would be so Nice that when YOU are gone.. and I started to Miss YOU.. to grab an Empty Bottle and write a Note for YOU telling YOU how much I missed YOU and How Much I loved YOU.. I saw you going into the air port.. as I watched YOU leave.. I wanted to ask YOU when will you be back.. but I did Not want to ASK YOU because what If you would say.
If my female classmates in Archi school were this cute, I’ll literally never be absent. Btw, I’m an incoming first-year college and just found out your website today! Keep going Dami, there’s a lot of first-year students in the Phillippines that are going to college this month, I’ll be sure you’ll build a lot of audiences there!
I think this is a fantastic time to let creative women like Dami make their impressions upon our society through their art which, especially in architecture, is woefully underrepresented. It’s time we experience more of their wonderfully interpretative works upon our community spaces—I think we’ve had too much male-dominated architectural phallicism these days, with of course the timeless art of Frank Lloyd Wright, et al as mold-breaking exceptions.
What a wonderful find your website is! Gorgeous production and such interesting content 👌🏽 You said: the internet is a wonderful place for inspiration if you know how to use it properly. You should make a article on just that. And your process for gathering inspiration online. It may seem at first blush that people know how to do this but the internet is a slippery and quicksandy kind of place that can get overwhelming real fast…your process for finding inspiration online (“if you know how to use it”) would be a very useful article for aspiring architects and lay people alike 🙌🏼