White paper on creativity - ebla center

Chapter 12result of the design process is theproduct of collective thinking in whichthe various individual contributionscannot be distinguished in the finaloutcome. The creative design process israrely carried out by only one person.Much more often the design comes intobeing from the continuous exchangingof ideas in a multidisciplinary teammade up of architects, engineers,installation engineers, environmentalengineers, and from the dialogue withstakeholders, which can range from asingle family to a nation, in the case ofbuildings of collective interest. Thework of each of these experts,designers, technicians, and clientscontributes to the overall creation: see,for example, the role of technicalinstallations in the image of thePompidou Centre and the consequencesin terms of form in the solutions toreduce energy consumption and CO2emissions in Richard Rogers’environmentally sustainable buildings.Investments – Creativity presupposesinvestments in time and resources.Building a work of architecture involveslarge finances and therefore cannot beimprovised. The design path fromdesigning to constructing a buildingruns along a ridge dividing the twoslopes of art and technology.Architectural solutions are not only theoutcome of research into form, but areconditioned by the principles ofengineering, technology and availablematerials; innovative materials oftenrequire research and developmentactivities.All the variables and consequences ofinnovation can be foreseen beforehandthrough research, calculations andpreliminary tests. Innovation hasrepercussions throughout theproduction chain. The constructionindustry must adapt and skilled workersmust be trained. If the production chainfails to respond to the new inputs, thenthe work cannot be built.Long-term vision – One of architects’main objectives is to represent theirown time. Their creative actions mustinnovate, make something that does notyet exist, prefigure. Often by startingfrom existing elements, architectsintuitively pick up on a new trend andgive it practical form. But given the leadtime from design to construction, theymust reckon with a very long periodbetween an idea and its realisation. Thearchitect must thus anticipate, orprefigure a space today for therequirements of tomorrow, taking intoaccount the long-time scale forconstruction.12.5 The wings of creativity“Without that element of uncertainty and thatfeeling of setting off on a journey towards theunknown, there can be no progress.”Zaha HadidAs we saw in Chapter 12.1, studies haveshown that a culturally creative milieufosters the production of good ideasand that a creative process is stronglyinfluenced by the environment in whichit develops. But the more the culturalmilieu is interdisciplinary andstimulating, open to new ideas, free anduncoerced and therefore capable ofencouraging the intrinsic motivation ofWHITE PAPER ON CREATIVITY 286