The Inner Studio - Riverside Architectural Press

THE INNER STUDIO
self. It can’t be forced, but once experienced, the energy it produces
washes through us. It has a quality that realigns and recalibrates the
way we approach a particular project or, indeed, the world. As
exciting and fulfilling as this may be, it is in no way a completion–but
it has increased the chances that we will be able to
understand more fully.
When an insight is born, we experience a feeling of pure knowing,
a feeling of receiving something total or whole. Even if an
insight contradicts what we want to believe, it is fulfilling. It helps
us remember that the death of something always marks the birth of
something else. After an insight, we experience an unmistakable
feeling of gratitude. In a way, this sense of gratitude is a good test
of whether our insight is genuine. Insight not only relieves a certain
pressure during the creative process, it also leaves us with a more
open heart.
A Unit of Design: A Question Answered
Insight and the act of design are deeply linked because it is the
nature of design to organize, prioritize, and unify disparate
phenomena. I found myself asking, How do you know if you have
actually accomplished something when you begin to design? What
is the measure you can use to judge? When we travel by car or bike
we can keep track of our progress by figuring out how far we travel
in a hour. How do designers measure their progress? How do we
give the creative mind suggestions without giving it instructions
that limit creativity? I have found that every creative search inherently
rests on a question, whether it is asked consciously or
unconsciously. For me, therefore, the smallest unit of design is
simply a question answered.
I began experimenting with this approach by listening to the
experience of students as they described their work. I began to
watch the busy inner flow of my own creative thoughts and images
that accompanied the search for design solutions. I explored this
creative stream from different angles until I could slow down my
inner environment.
Let’s look at this process more closely. When we are designing
we are usually trying different approaches and configurations. We
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