Design Creativity: Techniques for Generating Fresh Ideas

As an Architect, coming up with new design ideas is an essential part of the creative process. It can be a challenging task at times but there are several techniques that you can use to help stimulate your imagination and inspire new ideas.

Research and Site Analysis

One of the main factors that will influence your design is the site in which you are building on. Whether it’s undeveloped land or remodeling of an existing building it’s critical to start with research and analysis of the site, context, and programmatic requirements. This will allow you to identify key factors that will inform your design ideas and provide you with a solid foundation to build upon.

Gathering Inspiration:

Look for inspiration from different sources like art, nature, and architecture. Pinterest is a great place to collect and organize inspirational images that will help you generate ideas for your projects. It allows you to create folders and keep yourself organized as you gather your images. QUICK TIP: Add the “Pinterest Save Button” to chrome and you can save any image on the web directly to your Pinterest project folder.

Conducting Charettes:

The old adage “two heads are better than one” holds particularly true when generating design ideas. If you have a team of people you’re working with you can conduct quick charettes to help generate new ideas or build on an existing one. All you need is a roll of trace paper and a pen or pencil.

Sketching:

A lot of us tend to go straight to the computer once we come up with an initial idea. Sketching is an essential tool for architects and can help generate many design ideas in a short period of time. Having that hand-to-paper connection activates a different part of your brain and it’s a great way to get your creative juices flowing.

Dumb Box Method:

At university they taught us the “dumb box method”. Once you’ve established your programmatic requirements you can take each piece of program and draw a box — to scale — that represents the square footage accurately. Once you have all your boxes cut out you can start experimenting with adjacencies and spatial relationships. This method will give you a better perspective on how much real estate each piece of program requires in relation to your site.

Physical Models:

Physical models are a great way to visualize and test your design ideas. They don’t have to be detailed in the beginning. You can use thick construction paper and tape to start off with general massing. Once you have an idea you can move on to more substantial materials like chip board, basswood, and plexiglass, which can help you understand how your building will look and feel in real life.

Exploring design ideas as an architect is a challenging and exciting journey. At times you may feel like you’re getting nowhere but keep pushing and take breaks if you need to. It always helps me to step away from a design and revisit after a few hours or days with fresh eyes.

These are just a few methods you can use to help generate ideas for your projects. As you explore you’ll begin to understand with what works best for you. For a more in-depth look at physical model making check out our post titled “Tools of the Trade: Physical Models”