Lately I’ve been thinking a great deal about the notion and use of the word “creativity.” And I have decided it really doesn’t mean anything. To be specific, it isn’t a metric of anything. As a verb, to “create” something doesn’t describe what was created, nor does it explain the value of the creation. Used as an adjective, a “creative person” is equally useless in terms of meaning. Finally, is the creative act cerebral or physical?
So what is it that gives meaning to the process of creating something?
For me it is the act of invention not of creation that gives the process meaning. And in architecture, the coolest use of the inventive process is when it is used to develop an original aesthetic or form.
In the Brendan Kutler Center at Harvard-Westlake I was charged with developing just such an aesthetic; one that expressed the uniqueness of the center’s namesake. I decided to focus on the design of the interior wall system as the physical expression of a new aesthetic.
The Brendan Kutler Center was conceived as being referential to Japanese design. Several ideas and references of this fact run throughout the building. Bamboo forests, temple gateways, and shoji screening are all given abstracted respect in the design.
But the truly inventive act occurs with the “fan walls” that run throughout the second floor of the center. I wanted them to be dynamic, visually active, and to act as an element that clearly separated the center from the existing library in which it is contained.
I took a Japanese fan, opened it slightly, and then pulled it apart at the hinge axis. The result was a form that solved the requirements listed above. The next step was to develop the structural system for the construction of the form. I utilized the accuracy and clarity of our three-dimensional modeling program to explore several iterations of real world interpretations of my theoretical vision. Once I had satisfied myself on the forms, elements, and connections, I translated the system onto two-dimensional plans, so that they could be accurately understood, bid and constructed by the contractor.
Finally, I remained flexible yet resolved as to the actual end product that was fabricated and built by the contractor. This assured that my assumptions, when tested in the real world, would be modified to a degree required to see it realized, yet not so modified that the end result was unrecognizable from the design drawings.
See more photos here.Â
