Diary - Patterns

Making draft model is one way that architectural student do when they thinking about a new idea. It can be seen as a method of thinking pattern.
Some student choose to start with sketches, some would start with the feelings that they want to achieve, while some others might choose to start with model making in order to think in 3 dimentioning way. There is no right or wrong when we using different thinking pattern, but i will say mixing them or trying different patterns would sometimes open our mind and have a new perspective.


(special thanks to Anqing's model)

Diary - Knowledge

These are the reference books that we need to go throught quite often. Though architecture is not like other subjects, there are many solutions when there's a problem. How to design a better solution is what architectural student trying to learn. Architecture is not like Mathematics, there's no formula in books, we cannot find answer there, however, we can try to learn and analysis from looking at other architect's great buildings. Knowledge is undoubted the foundation of every subject, including architecture. But I have to say that knowledge is not just gained by reading books, life experiences is also important. (can not really show in the photos). We are learning every single second, and they are all become our knowledge that we can use when we need to design.

Diary - Morals (Mentor)

John was my high school teacher, he taught me a lot not only chemistry but also how to deal with the stress, the difficulties I have, the relationship between friends and other lots of things. I took the photo when he came to sydney 3 years ago. I remeber when I met him, I was in my last year in junior high school facing a final exam (which would decide which senior high school i would enter) in three months. I put a lot of pressure on myslef and aimed to get into the best high school. I worked almost 19 hrs everyday, and more like a machine at the end. I was so stressful at that time, the worst thing is I dont even notice. He came to me and talked to me, he tell me that I do not need to be that stressful, I have the ability to do that, just need to take it easy. I started to relax and my condition was getting even better. It sounds simple now, but at that time, definately not. I was almost in my own world, studying all the time, no one can stop me doing those paper works. But he did, not like other teachers, he acted more like a friend, listen to my ideas, analyse for me, and give me suggestions.

I do believe a mentor can change a lot. I can't imagine if he wasn't there, and I was keep doing works like that. Am I gonna be able to pass the final exam and finally enter my 'dream school'? I doubted. Or if I meet another person, would they notice that my condition is running to a wrong direction? This is a little story, what he did for me is much more than this, but I believe all he helped me reaching what I want.

He is those people who teach because they want to teach no because they need to teach

Diary - Change

Change, to me, is the key to open a new world.

For example, same design with different materials would provide a totally diffent feeling of the building. When design comes to the 'end' of first stage, which means the basic form is designed, we need to start thinking of materials. "Changing" provide the variety of possibilities. By changing materials, it opens lots of possibilities on the whole project.

Images are showing two walls, one is made from concrete and the other is made from stone. It can be simply tell that the feeling showed by those two walls are totally different, and based on that, all the details would be designed in different way to match the feelings. And that is why i was saying, 'changing is the key to a new world'. By changing the surface material, all the detail need to be reconsidered, or sometimes, by simply change one kind of element, student's work can become a master piece.

Diary - Leadership

Leadership has been described as the "process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task."

In my personal opinion, a good leader will bring lots of benifts to his group. In this case, a design tutor obviously become a leader when we doing design. The photo illustrates Stan (the man in the middle) was listening to a student's presentation. A good tutor will encourage student and open their mind. Rather than blaming, they tend to guiding. Stan wont blaming people, instead, he would trying to encourag thinking further or in different way. Sometimes, he would tell us to step back and start in a new way. To think about a same problem in different perspectives, his method always helps us finding more solutions and finally get the most suitable one. I always believe that a good leader would change a lot, atmosphere, relationship among staffs (students), and the final results.

Diary - Story

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=218909533470

I can not find any photos that can represent the life of architecture students. I remember I was trying to take photos for my photography elective showing how hard to be an architectural student. And I failed to do that topic since I can not tell the hardship through my lens. As an architectural student, I know we need to work 20hrs a day when the project is almost due. I know there's no way to finish the design earlier since there's always a better solution there, and keep changing and improving is happening all the time. When we meet each other, the question which is always be asked is "how long have you slept for last night?" But it just can not showed by taking photos. Everyone looks so "Normal" when they are in the photos. The link above is what I found in facebook showing the the story of archi-life.

Diary - Work

The photo was taken when I was doing my Summer course in Suzhou, China. We were living in a hotel and working on our assignments. The assignment is individually, however, all of us prefer to work as a group so that we can listen to others's suggestions and get some fresh ideas on our own work.

It can be show in the photo that the room is so messy. Well, I have to admit that it feels no that bad when you actually in there. It's like showing we are working hard, and we are getting there. All of these became worth when we finally saw our works.

Diary - Failure

The photo is taken when I was in Shanghai, the buildings were collaped,even as a whole piece. It was a really big news at that time. As an architect, there is nothing worse than this.

Failture happens all the time. Sometimes it is because I meet 'creative blocks', sometimes maybe because the final work just doesnt match what I want it to be. I dont have the photos of myself after critisize, but it happens all the time. However, I have to admit, failture helps us growing up. We bring our design work to studio and showing it to tutor everyweek and come back with tutor's criticism. Sloving problems, making it better, and showing it to tutor next week. That's how our design grow up, and same as me. By showing tutor my works and getting feedback, I was learning to judge what is better for my work, and how can I design in a better way.

Diary - Motivation

These wonderful models are the motive for architectural student. Though we need to work for long time without sleeping, when we finally see our models, it just feels so great. And it will made us forget how hard we just went through. Following photos show the model photos in the exhibition.

Diary - Relationship

I really like this collage and I think it fits the theme 'relationship'. The glasses we wore was similar to a famous architect, Le Corbusier's glasses. We were so exicted when we found the glasses. It was really expensive while we were able to took photos with it and made a collage when we back home.
Just like good friends wear same dress, good mate wear same glasses. :P Actually, it's more than that. Architecture requires team work. It can not be done by one person even he is very outstanding. Mates are the people who help me when i have "creative blocks", study with me when we just started a project, also sharing all good or bad with me. Relationship with uni mates helps me building trust and overcoming lots of difficulties.

Concept Map

A concept map is a diagram showing the relationships among concepts concepts. They are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge.

A concept map is a way of representing relationships between ideas, images or words. In a concept map, each word or phrase is connected to another and linked back to the original idea, word or phrase. Concept maps are a way to develop logical thinking and study skills, by revealing connections and helping students see how individual ideas form a larger whole.

Concept maps are rather similar to topic maps (in that both allow to connect concepts or topics via graphs), while both can be contrasted with the similar idea of mind mapping, which is often restricted to radial hierarchies and tree structures. Among the various schema and techniques for visualizing ideas, processes, organizations, concept mapping, as developed by Joseph Novak is unique in philosophical basis, which "makes concepts, and propositions composed of concepts, the central elements in the structure of knowledge and construction of meaning." Another contrast between Concept mapping and Mind mapping is the speed and spontaneity when a Mind map is created. A Mind map reflects what you think about a single topic, which can focus group brainstorming. A Concept map can be a map, a system view, of a real (abstract) system or set of concepts. Concept maps are more free form, as multiple hubs and clusters can be created, unlike mind maps which fix on a single conceptual center.

Figure above is a example of a concept map.

Joseph D. Novak & Alberto J. Canas (2006) 'The Theory Underlying Concept Maps and How to Construct and Use Them", Institute for Human and Machine Cognition.

Model for the process of creativity - The Directed Creativity Cycle

The DirectedCreativity Cycle is a synthesis model of creative thinking that combines the concepts behind the various models proposed over the last 80+ years.

Directed creativity simply means that we make purposeful mental movements to avoid the pitfalls associated with our cognitive mechanisms at each step of this process of searching for novel and useful ideas.For purposes of explanation, we can further divide this model into four phases. We will use these four phases of Preparation, Imagination, Development, and Action to organize the tools of directed creativity in other working papers.

Begining at the 9:00 position on the circle, we live everyday in the same world as everyone else, but creative thinking begins with careful observation of that world coupled with thoughtful analysis of how things work and fail. These mental processes create a store of concepts in our memories. Using this store, we generate novel ideas to meet specific needs by actively searching for associations among concepts. There are many specific techniques that we can use to make these association; for example, analogies, branching out from a given concept, using a random word, classic brainstorming, and so on. The choice of technique is not so important; making the effort to actively search for associations is what is key.

Seeking the balance between satisficing and premature judgment, we harvest and further enhance our ideas before we subject them to a final, practical evaluation. But, it is not enough just to have creative thoughts; ideas have no value until we put in the work to implement them. Every new idea that is put into practice changes the world we live in, which re-starts the cycle of observation and analysis.

http://www.directedcreativity.com/pages/WPModels.html
1997 Paul E. Plsek & Associates, Inc

Visualization

Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams or animations to communicate a message.

Applicatioins of visualization:

Scientific visualization: is the transformation, selection or representation of data from simulations or experiments, with an implicit or explicit geometric structure, to allow the exploration, analysis and understanding of the data. It's a very important part of visualization and maybe the first one, as the visualization of experiments and phenomena is as old as science itself.

Educational visualization: is using a simulation normally created on a computer to create an image of something so it can be taught about

Information visualization: concentrates on the use of computer-supported tools to explore large amount of abstract data.

Knowledge visualization: The use of visual representations to transfer knowledge between at least two persons aims to improve the transfer of knowledge by using computer and non-computer based visualization methods complementarily

Product Visualization:Product Visualization involves visualization software technology for the viewing and manipulation of 3D models, technical drawing and other related documentation of manufactured components and large assemblies of products

Visual Communication: is the communication of ideas through the visual display of information. Primarily associated with two dimensional images.

Visual analyticst: focuses on human interaction with visualization systems as part of a larger process of data analysis. Visual analytics has been defined as "the science of analytical reasoning supported by the interactive visual interface"


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visualization

Brainstorming

Alex Osborn, advertising writer of the fifties and sixties, has contributed many very powerful creative thinking techniques. Brainstorming is probably the best known and certainly one of the most powerful. For a fuller treatment, see his book, Applied Imagination.

Brainstorming can take place either individually or in a group of two to ten, with four to seven being ideal. (Alex Osborn, brainstorming's inventor, recommends an ideal group size of twelve, though this has proven to be a bit unwieldy.) The best results are obtained when the following guidelines are observed:

1. Suspend judgment. This is the most important rule. When ideas are brought forth, no critical comments are allowed. All ideas are written down. Evaluation is to be reserved for later. We have been trained to be so instantly analytic, practical, convergent in our thinking that this step is very difficult to observe, but it is crucial. To create and criticize at the same time is like watering and pouring weed killer onto seedlings at the same time.

2. Think freely. Freewheeling, wild thoughts are fine. Impossible and unthinkable ideas are fine. In fact, in every session, there should be several ideas so bizarre that they make the group laugh. Remember that practical ideas very often come from silly, impractical, impossible ones. By permitting yourself to think outside the boundaries of ordinary, normal thought, brilliant new solutions can arise. Some "wild" ideas turn out to be practical, too

3. Tag on. Improve, modify, build on the ideas of others. This is sometimes called piggybacking, hitchhiking, or ping ponging. Use another's idea as stimulation for your own improvement or variation. As we noted earlier, changing just one aspect of an unworkable solution can sometimes make it a great solution.

4. Quantity of ideas is important. Concentrate on generating a large stock of ideas so that later on they can be sifted through. There are two reasons for desiring a large quantity. First, the obvious, usual, stale, unworkable ideas seem to come to mind first, so that the first, say, 20 or 25 ideas are probably not going to be fresh and creative. Second, the larger your list of possibilities, the more you will have to choose from, adapt, or combine. Some brainstormers aim for a fixed number, like 50 or 100 ideas before quitting the session.

Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking is a term coined by Edward de Bono in the book New Think: The Use of Lateral Thinking published in 1967; it refers to solving problems through an Indirect and creative approach. Lateral thinking is about reasoning that is not immediately obvious and about ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic.

Lateral thinking is more concerned with the movement value of statements and ideas. A person would use lateral thinking when they want to move from one known idea to creating new ideas. Edward de Bono defines four types of thinking tools:

• Idea generating tools that are designed to break current thinking patterns—routine patterns, the status quo
• Focus tools that are designed to broaden where to search for new ideas
• Harvest tools that are designed to ensure more value is received from idea generating output
• Treatment tools that are designed to consider real-world constraints, resources, and suppor

Random Entry Idea Generating Tool: Choose an object at random, or a noun from a dictionary, and associate that with the area you are thinking about.

Provocation Idea Generating Tool: choose to use any of the provocation techniques—wishful thinking, exaggeration, reversal, escape, or arising. Create a list of provocations and then use the most outlandish ones to move your thinking forward to new ideas.

Challenge Idea Generating Tool : A tool which is designed to ask the question "Why?" in a non-threatening way: why something exists, why it is done the way it is. The result is a very clear understanding of "Why?" which naturally leads to fresh new ideas. The goal is to be able to challenge anything at all, not just items which are problems.

Concept Fan Idea Generating Tool: Ideas carry out concepts. This tool systematically expands the range and number of concepts in order to end up with a very broad range of ideas to consider.

Disproving: Based on the idea that the majority is always wrong, take anything that is obvious and generally accepted as "goes without saying", question it, take an opposite view, and try to convincingly disprove it.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking
De Bono, Edward (1970). Lateral thinking: creativity step by step. Har[er & Row. pp.300.

Creativity? Creative Thinking?

An Ability. A simple definition is that creativity is the ability to imagine or invent something new. As we will see below, creativity is not the ability to create out of nothing (only God can do that), but the ability to generate new ideas by combining, changing, or reapplying existing ideas. Some creative ideas are astonishing and brilliant, while others are just simple, good, practical ideas that no one seems to have thought of yet.

Believe it or not, everyone has substantial creative ability. Just look at how creative children are. In adults, creativity has too often been suppressed through education, but it is still there and can be reawakened. Often all that's needed to be creative is to make a commitment to creativity and to take the time for it.

An Attitude. Creativity is also an attitude: the ability to accept change and newness, a willingness to play with ideas and possibilities, a flexibility of outlook, the habit of enjoying the good, while looking for ways to improve it. We are socialized into accepting only a small number of permitted or normal things, like chocolate-covered strawberries, for example. The creative person realizes that there are other possibilities, like peanut butter and banana sandwiches, or chocolate-covered prunes.

A Process. Creative people work hard and continually to improve ideas and solutions, by making gradual alterations and refinements to their works. Contrary to the mythology surrounding creativity, very, very few works of creative excellence are produced with a single stroke of brilliance or in a frenzy of rapid activity. Much closer to the real truth are the stories of companies who had to take the invention away from the inventor in order to market it because the inventor would have kept on tweaking it and fiddling with it, always trying to make it a little better.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUcMFg2tAOQ

Right Brian VS. Left Brian

Experimentation has shown that the two different sides, or hemispheres, of the brain are responsible for different manners of thinking. The following table illustrates the differences between left-brain and right- brain thinking:


Left Brain: Logical, Sequential,Rational, Analytical, Objective, Looks at parts

Right Brian: Random, Intuitive, Holistic, Synthesizing, Subjective, Looks at wholes



http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/wacky/the-right-brain-vs-left-brain/story-e6frev20-1111114577583

The above is a link provide 'The Right Brian Vs. Left Brain Test"

Try it