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the recent architectural practices that architectural
editorshave been often been silent about.
Lefaivre, Liane and Alexander Tzonis, Region Making,Journal of
New Arts, 2013, China Academy of Art,Hangzhou.
Paradoxically, so does architectural education in manyplaces of
the world. And the results are not so positiveneither for the
accountability of the profession nor for
society.Even more puzzling is the fact that little attention
was
paid by the architectural press and by architectural educa-tors
to studies carried out by historians and anthropologistswho, since
the beginning of the twentieth century, investi-gated, wrote, and
demystied the political function of thearchitect as creator
semi-god in archaic and later inabsolutist societies which they
identied having been to agreat extend the legitimization of the
supposed God-givenrights of the despotic ruler to rule. Why did
this happen?
Lefaivre, Liane and Alexande Tzonis, 2004, ibid.Why this long
term apparent continuity between the
archaic belief in a creator semi-god architect and the
one in the creative star
architect of our time? In bothcases, the traditional religious
and the current secular,creativity was perceived as something
arcane, beyondrational scrutiny, demanding veneration by the public
anddenying public inquiry and analysis. Accordingly, a
popularcontemporary view, expressed even in Hollywood lms, hasit
that to enable creativity be expressed, the creator, beingany
producer of the human-made world including thearchitect, has to be
free. Any restriction, any outsideinterference with the creative
impulses of the designerresults in obstruction and destruction of
the birth of thenew. Corollary of this view is that the educator of
archi-tecture has to liberate the student from outside or
self-imposed shackles, unleash his creative force of
inspiration
to express itself. Thus the student who succeeds to demon-strate
his freedom, that is the one who without any setobjective to
satisfy produces forms, several times computergenerated, that
appear new, uninhibited, and arcane, is theone rewarded and not the
one who responded, perhapstediously, cautiously, and silently, to
real conditions, wants,and aspirations of a given context and
region.
Why this archaic way of thinking continues to exist in ourtime
within a very different way of life, a different societyand
economy, and a different kind of architecture? Whypresent
architectural journalism and architectural educa-tion has so often
adopted this anachronistic worship ofcreativity as making something
out of nothing, while not
only snubbing historical, anthropological, and
sociologicalstudies that deconstructedsuch arcane views about
crea-tivity but also overlooking recent cognitive science
researchon human creativity?
Perhaps, the key to understand this puzzle is not so muchby
inquiring into the mentality of architectural journalists,critics,
and educators but by looking into the recent eventsthat shaped and
shape the way our human made worldevolves.
Perhaps, the apparent continuity of the archaic beliefsabout
creativity and the mystical and attering identity of thearchitect
as semi-god, that helped in the past legitimize theclaim of the
despotic ruler to rule, making his ruling appearGod-given, today,
as the nancial and legal role of the public
sector and the state in designing, planning, and producing
thehuman-made environment is shrinking all over the world,
thesemi-god architect translated as star-architect, help
tolegitimizing the rights of private development to promoteunreal
needs and sustain the rightfulness of fabricated valuesdictated by
the market economy inciting consumption, and toconceive and
construct buildings and even parts of cities,beyond public
scrutiny.
It does not take much to show that as the archaic
semi-godcreative architect did not deal with the social and
environ-mental quality of his environment (not to be blamed since
itwould have been absurdly anachronistic if he did so) so
thecontemporary star-creative-architectsuppresses such issues.
Thus, even the recent cognitive science studies thatfocused
empirically on the phenomenon of human creativitylooking into the
way mathematicians and engineers, chessplayers and other miraculous
champions create newsolutions to tackle unprecedented hard problems
wereignored. The studies demonstrated that creation is far
frommaking something out of nothing a privilege of elite semi-gods.
It is a human faculty that involves cognitive processes
visual thinking and visual analogy a very importantcomponent of
these processes mobilizing memory, experi-ence, and rules derived
out of practice, recruiting, andrecombining precedent cases,
reinterpreting and reusingprevious ndings. Last but not least
analyzing the con-straints, potentials, and unique characteristics
of a givensituation, matching them to knowledge constructed in
time.
Our own research on creative design and the role ofprecedents
using archival material investigated two cases ofmost important
designers in history: Leonardo da Vinci andhis invention of the
triangular bastion, possibly, the mostsignicant innovation in
military architecture. Leonardomade extensive use of precedent
theories of vision andmethods of shadow drawing which he recombined
into a
new system of representation of ballistic orbits
optimizingdefenses. Ironically, while Leonardo constructed a
newmethod to confront a new problem by relying on empiricalevidence
and by analogy to preexisting theories bringingtogether different
domains of knowledge, he was been veryoften referred to in popular
writings as an emblematicdesigner-semi-god making new things out of
nothing.
Tzonis, Alexander, co-author L. Lefaivre, Il bastionecomme
mentalit, La Citt el mura, C. de Seta and J. LeGoff, (Eds.), Rome,
1989.
Tzonis, Alexander, Lines of Vision, Lines of Fire. The Roleof
Analogy and Image Cognition in Designing the RenaissanceBastion.
Das Bauwerk und die Stadt. W. Boehm, (Ed.),
Vienna, 1994
Another celebrated case we investigated is that of LeCorbusier,
the most important creative mindin architectureof our time.
Although most writings about him stress theinspirational,
irrational, elite side of his design, in reality LeCorbusier's
implied hard conscious intellectual work, what hecalled, patient
research, compiling a memory thesaurus ofprecedents from a very
early age and developing a skill torecruit and recombine them if
and when needed to confrontthe challenges of an evolving
increasingly dynamic andperilous world.
Alexander TzonisLe Corbusier(Rizolli, Universe, New York,2001,
Thames & Hudson, London, Architecture and BuildingPress,
Beijing, 2004)
A. Tzonis332
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Taking into consideration such studies could have helpedimprove
the capability of students to be really creative, thatis, like
experts, proceed systematically, analyze context andsituations,
objects and regions, detect real constraints andexplore actual
potentials, investigate alternatives, recall andmine precedents,
and in this way nd answers to questionsthat had not been answered
before. Clearly recalling pre-cedents in this sense has nothing to
do with sterile design by
rotechained to the past formulas and stereotypes that
manyfreedom promoters educators are so much afraid, andcorrectly
so. On the contrary it invites the making of newthings critically,
out of the thesaurus of experience which ishow culture constructed
and bloomed through history.
By contrast, the current cult of creativity as an eliteprocess
in architecture has been obstructing real creativitydiscouraging
many students of architecture to reect andrationally for the fear
that they will damage their creativeinstinct. Even worse, they were
often encouraged to dropout of the study of architecture if they
failed to produceearly results demonstrating their ability to
create formsspontaneously out of nothing, whereas patient
instruction
would have helped them overcome fears, uncertainties,
andhesitations that inhibit in many people critical thinking,while
the same time releasing the student's real creativepromise
available in every human being.
What architectural education needs under the
presentcircumstances of unparalleled, ecological and
socioeconomic,environmental crisis is not boost of freewheeling
narcissisticfreedomfrom constraints faking newness, but real
creativity,capturing and embracing ecological and human reality
throughmethod, knowledge, and public responsibility.
[The references to the state of architectural education inmany
schools around the world (but certainly not all) usedmaterial from
observations made during the last almost ftyyears of my academic
life. However, a most important
source for this article has been following the case of arecent
master's diploma at TU Delft. I am deeply indebtedto the generous
contribution by the student supplyinginformation and critical
comments.]
Alexander Tzonis is professor emeritus atthe University of
Technology Delft wherehe was Director of Design Knowledge Sys-tems,
a multi-disciplinary research centreon Architectural Cognition.
He was educated at Yale University andtaught at Harvard
University between1967 and 1981. He has held visiting
pro-fessorships at: Columbia University (1974
1975), the Universities of Montreal (19701971), Technion, Israel
(1985), MIT (1996), Singapore (2006,2007), Tongji University
(2008), and Tsinghua University (20092011). In 2002 he was visiting
professor at the College de France.
Among his publications are: The Shape of Community
(Penguin,1972) with Serge Chermayeff and Towards a
Non-oppressiveEnvironment (MIT Press, 1972, published in six
languages includ-ing Japanese). Classical Architecture (MIT Press,
1986; fthprinting 1990, published in eight languages including
Japanese,Korean, and Chinese) and The Roots of Modern Architecture
(SUN,1984; second edition, 1990) co-authored with
LianeLefaivre.
He has contributed over 300 articles on architectural
theory,history and design methods.
Other books by Alexander Tzonis: Architecture in Europe
since1968, Between Memory and Invention (Thames and Hudson,
Fall,1992 (GB), Rizolli (US) and Campus (Germany)) was written
withL. Lefaivre, the rst comprehensive presentation of two and
ahalf decades of architectural production, received an
AmericanInstitute of Architects Award (1994). In collaboration with
Ian
White, is Automation Based Creative Design (Elsevier,
1994).Architecture in North Americ a since 1960 (Thames and
Hudson,Little, Brown, 1995) in collaboration with L. Lefaivre and
R.Diamond, and Movement and Structure, the Work of
SantiagoCalatrava (Birkhauser, 1995). Also with L. Lefaivre,
SantiagoCa-latrava,The Poetics of Movement (Universe, Thames and
Hudson,1999), Aldo van Eyck, Humanist Rebel (010, 1999) also with
L.Lefaivre. Santiago Calatrava, The Creative Process
(Birkhauser,2001), Tropical Architecture, A Global Regionalism
co-editedwith LianeLefaivre, with a preface by H.R.H. Prince Claus
of theNetherlands, (Wiley, 2001) and Critical Regionalism,
Architec-ture and Identity in a Globalised World (Prestel, 2003,
andEmergence of Modern Architecture: A Documentary History,
from
1000 to 1800 (Routledge, 2004), both co-authored with
LianeLe-faivre. Tzonis also authored Le Corbusier (Universe
(USA),
Thames and Hudson (UK), Rizolli (IT) Hazan(Fr), 2001),
SantiagoCalatrava, Complete Works Rizzoli 2004 (translated in
Italian,Spanish, and Chinese) and with P Giannisi, Classical
Greek
Architecture, the Constr uction of the Modern , Flammarion2004
(French, English, and German editions). Also published byRizzoli,
Santiago Calatravas Bridges and Santiago Calatravasthe Athens
Olympicsboth, 2005. Also co-authored with LianeLe-faivre,
Architecture of Regionalism in the Age of Globalization,Peaks and
Valleys in the Flat World, Routledge, London, 2011(Brazilian
edition 2013).
Prof. Tzonis has been General Editor of the Penguin Booksseries
The Man-made Environment, and of the Garland Architec-tural
Archives, one of the biggest architectural publications,which has
published the complete archives: ofLe Corbusier (32volumes), L.
Kahn (7 volumes), a Choice Outstanding Academic
Book, Mies van der Rohe (18 volumes), W. Gropius (4
volumes),Schindler (4 volumes), H. Sauvage (2 volumes). American
Insti-tute of Architects Book Award, Alvar Aalto (12 volumes).
In 1975 he has been Director of the research project
Systm-esconceptuels de lArchitecture en France de 1650 1800,
theGenesis of Contemporary Conceptual Systems in
Architecture,between 1650 and 1800, sponsored by C.O.R.D.A.
C.N.R.S./France, and Harvard University.
Early in his career, he worked in the theatre and the moviesand
was art director of the lm Never on Sunday. In 1990 hepublished his
rst novel, a murder story about problem solving,computation and
morality, Hermes and the Golden ThinkingMachine(MIT/Bradford
Press).
He has headed the organisation of several major
internationalconferences among them: The German Werkbund, 12 April
1980
(Harvard Univesrity), Automation Based Creative Design
Educa-tion, May 1992 (a 150th Anniversary of TU Delft
Conference).Value Learning in a Changing World (1993, 2729 October)
andThe Spiritual in Architecture, a Symposium dedicated to
theHolocaust Memorial in Berlin, April 12, 2000, both hosted by
HerMajesty Queen Beatrix at the Royal Palace in Amsterdam, underthe
auspices of the Royal Palace Foundation. The
MediterraneanLandscape, Representation, Designs and Identity (Van
LeerFoundation, MishkenotShaananim), December 1997, Jerusalem,The
Mediterranean City (MishkenotShaananim), May 2002,Jerusalem.
333Creativity real and imagined in architectural education
