Stufano, Borri and Rabino - input2012

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Input 2012 Cagliari, May 10-12 2012 Creativity and Planning Process in Architecture: a Cognitive Approach Rossella Stufano, Dino Borri, Giovanni Rabino Rossella Stufano, Dino Borri, Giovanni Rabino Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Università di Pisa, Italy Dipartimento di Ingegneria delle Acque e di Chimica, Politecnico di Bari, Italy Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

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Rossella Stufano, Dino Borri and Giovanni Rabino on "Creativity and Planning Process in Architecture: a Cognitive Approach"

Transcript of Stufano, Borri and Rabino - input2012

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Input 2012

Cagliari, May 10-12 2012

Creativity and Planning Process in Architecture:

a Cognitive Approach

Rossella Stufano, Dino Borri, Giovanni RabinoRossella Stufano, Dino Borri, Giovanni Rabino

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Università di Pisa, Italy

Dipartimento di Ingegneria delle Acque e di Chimica, Politecnico di Bari, Italy

Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione, Politecnico di Milano, Italy

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Summary

- Creativity

- Mental images

- Creativity in Architecture

- The architect’s writings- The architect’s writings

- Memory

- Ontologies

--Experiments

- Conclusions and further research

- References

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Creativity

Creativity is considered as an innate ability that reveals itself

through original creations.

Creativity is a particular attitude towards a non-

conventional transformation of reality which is representedconventional transformation of reality which is represented

as memory; it all depends on contexts, environments,

teachers, reference points, and choices of life.

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The human thought is a “complex machine”, develops an

activity made of many parallel processes that may combine

and operate in various ways.

When one wants to create a new idea there is an objectiveWhen one wants to create a new idea there is an objective

but this isn’t defined with accuracy: a unique and exact

answer doesn’t exist and a unique and rigidly determined

procedure doesn’t exist either, (Johnson-Laird, 1998).

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As all mental processes a creative process starts from some

given elements and hasn’t a precise purpose, but only some

pre-existent restrictions or some criteria that it has to satisfy;

a creative process gives a result that is new for the person,a creative process gives a result that is new for the person,

and the result may not really be original: a mental process

may be creative even if other people have had the same idea,

(Johnsons-Laird, 1998).

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Mental images

Mental images are connected with the visual memory one;

man has the ability to create new own mental images and to

recall perceptions at a long time distance, (Arielli, 2003).

This ability to recall a visual image even after many years is

the evidence that a long time memory exists.the evidence that a long time memory exists.

Kosslyn (1973) has developed a model of visual memory,

calling “visual buffer” what Baddeley (1990) then called

“visual-spatial scratch pad”.

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Creativity in Architecture

In literature few authors have tried to construct the notion of

planning on clear and universal basis.

“Studying the planning process we discover that planning is

included in the theoretical environment of problem solving”,

(Simon,1995).(Simon,1995).

Spatial creativity is a place on which it is more difficult to

establish an objective; an ambit of reference for reading

artistic creation or architecture creation sends back to a game

of resemblances and reminiscences and sends back to draw

memories of the other artists and architects.

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The architect’s writings

In the planning composition the architects organize the

disposition of the primary geometrical forms according to

cognitive environment in which they have been formed and

according to the political environment from which planning

requests emerge.requests emerge.

Creativity is expressed in a context of a strong intention; it is

the pressing intention that finalize the choices and that same

cognitive process from which the planning action descend.

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Every master refers to the memories of the places of his

childhood. Their architectonic experiences that remain deeply

rooted go on lodging as memory images and perceptionrooted go on lodging as memory images and perception

recollections even in the planning processes of the

professionals; their past experience remains a constant

reference horizon.

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Mental images and memory objects make up that

database in which the expert agent has his

reference. The various places of his memory, whichreference. The various places of his memory, which

constitute his database in continuous evolution are a

necessary part of the cognitive structure.

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Memory

Memories are trips, places of habit, constructive experiences.

The core for a growing creativity are memories, that’s why we

chose to open the architects’ sentences to get out theirchose to open the architects’ sentences to get out their

mental objects and making hypothesis and working with

them according to a spatial key design.

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I talk about places: they express well my active participation

to architecture in an active and even in a theoretical way.

Often architecture identifies itself with the object and with

geography. Today I find in domestic and private trips, ingeography. Today I find in domestic and private trips, in

public and scientific trips all the past and all the present and

every outline is worth the most abstract statement,

(Rossi,1981).

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The role of analogies using memories

The role of analogies is extremely important in the unfolding

of architectural process design.

Similarities are the core of perception and of extrapolation of

the underlying structures of real order.the underlying structures of real order.

Finding such structures is the core of intelligence. Making

analogies is the core of intelligence, (Hofstadter, 1995).

The perception of structures, their extrapolation and their

generalizations are fundamental for creativity.

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The attempt to define the essence of creativity

consists in having a strong intuition for what is

interesting, in using it recursively, applying it to theinteresting, in using it recursively, applying it to the

meta-level and changing it accordingly, (Hofstadter,

1995).

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Ontologies

An ontology defines a common vocabulary for researchers

who need to share information in a domain.

The ontology provides a conceptual framework for theThe ontology provides a conceptual framework for the

representation of information which is general and sufficient

in detail so as to provide a rich structure support for the

construction of models of the world, (Bateman, 1992).

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We are interested in designing an ontology that functions as a

special metalanguage for encoding:

(i) pictures,

(ii) the memory of the images,

(iii) the geometric shapes (extrapolated from the(iii) the geometric shapes (extrapolated from the

memory image),

(iv) the memory of geometrical forms (a formal

declination in the composition of the elements

during the composition process).

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Experiments

We observed architects drawing both without and with a

given design objective.

The development of the experiment demonstrates how the

same planning request activates in the expert agent particularsame planning request activates in the expert agent particular

links and not others.

These links start a specific, special and adventurous trip in

memories and in study references. They may be technical,

personal references, more or less revealed, more or less

aware, not randomly generated by a planning question which

is potentially fortuitous and substantially unknown.

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Duel duet - Siza – D’Alba

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Round table

The meeting between left-handed and

right-handed architect

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City Door

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Conclusions and further research

This paper aims to describe and to draw attention to the vital

importance for creativity in the design process in architecture

of memories.

We see the creative process in architecture as something that

rests on a solid base of memory.rests on a solid base of memory.

This may seem counterintuitive because often to create

means to create something completely unrelated and

independent from the situations in outline or by prior

knowledge of the agent.

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The relation between memory and project isn’t deterministic.

From the same element of memory may descend different

declensions of intuition and choice.

The path of planning conception is reiterative as regards theThe path of planning conception is reiterative as regards the

references memories, as regards the imposed logic and

situational restrictions and it is not linear as regards the feed-

back of the same choices that are made from time to time.

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The ontology in a configuration of an interactive virtual

desktop is here conceived as a tool that is a constant

'expansion' of personal memory, from time to time to be'expansion' of personal memory, from time to time to be

interrogated further and expanded.

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We have indeed shown that the reference to memory is a key

element in the mental mechanism of designing.

For a further research, the objective is therefore to have a

tool that can be placed in front of architect’s own memories.

Memories are accumulated, constantly renewed and

expanded, and we need a tool to not forget to have them,

making them available to each new architectural project to be

developed according to architect’s own creativity.

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References

Schon, D.A. (1983), The Reflexive Practitioner, New York, Basic Books (trad.it. a cura di

Angela Barbanente, 1993, Il professionista Riflessivo, Bari, Dedalo).

Jerome Bruner, 1966, Studies in Cognitive Growth, Wiley, New York

Jerry Fodor, 1975, The Language of Thought, Harvard University Press

Aaron D. Baddeley, 1990, Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Lawrence Erlbaum Aaron D. Baddeley, 1990, Human Memory: Theory and Practice, Lawrence Erlbaum

Associates, London

Herbert A. Simon, 1995, Machine as Mind, in Android Epistemology, MIT Press,

Cambridge

Hatchuel, A; B. Weil, 2002, La théorie C-K : Fondements et usages d'une théorie unifiée

de la conception, Colloque Sciences de la conception, Lyon 15-16 mars

Zenon Pylyshyn, 1973, What the Mind's Eye Tells the Mind's Brain, Psychological

Bulletin 80 (1):1-24, University of California, Berkeley

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Philip N.Johnson-Laird (1988), The Computer and the mind. An introduction to

Cognitive Science, London, William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. (trad.it. di Patrizia

Tabossi,1997, La mente e il computer, introduzione alla scienza cognitiva, Bologna,

Società Editrice il Mulino

Edoardo Boncinelli (2008), Come nascono le idee, Bari, Editori Laterza

Emanuele Arielli (2003), Pensiero e Progettazione, Milano, Bruno Mondatori

Peter Zumthor, (1998), Pensare Architettura, Baden/Svizzera, Peter Zumthor e Lars

Muller Publishers ( trad. it. a cura di Maddalena Disch e Francesco Dal Co, 2003, Muller Publishers ( trad. it. a cura di Maddalena Disch e Francesco Dal Co, 2003,

Pensare Architettura, Milano, Mondatori Electa spa)

Natalya F. Noy and Deborah L. Mcguinness, Ontology Development 101: A Guide to

Creating Your First Ontology, Stanford University, Stanford

John A. Bateman, The Theoretical Status of Ontologies in Natural Language Processing,

Projekt komet and Penman Project GMD/IPSI and USC/ISI,1992

Aldo Rossi, (rist.2009), Autobiografia Scientifica, Milano, ilSaggiatore

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Douglas Hofstadter (1995), Concetti fluidi ed analogie creative, Milano, Adelphi

John Anderson (1983), Architecture of cognition, Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence

Erlbaum Associated

John Anderson (1995), Learning and Memory, New York, John Wiley and Sons