snøhetta: relations
ausstellungEine für die Räume des aut konzipierte Ausstellung des international tätigen Architekturbüros Snøhetta mit einer „sozialen Landschaft“ als zentralem Element.
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kjetil thorsen: collective intuition
Ein Textbeitrag von Kjetil Thorsen (Snøhetta), verfasst anlässlich der 2017 im aut gezeigten Ausstellung "Snøhetta: Relations".
erschienen in aut: info, Nr. 2/2017
We are Snøhetta, a collective of architects, landscape architects, interior architects, graphic designers, industrial designers and artists. For a period of almost 30 years we have been looking for ways to describe the content of our processes, values and designs. Slowly we have recognized certain behavioral and inherent features within our collaborative model.
During this period we have discovered certain ways of thinking and acting, certain hunches, intuitively lived paths and seemingly less coherent decisions leading to project-by-project conclusions. Our image of ourselves has become clearer over time and this slow process of recognition has brought us close to the edge of post rationalization. Why did we do this and why did we do that? Looking back, we reluctantly have to ad mit there have been some rather unclear results, most likely influenced by time limited, popular themes of the day. But still, even within the more confused solutions we have presented, we have post rationalized aspects of our attempts. The explanation keeps pointing in one direction. They have all derived from a collective and conscious state, where the promotion of content driven reinvention has been at the core. Reinvention demands curiosity and nowhere is endurance deeper and more passionate than when looking for answers and solutions not yet discovered or presented.
Let us look at a typical Snøhetta process scenario with a diverse constellation of people. After thorough, but still generic analysis, the mind of each individual in the group will create a problem, related to the task and simultaneously start to solve it. Individuals spontaneously research their own imagebank for a possible idea, a possible direction of a concept, based on a subconscious connection to diverse experiences. This knowledge-based intuition often derives from unexpected combinations of thoughts finding a common ground. To achieve a collective mindset these intuitive images have to be shared verbally. Only when shared with the others they are conceivable. Once communicated, these images will be ad justed by the alignment of other individual images, finally leading to a collective image with certain properties and similarities. At this process in time we do not discuss physical expression. Abstract sketches and models serve the intent to investigate and confirm conceptual ideas, they do not yet represent buildings or design. The time frame for such a process may vary, but they are all relying on the full concentration of every team member, right there and right then. The conclusion of these entangled thoughts will, once expressed in a physical design, seem natural and logical to all involved participants. Some thing has clicked into place. A concept is born.
Recapturing the content of hundreds of such processes we have learnt that certain conditions have to be present for this to happen. The book ”Idea Work“, which analyzes our internal processes, defines a series of creative drivers. At least some of these drivers have to be present for Snøhetta to be at its best.
In addition we have noticed that exposure of flashbacks are ignited by the context, the place, in which the team is located whilst working. Another contextual factor is of course the context in which the task itself is set. Physical and emotional, social and environmental, historical and contemporary conditions are triggers releasing strings of intuitive thinking. Both contexts are important, one relating to our own position, the other relating to the location of otherness.
The focus on contextual presence and a collective conceptual process in our designs have finally led us to be believe that the Snøhetta project could be described as contextual conceptualism. It has no style, no cleancut signature, but is truly born out of the preconditions embedded in every task, unfolding the uniqueness of every object, every design and every result. It avoids generic formalism.
This exhibition is our first attempt at expressing the thoughts above, a sort of intermediate summary for us to see how these intentions may become even clearer in the future. Following the line of thoughts, we therefore do not display conventional documentation from completed projects, as they only show results from former collective efforts. Consequently, we have created a contextual solution for the specific topic (exhibition at the aut), and a conceptual theme called ”Relations“, as they are an essential value in all our creative processes.
We are firm believers of content driven essence, and will continue to exhaust any opportunity to strengthen our own, collective culture with a sense of urgency.
Collective intelligence has been seen as a prerequisite for human development by many thinkers and Einstein defined intuition as the highest form of intelligence.
Snøhetta has its collective intuition.
idea work – creative drivers
prepping: The practice of carefully preparing, building, and revitalizing knowledge in a way that maximizes its potential for effective use in the moment of creation.
zooming out: Stepping back from immersions in data and analysis of ideas of particulars to big picture thinking, letting go of details, and seeking the simplifying core.
craving wonder: The sensuous experience of being in a mystery, a combination of feeling startled and engaging in passionate speech. Wonder underpins all imagination, empathy, and deep interest in anything beyond itself.
activating drama: Calling people into adventure – into battles, mysteries, missions, cathedrals, treasure hunts, or the needs of the human other – in ways that recruit their utmost capabilities and desires, asking: Why do we come to work here? What is really at stake?
daring to imagine: Boldly venturing forth into unknown territory through creating shared imaginings cultivating a language of possibility, handling failure, and providing encouragement.
getting physical: Moving from overdependence on electronic media and towards materializing and visualizing ideas in artifacts, touching ideas, sketching ideas, gesticulating around ideas, and moving while doing idea work.
double rapid prototyping: A work form that seeks to force speedy production, testing, and improvement of halfworked ideas so that they are shared and bolstered at an early stage of development.
liberating laughter: Processes of engineering cocreation through playfulness puns, and humor, that build social ties, erase seriousness, relax constraints in thinking, and encourage original combinations of knowledge.
generative resistance: Acknowledging doubt, friction, anomalies, and critique, not as noise to be avoided, but levers to question the given, and enhance imagination in everyday work.
punk production: Using audacity and direct, self-initiated action to mobilize against established ways, opening up and realizing ideas with high levels of originality and value.
idea work – creative drivers
Idea Work ist das Resultat einer mehrjährigen Forschungsarbeit, bei der kreative Prozesse verschiedener Unternehmen, u. a. Snøhetta, analysiert wurden. Die Forschergruppe hat zehn kreative Strategien („Creative Drivers“) identifiziert und formuliert.
Die Publikation „Idea Work“ der Autoren Arne Carlsen, Stewart Clegg und Reidar Gjersvik ist 2012 im Verlag Cappelen Damm erschienen.
ISBN 978-8202403379
Mehr zum Thema
snøhetta: relations
exhibitionAn exhibition of the internationally active architecture office Snøhetta especially designed for the spaces of aut with a “social landscape” as the main element.
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