lecture: Birger Sevaldsson

Notes from today's lecture. I am not sure whether to publish this, but maybe I edit it furthermore as the course goes on.


Birger Sevaldsson claims that creativity is not individual or personal. Creativity is something outside your head, and you have to be interactive and engage yourself with your surroundings to be creative. You need input from others to be creative. If you sit in a dark room you would still be able to come up with ideas, but for how long, and how good will they be? I agree with this, because I am most creative in groups and when my ideas are discussed with other, I can discuss their ideas, and we can come up with ideas together.

Some people are more creative on their own, i.e. Cezanne who left the world to live on a island, and still revolutinalized the way of painting.



Creativity is described as a ENIGMATIC, FLUID state of mind.

When you are creative, things are slightly out of control. Spontaneity is essential, no control to say "this won't work". You are therefore often creative when you are half-a-sleep, and a musiscian often makes better music when he is a little bit out of control. When you brainstorm it is also important to let go of the control so that you get out all the ideas!!

So, are architects creative?

"The majority of buildings made by architects is not creative". Well, I guess that is true, most of the buildings I know today have the same materials, a floor, walls and a roof. Maybe it is time to be more creative within architecture?


"To be creative, is guerilla tactics against your own typology / schimata".


"To be creative is to change the way you work".


"I am not creative, I am finding" Picasso