Today, we ran a quick creativity exercise—grabbing the closest non-digital tool to make a sketch on whatever surface was available. With just five minutes, we each drew our favourite well-known building, challenging the rest of the team to guess its identity.
The results:
(From top left to bottom right):
- Seattle Central Library (OMA + LMN) – A faceted glass-and-steel form emerging through quick, angular lines, representing the library’s distinctive stacked volumes.
- Centre Pompidou (Rogers & Piano) – Pipes, escalators, and structural elements sketched in reverse—inside out—just like the building itself.
- Experimental House (Alvar Aalto) – A sketch capturing the interplay of materials in Aalto’s own summer home, a testing ground for his architectural ideas.
- Half a House (Elemental) – A minimal drawing of the iconic social housing concept, highlighting the strategic incompleteness that empowers residents to expand over time.
These spontaneous sketches remind us that ideas don’t need perfect tools to take shape. Sometimes, the roughest lines capture the most energy.