Imagery as a Private Experience and Architectural Teamwork

Abstract

Recent accounts of the role of imagery in creative processes have gone beyond the anecdotes dealing with creative literature, artistic achievements and discoveries in science. These studies have shown how creative processes can benefit from imagery. Reasons are not difficult to seek. Typical attributes of imagery — its spontaneity, non-linear nature, depictive qualities and the possibilities of voluntary control — point to the enormous potential of imagery in the development of ideas. It encourages private fantasies and yet it allows simulation, permitting evaluation of ideas. The fact that images directly depict the layout of the represented material and preserve between-part relationships is significant to designers, who creatively manipulate these relationships. So, its no wonder that most designers, in casual observations, refer to the rich imagery that they often experience during designing. Yet there is little published work available in this area. The reasons for this lack of literature could be attributed to two unique properties of mental imagery. First, the experiencing of mental images is so well integrated with the thinking process that most people are not even aware of it. Second, it remains a totally private experience inaccessible to outsiders.