http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ijIfdswvh5U

Sculpture

Rob McGinnis

Neal Stephenson

Here is a wonderful post on the way visiondivision (in my opinion the most exciting new swedish architecture firm) create their concepts.

Here is an excerpt:

Concepts

Visiondivision has done some reflections about concepts, a working method that we're quite familiar with. We thought we might share some of these thoughts with you.

Introduction

What distinguish our projects and the way we work with architecture from many of our other colleagues in this business are our strong concepts. That’s our opinion but also what colleagues been telling us and what media says about us. Since the start of our collaboration called visiondivision, our work process has always been to first come up with a strong concept and then start drawing. We found that way of working a fun and efficient way to invent new types of architecture but also a great advantage when it comes to pitching an idea and also getting a project built. In this text we will try to explain what we mean by working in a conceptual way and the advantages with this type of work process.

The word”concept” stems from the Latin word”conceptum” which means ”something conceived”. According to John Locke, the father of Liberalism, a general idea/concept is created by abstracting, drawing away, or removing the uncommon characteristic or characteristics from several particular ideas. The remaining common characteristic is that which is similar to all of the different individuals. For example, the abstract general idea or concept that is signified by the word”dog” is the collection of those characteristics which are common to Golden Retrievers, Pit Bulls, Collies, and Chihuahuas.


That means as architects working together you need to find that common characteristics and the uncommon to fit with the program and request for that specific problem you are about to solve. That forces you to discuss wrongs and rights of the request and to form your concept around that and then to simplify it so everyone involved in the process understands what this project want to achieve.
A way to start is with a common headline/motto for the project pointing out the direction on what everyone involved should strive for. That headline includes millions of options but also reduces several. And that is the important thing that it reduces and gives options, then you have a clear concept. To exemplify this we will show some vague and clear headlines/concepts/mottos.


The rest HERE