Every person has a creative side, and it can be expressed in many ways: problem solving, original and innovative thinking, and artistically, to name a few. Describe how you express your creative side.
3 AM. Dubai International Airport. In the sea-shell shaped terminal, the Mecca of Shopping that never sleeps, my college professor parents are sleep-walking for coffee. My little sister is propelled by her earphones. And me? I am possessed by a question: How in the world are the huge suspended curves of the building standing? I imagine myself inside a real sea-shell that is at home with the turbulence of the sea. What is this building supposed to evoke?
Architecture stimulates my creativity. I doodle. I design. I make. To me buildings provoke questions. What is the architectural equivalent of the “falling apple” of physics? What does a single red brick announcing itself amidst the a wall of brown ones say? What does it convey if bricks of the same kind are stacked together neatly? Buildings provoke what-ifs. I have seen too many slums and the living condition of people in slums bothers me. What if I could build low-cost eco-friendly homes for thousands of people?
I have discovered that listening and conversation inspire my creativity. For the last month of every academic year, my school in India would take us all to “far-off” places that encourage discussion and reflection. In 2013, we went to Talla, a village in the foothills of the Himalayas, to live in a house without cell phones, Internet, or modern amenities. Our small group did chores together and met with locals. Feeling the green grass between my fingers during the sunny days, and spending chilly evenings in conversation around campfires that threw haunting shadows, I was inspired to draw and sketch and think. I realized that together we can create something beyond anything we could make individually. As an aspiring architect, I want to have conversations as I create things that are enduring and enchanting. It sounds ambitious, but design thinking makes me feel that way. As I look at the world from a design perspective, architecture has become a way of life.