The Journal of Creative Works

The Journal of Creative Works, publication overview

The Journal of Creative Works brings together four volumes of studies developed between 2008 and 2016 — 15 projects exploring representation, space, architecture and urbanism. Three of these volumes originally existed as independent publications, later revised and incorporated into the Journal.

The Journal is organised into four chapters according to the subject, scale and discourse addressed: Architecture and Illustration, Grammar and Fundamentals, Organising Metaphors and Strategic Programming. Its mission is to investigate the Pursuit of Knowledge, approaching each project as a new opportunity to rigorously explore and examine new design strategies and techniques. This mission was consistently pursued through self-reflective thinking, enthusiasm, diligence and dedication.

2016
The Journal of Creative Works, publication pair 1

Architecture and Illustration opens The Journal of Creative Works with a visual survey of spatial representation. Presented chronologically, the work is intended as an exercise in personal and critical rediscovery rather than aesthetic display.

The study is organised following simple rules of form, composition and colour, using a dual presentation method. This reveals evolutions or involutions, singular or recurring themes, qualitative and quantitative tensions, as well as the persistence or discontinuity of certain elements of language and technique. At the same time, it traces both the increasing scale of representation and the degree to which diverse meanings are attributed through drawing.

Thus, we move from the object to objects — ordered objects; from objects to several objects — an interior; from one interior to several interiors — a house; and from one house to several houses — a city. Progressively, we also move from explicit description to synthesis, and then from creative drawing to the drawing of realisation — thinking & making — in order to reach mental narratives and philosophical arguments that challenge the very limits of the discipline.

I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them. — Pablo Picasso

2014 2016
The Journal of Creative Works, publication pair 2

Grammar and Fundamentals is the second chapter of The Journal of Creative Works. It comprises four exercises developed between 2010 and 2011, describing the earliest attempts to order space and establishing an initial position: respect for the origin of the project. The study generates ideas and flows that subconsciously construct attitudes.

The four exercises were originally brought together in the volume 4 Minimal Projects, the first attempt to organise the projects into an editorial object. The volume was later revised and incorporated into The Journal of Creative Works as its second chapter, Grammar and Fundamentals.

2014 2016
The Journal of Creative Works, publication pair 3

Organising Metaphors catalogues a series of intermediate-scale projects, understood as spaces without formal exaggeration or dimensional excess.

The exercises capture what is necessary, in the right measure, allowing users to identify with each proposed space and with the furnishings specific to its programme: a place to rest, a place to sit and talk, a place to eat, a place to read, and so on. The studies also examine the relationship between the principal function and the land it occupies, as well as its connection to the surrounding context and natural setting.

The volume was originally published in 2014 under the title VM Docs, and was later revised and incorporated as the third chapter of The Journal of Creative Works.

Treat each drawing as a work of art.

2014 2016
The Journal of Creative Works, publication pair 4

Strategic Programming addresses advanced architecture and is distinguished by the scale of its projects, as well as by the density and complexity of the urban situations they engage with.

The works were originally published in the volume BUCURESTIinCONTEXT Alles ist Kontext, which contained three structural essays encompassing study areas of more than two million square metres. These investigate mental-stretch themes and techniques of strategic urban programming through different scenarios and scales of representation of Bucharest. The volume forms the fourth and final chronological chapter of The Journal of Creative Works.

Stop asking what you have to do: simply do it. Perform. Be intuitive. Make yourself brilliant. — Constantin Necula