Inspiration

It is quite easy to start a PhD research. But to finish it is more complicated. You need a lot of persistence, motivation but above all inspiration. I have been inspired by three people: Mick Eekhout. Stefan Thomke and Ben Rich.

Professor Mick Eekhout (Delft University of Technology) is an accomplished designer himself, and an engineer who besides teaching has his own innovative company Octatube. He taught me how to reflect in a scientific way on my architectural experiences and how to apply the results of these reflections in the Architectural Practice.

Professor Stefan Thomke (Harvard University) has done extensive research on experimenting and learning from experience. His work, and especially his book ‘Experimentation Matters’, has been inspirational for this research. The intention of this research is to develop a basic system as described by Thomke, and to make it applicable for architectural assignments as well as the architectural practice.

Ben Rich, as director of Lockheed Skunk Works, showed me in his book ‘Skunk Works’ how inspirational leadership can push the organization to deliver the highest possible performance.

The experience in Retail Architecture changed my way of thinking from ‘product based architecture’ towards ‘service orientated architecture’. And aviation inspired me not as much in the technical sense as well on a conceptual level.

The continuous search for improvement by teams of talented and performance orientated people that are willing to try and evaluate their performances was instrumental in defining the four stages of the Cyclical Iterative Design Process.