Skip to content

Spatial Thinking

Ideas

What can spatial thinking change?

Architecture is often asked to solve problems once they have been defined. We are interested in an earlier question: what if the problem itself is spatial?

Ideas is where observation, abstraction and spatial thinking are used to investigate questions across architecture, technology, society and everyday life — and propose different ways of seeing them.

13 October 2026

You only get 5–6 studios. Will they make you job-ready?

You only have three years in an architecture degree, and you only get five or six studios. What will you have learnt by the end, and is it professionally aligned? I can tell you that after only three years, we consider any architecture student useless in practice. Even after a master's, I dare say graduates are not professionally aligned.

2 min read

13 October 2026

Is an architecture degree too academic to prepare you for a job?

An architecture degree is far too academic to be directly useful in a job. Think about who is teaching you: are your teachers professional design architects? Design is notoriously hard to teach, and very few teachers have both the professional design experience and the ability to teach it.

13 October 2026

Is there a formula for the creative process? Can innovation be guaranteed?

Have you heard of anyone creating a formula for the creative and design process? Has anyone guaranteed innovation? Most people would say it can't be done, because creativity is too loose and personal. Spatial Thinking does both: it structures the creative and design process into a framework that consistently produces innovative results.

13 October 2026

101 Things You Wish You Learnt in Architecture: Planning

If there's one skill an architect needs, it's planning. And yet, who ever taught you to do it? Actual planning? You will be forgiven for thinking you know it as a student, because the skill set as a whole is not being taught to you.

13 October 2026

You get 2–3 minutes of feedback in studio. Is that enough?

In most architecture studios you get two to three minutes of feedback each session. That is nowhere near enough to learn design, and often the feedback isn't even useful. That's why we created Spatial Thinking: to give precise, actionable, professionally aligned feedback.

13 October 2026

Why does architecture studio feel so confusing?

Most architecture students feel lost in studio. Tutors say "trust the process" but never explain it, feedback is vague and unhelpful, and weeks of work lead to weak design outcomes. Studio isn't confusing because you're doing something wrong. It's confusing because the design process is rarely taught directly.

13 October 2026

What is design process? Most professionals can't explain it

Design process is not the sequence of tasks you use to produce drawings and deliverables. It's how a designer gets from nothing to a strong idea, and from that idea to a powerful outcome. Real designers own their process. They might not always be able to explain it, but they know it instinctively.

13 October 2026

Will AI replace architects and designers?

AI is taking over parts of design work, and designs that are only images and trends are the easiest to replace, because AI can generate them in seconds. What AI can't easily replicate is a strong design process: the ability to make credible yet innovative proposals that respond to complex problems. Building that process is the most reliable way to protect your creative and professional future.

13 October 2026

Spatial Thinking vs Design Thinking: what's the difference?

Design Thinking focuses on the customer journey and gives a step-by-step method that almost anyone can follow. Spatial Thinking focuses on the designer's own creative process: how to consistently produce strong, innovative work.

13 October 2026

What is Spatial Thinking in design? Designing with something and nothing

Spatial Thinking is a design and creativity framework that comes from architecture but covers all design and art processes. It's called "spatial" because architects are taught to design not only with something, but with nothing: with space, time, culture, the environment and the city.

13 October 2026

Can creativity be taught?

Yes. Creativity isn't a talent; it can be taught. The problem is that most creative education teaches skills, not process. Learn the process, and strong, original work stops depending on luck.

13 October 2026

Is university preparing you for architecture? Bring your own agenda

Universities offer a lot, but they're slow to change, disconnected from industry, and won't ensure your success on their own. The advice I give every student is: bring your own agenda. Don't rely only on the university. Get your own help, and find out more than they offer.

13 October 2026

What can first-year architecture students achieve? Real results

With a clear design process and precise feedback, early-year architecture students can produce work well beyond their year level. These are results from Spatial Thinking students.

3 January 2026

The sense of when you are ready.

I get a lot of students working towards some vague goal, and waiting for the industry to offer them direction. All in all, they will start to feel ready when they get a sense that they are ready. We all need it, it's not just knowledge but it's an overall feeling of "I get it." Ill give you some examples. * I'll start a firm once I have enough experience * I'll decide when I've worked another 2-3 years in a foreign country * I might change my mind after a few years but right now I'm focusing...

3 January 2026

Why Architecture Needs Reform

I'm sure you are all tired of hearing the doom and gloom of things. With rampant content placed in the hands of individuals (aka social media), you're inundated with opinions and things you frankly don't want to hear. This one might be a little less gloomy. Less gloomy because in reality, Architecture doesn't need to change, much the same as you never need to change. If the system works well for you, then you can ride it to success. It only needs to change when enough people complain about it...

3 December 2025

Why Intelligent People Struggle to Make Money

Intelligence often involves depth. This often means reaching out to the wider and darker corners of knowledge. Depth often also means breadth. It’s difficult to discern when depth or breadth is engaged because to get deeper into a topic you need breadth to funnel into some core principle. This act, as intelligent as it is, can mean trading specialisation for generalisation, which is bad for business. Most businesses don’t operate by selling value to a wide demand. Value is only exchanged when...

16 November 2025

You don't learn enough in Architecture Firms!

There is a sense that you will learn from work, and university covers the basics, so it's unnecessary to take further courses like Spatial Thinking to help your architectural studies and career. But this is what the reality is like: You only learn from the projects available to youNeedless to say, you only learn from the projects available in the firm, and from the ones you are actively on. The ones you don't work on, you will never learn from. What if early in your career you don't discover...

17 September 2025

Architects Are Spatial Tectonic Designers

There is a perception that architects need to be trained to become professional, legitimate and obligated for publicly liable buildings. That is true. But is this the only way to think about architects? We train some sort of creative spirit, some sense of building process, and in the profession you are exposed to "how it's always been done." You become part of a construction industry, a consultant whom clients expect you to provide expert advice on buildings. We learn to plan, use codes,...