The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study

by Pierluigi Serraino

The story behind a little-known episode in the annals of modern architecture and psychology - a 1950s creativity study of the top architects of the day, including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Louis Kahn, Richard Neutra, George Nelson, and dozens more - is now published for the first time. The story of midcentury architecture in America is dominated by outsized figures who were universally acknowledged as creative geniuses. Yet virtually unheard of is this intensive 1958–59 study, conducted at the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the University of California, Berkeley, that scrutinized these famous architects in an effort to map their minds. Deploying an array of tests reflecting current psychological theories, the investigation sought to answer questions that still apply to creative practice What makes a person creative? What are the biographical conditions and personality traits necessary to actualize that potential? The study’s findings have been gathered through numerous original sources, including questionnaires, aptitude tests, and interview transcripts, revealing how these great architects evaluated their own creativity and that of their peers. In The Creative Architect, Pierluigi Serraino charts the development, implementation, and findings of this historic study, producing the first look at a fascinating and forgotten moment in architecture, psychology, and American history.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Psychology, Design, History

248 pages, Hardcover

First published May 17, 2016

Reviews

[Lloyd Fassett]

8/6/16 Very positive review in the WSJ today "candy for architecture buffs" also describes post ww2 rise of personality tests

[Rhosymed18 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting details on the personality tests for famous architects, as well as details on who selected them and the researchers and psychologists. The images of questionairre and various visual and personality tests were fun to read in the architects' own handwriting. I wish there was more context to the psychology tests and how they influenced the conclusions and there was only a brief summary of how all the results compared across individuals across a few Myers-Briggs traits. The overall results that architects of that generation are very independent and have a healthy dose of ego are somewhat intuitive and not surprising. The conclusion to reduce group work in education was somewhat surprising and may need to be shared more widely with architecture schools.

I am also excited to try to find more about the referenced creativity of mathematicians studies, which included more women. Overall really interesting; though I am also an architect, so I may be biased. :-)

[Lee Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very insightful book on aspects of the creative personality, using the test results of the MacKinnon study of architects.

As it turns out, most creative people are a lot like architects: "Creative people want to arrive at a beautiful solution to the problem that concerns them. This aesthetic necessity is a common benchmark to those who embrace their work as a vocation rather than as a chore."

The Mosaic Construction Test results are amazing. Apparently architects think like Ellsworth Kelly, or Ellsworth Kelly thinks like an architect. Eero Saarinen's all-white mosaic was very Robert Ryman.

Brain Pickings did a review of the book: https://www.brainpickings.org/2016/12...

[Amy Li]

Makes for a surprisingly okay coffee table book.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book.