I had the opportunity to look again at Going Clean, one of my favorite books by Óscar Tusquets, one of the must-read books of this summer. A passage in it entitled The Creative Age caught my attention and began by asking himself: “At what age is a person ready to give birth to a great creation? When does the ability to create original works leave us? The Catalan architect quoted an article from the journal edited by the American Institute of Physics, which stated that he was the pinnacle of creativity, with a study comparing the ages at which Nobel Prize winners published their works. around 39. To confirm this, Tusquets cites Albert Einstein, arguably the most important physicist of all time, who published everything at the age of 39, or how great mathematical theorems are demonstrated by young people under 30.
As I’m about to turn 39, I ask myself—half hopeful, half anxious—if I’ve reached the peak of my creativity, perhaps at the peak of my brain’s performance. Unsurprisingly, the very young Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera won the Yokohama Cruise Terminal competition at 29 and 31, respectively, Sáenz de Oíza’s Shrine of Our Lady of Aránzazu at 32, Fernando Higueras and Antonio Miró, Hortaleza’s neighborhood unit. Designing it at the age of 33, they began work at the Cultural Heritage Institute Headquarters only 2 years later, and the great Ricardo Bofill finished Calpe’s emblematic Red Wall at the age of 34.
We can say that architecture requires a long and sometimes painful learning process due to its complexity and all the elements that interfere with its process. We might think that a wide range of artistic, structural, constructive, economic, psychological knowledge is required to build great architectural projects, so it is reasonable to argue that great architects reveal themselves at a fairly late age. Something that Louis I. Kahn, who built his first major work, the Yale Center for British Arts, at the age of 50, could have witnessed firsthand.
In fact, a few years ago in the newspaper El País, why do architects live longer and suffer from less degenerative diseases? In an article titled, the longevity of some architects was mentioned and a scientific explanation was tried to be made. This question states that “architecture leads to very high cognitive development at a very advanced age, which helps a greater neuronal connectivity.” Therefore, since professions such as architecture encourage a high degree of intellectual activity, this increases the connectivity between neurons in the brain and facilitates the delay in the onset of degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
Indeed, this year I was able to enjoy the teachings of two great Spanish architects, Rafael Moneo (85) and Juan Navarro Baldeweg (83), and in both cases I can confirm with full emphasis that their clarity and prudence were sufficient. irresistibly depressing. And many of the architects who give us a certain hope, who are fully creative up to an advanced age: Frank Ll. Wright died at 92, Robert Venturi and Miguel Fisac at 93, Philip Johnson at 98, IM Pei at 102, and the great Oscar Niemeyer was managing his own work until he was 105.
I must admit that over the years I have gained a greater capacity to observe more and limit my mistakes (not eliminate them), so I suspect that from now on I will learn more, try and be less reckless. to make mistakes less often. But as Tusquets adds, I’m afraid we’re going to take a lot less risk.
From here, I want to ask my future self to trust me.
Note: Dedicated to Amparo Mira and Francisco Jover.
*Luis Navarro Jover is an architect and professor at the University of Alicante.