In a past life, I was an architecture student¹. Among all the serious books I read on the subject, there’s one I’ve always liked for its simplicity and clarity.

That small sketchbook-shaped volume is 101 Things I Learned in Architecture School by Matthew Frederick.

Beyond tips on improving sketches or planning urban layouts, the book offers insights that can be applied to everyday life.

Here are some notes I saved years ago, now translated to English.

Focusing on the process rather than the final product is the most important and challenging skill for a designer to develop.

Being process-focused means:

1. Striving to understand a design problem before searching for solutions.
2. Avoiding the imposition of past solutions onto new problems.
3. Not letting personal pride take over and resisting the urge to fall in love with one’s own ideas.
4. Adopting holistic research and design decisions (addressing multiple aspects of a problem simultaneously) rather than sequential ones (tackling one aspect or solution at a time).
5. Making design decisions with the awareness that they may work to varying degrees within the broader process of finding a solution.
6. Recognising when it is time to make new decisions or when to persist with existing ones.
7. Accepting the anxiety of not knowing what to do.
8. Moving fluidly between large-scale thinking and detailed work to examine their interactions.
9. Always asking, “What if…?”—regardless of whether you are satisfied with your current solution.

The most effective and creative problem-solvers engage in a process of meta-thinking—in other words, they ‘think about thinking.’

“Meta-thinking” means being aware of how you think while you are thinking. Those who practise meta-thinking engage in an ongoing internal dialogue through which they experiment with, challenge, critique, and refine their thought processes.

There are three levels of knowledge:

1. Simplicity is the worldview of a child or an adult fully immersed in their experience, blissfully unaware of what lies beneath the surface of immediate reality.
2. Complexity** reflects the typical perspective of an adult—aware of the interconnectedness of natural and societal systems yet unable to discern overarching patterns or simplifications.
3. Conscious simplicity is an enlightened way of seeing reality, grounded in the ability to identify or create simplifying models within complex situations. Pattern recognition is a fundamental skill for an architect, whose role is to create highly ordered systems while balancing a multitude of often conflicting design considerations.

Beauty lies in the harmonious relationship between elements within a composition, not in the individual components themselves.

Aesthetic success emerges from the dialogue between parts rather than from the parts alone.

The success of a masterpiece does not seem to reside so much in the absence of inaccuracies—even because, if there were any, we would tolerate even the greatest ones—but rather in the immense persuasiveness of a mind with complete mastery of its own perspective.
— David Bentley Hart

Constraints foster creativity

Constraints provide a framework within which creativity can thrive. They push designers to think critically, innovate within limitations, and find unexpected solutions. Without constraints, the design process can become directionless, leading to excessive choices and a lack of focus. Some of the most ingenious architectural solutions arise precisely because designers are forced to work within strict material, spatial, or regulatory boundaries. Constraints should not be seen as obstacles but as catalysts for deeper exploration and refined decision-making.