Steven Holl and Raphael Mostel
Steven Holl Architects, New York
Holl’s creative process always begins on a 5-by-7-inch pad. “When I draw and paint, I connect the subjective and the objective. It’s a way of open thinking and free-feeling, and it’s unpredictable,” he says.

Similarly, composer Mostel ignites the creative spark and disrupts fallow periods through dogged perseverance.

Marcio Kogan
Studio MK27, São Paulo
Kogan says he sees the world as if looking through a viewfinder. “I imagine things in my life on a screen. In my projects, there is this wide perspective: forms are lowslung and very broad,” he says.

David Darling and Joshua Aidlin
Aidlin Darling Design, San Francisco
One constant in the beginning stages of a project is camping out on the site. It’s a way for Aidlin, Darling, and the project architect to become immersed in the context and read the site with all five senses before coming up with early design schemes.

Anna Heringer
Studio Anna Heringer, Bavaria
The architect begins each project by thoroughly investigating the potential of a site. “Then I just let go of the ego and the strife,” she says, and the design solution comes naturally.

Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki
Moreau Kusunoki, Paris
Rather than creating drawings at the beginning of projects, to help articulate the concept, Kusunoki conceives them after the initial design has been completed, to help them refine it.