Form follows eccentricity

Ideation is about ways of generating and communicating ideas. But does ideation adhere to methods, techniques or principles? Such as Louis Sullivan's maxim "form follows function", Mies van der Rohe's "less is more", or Dieter Ram's "principles of good design"? Or, is it rooted in designers' personal style developed through practice and theory? MVRDV, the Dutch design practice, claims, through elaborate research, that they seek not to develop a specific style of architecture but to provide and develop different methods in designing architecture and urban space.Yet the start of MVRDV's design process for Depot Boijmans art museum in Rotterdam, built with panels of mirror-coated glass clipped on to a concrete bowl, and which officially opened in November this year, did not reflect the practice's cherished design methodology. Instead, during a lunchtime brainstorming session, the design team was inspired by a piece of IKEA table ware, in the form of a stainless salad bowl. Indeed MVRDV revels in turning design models upside down, or inside out, or grabbing whatever is to hand and adding it to the mix of ideas. Such is the design process of a practice that embraces eccentric spectacle. It seems, then, there's method in eccentricity.