Fountainhead Series was born out of my experience reading Ayn Rand’s novel, The Fountainhead, which was once an inspiration for young architects but has since fallen out of the public eye.
Initially, I picked up the book as an easy read to unwind from my job as an designer, but I quickly found myself captivated by the vivid descriptions of buildings and the discussions about them between characters. My imagination was sparked, and I began using AI technology to generate images based on the book’s descriptions. With each iteration, I added and subtracted details until I had created an image that best matched my vision.
Fountainhead Buildings.
It starts with The Austin Heller House designed by Howard Roark.
The Austin Heller House designed by Howard Roark, in the book The Fountainhead by Ayn Randis a house built into or embedded into a rocky landscape overlooking a lake, and the architect described it as such:
Well, look at it. Every piece of it is there because the house needs it- and for no other reason. You see it from here as it is inside. The rooms in which you’ll live made the shape. The relation of masses was determined by the distribution of space within. The ornament was determined by the menthod of construction, an emphasis of the principle that makes it stand. You can see each stress, each support that meets it. Your own eyes go through a structural process when you look at the house, you can follow each step, you see it rise, you know what made it and why it stands. But you’ve seen buildings with columns that support nothing, with purposeless cornices, with pilasters, mouldings, false arches, false single large hall, they have solid columns and single, solid windows six floors high. But you enter and find six stories inside. Or buildings that contain a single hall, but with a facade cut up into floor lines band- courses, tiers of windows. Do you understand the difference, Your house is made by its own needs. Those others are made by the need to impress. The determining motive of your house is in the house. The determining motive of the others is in the audience.
This creative process mirrored the design process I use in my work, but in a different format. I invite you to join me in this exercise by choosing the image that you feel most closely reflects the book’s description of the building. And if none of the options resonate with you, I encourage you to share your own imaginative interpretation by starting a conversation with us.
Which of the presented buildings do you think fits the description of the Heller House from The Fountainhead?
This creative process mirrored the design process I use in my work, but in a different format. I invite you to join me in this exercise by choosing the image that you feel most closely reflects the book’s description of the building. And if none of the options resonates with you, I encourage you to share your own imaginative interpretation in the comments.
Would you like to conceptualise your vision for your dream project and brief?
Let’s bring your vision to life – Together!
