Ruin cities haunt our imagination and arouse our curiosity for a number of reasons. Those features
in them that interest an artist are the characteristic of timelessness that they accrue over the years.
Furthermore, they serve as inspiration for creative works. Composers like Felix Mendelssohn and
Jean Sibelius, artists like Giambattista Piranesi and Giorgio De Chirico, and architects like Aldo
Rossi, Alvar Alto and Giorgio Grassi come to mind. By making reference to the notion of the
sublime, this paper will consider selected instances where ruin cities served as touchstones of
creativity. In architecture, motifs from ruins are not simply transferred to the new design but also
transmuted, where in art and music these processes occur implicitly through a change of medium.
While the creative processes in art, music and architecture are analogous, it is not easy to establish
common ground among them. In architecture it is less difficult to grasp these processes than other
fields because we are dealing with tangible aspects like monumentality, structure, texture and
fabric. Indeed, monumentality, structure and texture can equally be used in musical appraisals and
architecture. In the works of architecture we explore the inventiveness that comes about as a result
of architects using ruin cities as analogues. Needless to say all inventions are inventive derivations,
a fact that is of relevance to the practice and pedagogy in creative fields. We hope our study will
therefore shed light on the analogical procedures involved in selected creative fields.
Bouvallige stede prikkel ons nuuskierigheid vir n aantal redes. Die onvoltooide aard van ruïnes in
sulke stede stel hulle in staat om n glorieryke verlede op te roep en hartseer uit te straal. Hierdie
kenmerke, naamlik tydloosheid, onvolledigheid en melankolie het juis sommige musici, kunstenaars
en argitekte geinspereer. Werke van komponiste soos Felix Mendelssohn en Jean Sibelius,
kunstenaars soos Giambattista Piranesi en Giorgio De Chirico en argitekte soos Aldo Rossi, Alvar
Aalto en Giorgio Grassi kom by n mens op. Dit is egter nie net die produkte van hierdie kreatiewe
persoonlikhede wat van belang is nie, maar ook die proses waardeur hulle inspirasie van ruïnes
in bouvallige stede verkry het. Deur te verwys na die idee van die verhewe, word gevalle waar
sulke ruïnes as bronne van kreatiwiteit gedien het, hieronder ondersoek. Motiewe van ruïnes in
argitektuur, word nie bloot oorgedra na nuwe ontwerpe nie, maar word oorgedra en onwikkel of
verander. Dit is anders as in die geval van musiek en kuns waar hierdie prosesse natuurlik plaasvind
weens veranderde medium. Terwyl kreatiewe prosesse in musiek, kuns en argitektuur analoog is, is
dit nie maklik om n gemenedeler te vind nie. Dit is in argitektuur makliker om hierdie prosesse te
verstaan omdat mens met tasbare aspekte soos struktuur en tekstuur omgaan. In die argitektoniese
werke wat hieronder bespreek word, ondersoek ons vindingrykheid. Dit is na alles die vindingryke
afleidings wat relevant is vir die pedagogiek in enige kreatiewe veld.
