The Skill of Not Knowing
In my first year of architecture school, every design assignment began the same way - with a blank sheet of paper. At the time, I thought it exposed our lack of skill. We weren’t the master architects we admired, and so our starting point felt naive.
Over time, I realised that ‘not knowing’ wasn’t a weakness. It was the most powerful place to begin. The only thing missing was the confidence to accept it - to face that blank page with an open mind, a beginner’s mind.
Later, working at at Foster + Partners - the London practice famous for the Gherkin and the Millennium Bridge - I experienced the thrill of big, exciting projects. There was a huge amount of experimentation, but it was always built on the incredible foundations of what had gone before, with processes and office culture guiding the work. At Hugh Broughton Architects, I experienced again the power of designing from scratch when our small team won the international competition for Halley VI - a research station in Antarctica that had to survive nine months of total isolation each year.
What won us the project wasn’t the currency of past prestige. I believe it was that we arrived without ‘the right answers’, and instead asked ‘the best questions’ - about the environment, the science and the scientists, the maintenance crews, the human realities of life in one of the most inhospitable locations on earth. In winning the project we beat all the master architects we admired.
That experience confirmed something important for me: A beginner’s mind is not the absence of skill. It is a skill. And yet, in business, industry, and even education, this way of working is often feared or dismissed as unprofessional. Children, however, are naturals: They meet the world with curiosity, play, and discovery. Through my architectural practice and workshops with schools, I’ve seen how powerful it is when young people learn that ‘not knowing’ can be the best place to start.
Beginner’s Mind
So what do we do with this ‘skill of not knowing’? In Zen Buddhism there’s a phrase for it - shoshin, or beginner’s mind. It means approaching every situation with openness, curiosity, and a freedom from preconceptions. You don’t have to be Buddhist to get the value. It’s simply the mindset of saying: I don’t know everything – and that’s the best place to start.
Think about how a child explores a new space. They don’t rush to categorise or declare what’s ‘right’. They explore and learn by experimenting, by asking questions, by play. That is beginner’s mind in action.
In architectural practice and in our Architecture Kids workshops - this mindset is vital. Great design rarely begins with someone declaring the solution. It begins with listening, observing, and staying open to all that emerges. When children design they are not trying to replicate what already exists. They’re discovering their own process and their ideas matter because they come from them.
The magic happens when we stop chasing perfection or racing to the outcome. Beginner’s mind gives us permission to make mistakes, to try things out, to learn as we go. It allows us to hear voices we might otherwise miss - not just from other people, but from the world around us: Our immediate environment, the weather, plants, animals, even the city itself.
Beginner’s mind is not naive. It is disciplined curiosity. It’s about resisting the pressure to know all the answers and instead holding the best questions.
The Question Strategies
So how can we bring beginner’s mind into daily life? The trick is not to chase perfect answers but to practise asking better questions. Here are a few ways to do it:
Embrace curiosity. Don’t worry about what came before – treat every situation as a chance to start fresh.
Pause before reacting. Curiosity thrives in the space between action and response.
Ask ‘what if?’ Even when you think you know the answer, challenge yourself to imagine alternatives.
Allow space for not knowing. Uncertainty isn’t failure - it’s fuel for the creative process.
Look to unexpected teachers: Plants, the weather, animals, even the rhythm of the city - they all have lessons if we stop to notice, and be present.
Check in on your approach. Ask yourself: Am I seeing this as it is, or as I expect it to be?
And here’s a way to practise this:
The Beginner’s Mind Question Game
Notice your impulse. When your brain jumps to a neat solution, pause before answering.
Chose three fresh questions to ask instead. For example:
What if the opposite were true?
How would I approach this if I knew nothing about it?
How would I see it if I were the client, the occupant, the object, or the subject of the question?
How would a five-year-old approach this?
What would this look like if nature designed it?
Stay with the questions. Don’t rush to solve them - let them open new paths.
The power of beginner’s mind isn’t about producing quick answers. It’s about training ourselves - and our children - to hold better questions, to stay curious, and to let discovery shape the way forward.
Bringing Beginner’s Mind to Schools
At Architecture Kids, we put beginner’s mind at the heart of everything we do. Our workshops are designed to give children and young people that same blank sheet of paper moment - the chance to explore, question, and design without fear of being ‘wrong’.
We run sessions in person, online, or as document-based projects that teachers can use straight away. Some are bespoke, developed around a school’s specific needs. Others are drawn from our tried-and-tested set of creative projects. In every case, the aim is the same: To help children practise curiosity, imagination, and design thinking in a way that connects to the curriculum and beyond.
If you’d like to bring beginner’s mind into your classroom or school, we’d love to hear from you.
📧 Email us at genius@architecturekids.co.uk
📹 Or book a video call here to talk through your ideas and requirements.
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