Over a year ago I visited Spain where I spent time in Barcelona and other Northern towns standing in complete awe before the amazingly fantastical architectural creations by Antonio Gaudi (1852 – 1926). He’s famous for the Sagrada Familia, a church that’s still under construction, among other Disney-esque buildings, parks, homes and churches.

Gaudi was an architect who studied Euclid’s geometry and worked in various art forms, like sculpture. Whenever he was stuck on a problem he went outside and studied the natural world for solutions.

His home is in the Park Gruel which is filled with tiled creatures, arched pillared walkways, and colorful fairyland-esque structures.

He says he never owned or referred to an architecture book when he was stuck on a project. Instead, he got all the answers he needed by studying a tree outside one of the windows of his house.

This is one of my favorite stories of creative problem solving and creation. His devotion to the natural world, and looking to it for ideas made him one of the most unique architects in history.

So let’s take a page out of Gaudi’s book. The solution you’re looking for may very well be in the singular act of looking up and out the nearest window.