Discovery can be stimulated by the old as well as the new.

In my home city of Dundee, we have the honour of hosting the wonderful RRS Discovery, the last 3 masted sailing ship built in the UK. This is directly alongside the new V&A museum of design. I’m always struck by these man-made objects side by side yet from different eras.

Kengo Kuma’s beautiful building, which has no straight lines, is ultra-modern (the project manager told me the technology did not exist to construct this building until very recently), and yet at the same time ancient.

Kuma was inspired by the sea cliffs at Arbroath when creating his design. “I was struck by Scottish culture and the beauty of Scotland’s nature and I wanted the building to reflect this. More specifically, I wanted to create a new type of facade that was directly inspired by the cliff edges of the nearby north-east Scotland coast,” he said.

And you can see the striations in the rocks reflected in the cladding of the building. At the same time, the curves of the building echo the shape of ships, jutting out over the mighty river Tay, connecting back to Dundee’s heritage as a major seaport.

The Discovery, built in Dundee, was the ship that took Scott and Shackleton to the Antarctic in their famous “Discovery Expedition”

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Breakthrough

In my work, I’m often asked what enables transformational change, or breakthrough. Of course, there is no simple answer to that question. There are many factors involved. At times, a crisis can force us out of our comfort zones and safe patterns, to consider something radically new or different. Other times, discovery can come from a time of retreat or contemplation. Slowing down and taking a time of reflection.

What have you discovered recently? Perhaps not an earth-shattering epiphany, but something more gentle and ordinary. A new insight or understanding about something, or some relationship, or even about yourself.

Why not take some time to reflect and consider what you have discovered during this time of lockdown? I encourage you to write it down. The practice of journaling is a brilliant enabler for gaining insight or revelation. Even if not every day, why not give it a go - you never know what you may discover.