The Originality of Self-Imitation

It is clear that "architecture comes from other architecture". So, the question is: can we use imitation as a research tool to produce original architecture? Perhaps, the things we take for granted must be seen another time, in a new light. In 2009, Christian Kerez, one of the most original architects of recent times, worked on the extension project of a favela in Paraisòpolis, Brazil. By 'imitating' its peculiarities, namely density and promiscuity, he investigated its architectural forms and designed a new, similar but original settlement. Subsequently, through a process of ‘self-imitation’, this project formed the starting point for the construction of House Okamura in Prague, another unique project. Quoting Gianfranco Mormino: Imitation is the main explanation for the individual animal's extraordinary ability to adapt to different environmental situations; […] the way in which an animal stabilises motor acts found accidentally and revealed to be favourable, and I consider its necessary form to be self-imitation, i.e. the ability to replicate motor acts performed by itself. Down to the ordinary, a few years ago, synthesis of a journey to discover Berlin architecture, was the emblematic but comical "irreverent" remark of one of the travellers, an outsider to architecture, who mistakenly exchanged one of Mies van der Rohe's best-known works, the Neue National Gallerie, for a gas station. Curiously enough, the master designed a service station in 1969 (the year the museum was opened), which, due to the value of the structure, has recently been restored and turned into a community centre. The two works, on a different scale, are strikingly similar. It could almost seem that, in a parallel universe unaware of the master's works, the 'non-architect' traveller was right. Therefore, how should we define the service station concerning the museum? Is it original? Is it an imitation? Or even a self-imitation?