Learning from our Past - Science and Art

It takes a lot of time and lot of experience to get good, really good, at what you do.  Add a little inspiration to all that and watch things shine. 

Most things that we identify as talents are actually skills: you can learn them, you can practice them, you can be tested. You can keep getting better at them.

A lot of architecture is that way. Many years of education, training, and experience can add up to competency, knowledge, expertise.  Good things, no doubt. 

But architecture is also very broad. It spans craft, art, structure, environment, comfort, energy. At its very best it engages our spirits and begins to transcend materiality. The philosopher Johann Wolfgang von Goethe aptly described architecture as “frozen music”.

In the world of architecture there are buildings and there are works of art and there is a spectrum of possibilities in between.

When those things that you can learn are conjured with intellect, insight and inspiration, a specialness moves the mundane a little closer to the delightful. 

Strive to transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Wasted Space

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris, before the fire

The term “wasted space” is the most devastating criticism that can be leveled at an architectural design. When someone says it, it is nearly impossible for the designer to not take it as a direct personal insult.  Fortunately, designers are necessarily proud characters, able to quickly return such criticism back on the criticizer.  Once “wasted space” has been uttered…the gloves are off.  In the designer’s head: Only an ignorant fool would use the term, only someone artistically dead, only a person without a soul…

But perhaps we designers should consider leveling that criticism at our own work.  Architecture, first and foremost, is about Space.  Any design that withers in the face of “wasted space” is proof positive of failure.

On the other hand, generosity of space can give a design grace, comfort, ease, repose, balance.  It can even rise to the level of inspiration.  Yes, efficient use of space is important, but generosity might lift our hearts, might provide a respite from mean-spiritedness, might encourage our souls.

It is better to err on the side of grace than stifle with stinginess.

Never let “wasted space” apply to what you do.  Instead, may your work not only be efficient, but may it nourish your spirit and prize something intangible, may it inspire inspiration.

Relationships

Fred and Ginger dance in Prague

There’s a building in Prague by the architect Frank Gehry that is affectionately known as “Fred and Ginger”.  The building appears as a pair of dancers in an impassioned embrace: the tailored elegance of Fred Astaire matched brilliantly with the fluid grace of Ginger Rogers.  Here, architecture captures the spirit of a delightful relationship in motion.

When harmony is achieved in buildings, things are in excellent relationship with one another, a sort of arcane balance is realized.  To be sure, serendipity plays its part, but harmony happens through inspiration and intent. Consider a room that is filled with daylight but doesn’t overheat or send glaring rays and isn’t too bright for comfort.

Like yin and yang, balance is sought: plenty, but not too much.

This is true for spatial relations, too.  A formal dining room should have some separation from the bustle in the kitchen.  Bedrooms should have privacy.  A bathroom should not open into the kitchen.  On the other hand, having a family dining area adjacent to the kitchen can stimulate interaction between the occupants: set the table, chop the veggies, check the pasta, smell the bread, have a glass of wine.

More esoterically, materials should have comfortable relationships, too.  Should a brick snuggle up to shag carpet?  Is it right for a stainless-steel toilet to be in the master bathroom? (maybe…)  Is stone happy with plastic edging?  Some of this is like a Saint Bernard/poodle mix.  Could it work?  Should it?

And then there are the relations of the people in a building.  Are they friends, families, co-workers, strangers, combatants, customers, clients, collaborators?  What about the future unknown occupants, should they be considered?

Finally, does the building enhance people’s experiences? When an environment recognizes its inhabitants, then special interactions might take on meaning and reinforce health, and productivity, and efficiency, and mutuality.

Find balance. Allow relationships to reinforce one another.  Help the whole be greater than the sum of the parts.

Is Less More?

Is Less More?

Yes, more or less.

Famed architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s succinct three-word dictum “less is more” has continually influenced design for 70 years.

Architect Robert Venturi challenged the notion with “less is a bore” and ushered in decades of debate in art and architecture circles.

“Less is more” in its simplest interpretation, means providing the best design without adding anything superfluous.  At its finest, it results in works of austere beauty. At its worst it is lifelessly sterile.

Alternatively, “Less is a bore”, promotes a people-centered viscerality, it prizes emotion and physicality over intellectualism. Its implementation has spawned works of grand symbolism at their best and cartoonish farce at their worst.

But architecture is for people. It must satisfy us intellectually as well as emotionally and physically.

Our society craves more and more and MORE, to our great detriment. Less but Better would cure a host of ills.

Instead: Less more, more Better.

Our Hope for Architecture in our Community

By 2050, there will be 9 billion human beings on Earth.

We offer these thoughts:

All human activity should result in the enrichment of all life in the all the world.  We should change our mindset from consumption to creative cohabitation.

All buildings should be composed of materials that are beneficial to the well-being of their occupants, harvested in ways that help restore habitats and ecosystems.  When materials must be replaced or removed from a building, either by obsolescence or by choice, they should be returned to the community for re-use as a valuable asset.

All buildings should produce more energy than they use, returning the surplus to the community for its beneficial use.

All buildings should collect and purify water for the benefit of the users of the buildings and their sites.  Any surplus water leaving the site should be clean enough to drink and be returned to the community in a form and manner that is beneficial to the community.

All buildings should manage their own waste, whether liquid, solid or gaseous, in such a manner that everything of value is used up in its entirety or returned to the community for its beneficial use.

All buildings should be good neighbors to their communities, wherever they may be, enriching the lives of all inhabitants regardless of status.

Expansion of the built environment into open space should stop.  Our monetary efforts with respect to where people live and work should be focused on reviving and improving our communities and re-building, improving, and re-inventing our infrastructure.  People should live together with clean air and water, peace and quiet, without disease, in places that nourish their bodies and minds.

These are not new ideas.  But we should make them our new goals… then work together to achieve them.