Inspired by the Everyday

To me, everyday life is about the mundane tasks, about people of all walks of life coming together to live their lives, about the clashing of activities and spaces and life. As architects, we can be inspired by this clash of activities and choose to glorify it in our design or ignore it in light of what we want our design to be. I believe that the most successful spaces consider the conflict of everyday life, but are not controlled by it. In fact, architecture should create better everyday moments and interactions. What this looks like is different and unique to every place and user group. This is one of the challenges of architecture. While inspired things can happen in a room as basic and boring as a rectangular conference room, don’t we want to create spaces that inspire? Inhabitants of the space will make it what they need it to be and design should allow for this to happen without sacrificing the intention and thought put behind the original design. A lecture I attended by architect Kevin Alter has stuck with me since I heard it a few years ago. He said he felt the most successful when people’s lives were improved significantly by the architecture they inhabited, but the building itself was not the focus. Rather, it became the backdrop for their lives. 

Bunny Run Residence, alterstudio

Constant Springs Residence, alterstudio