jack of all trades......
"Working on 'how' without rigorous control of 'why' inevitably excludes reality from the planning process."
I agree with what Andrew said in class. We relate extremely well to answering the 'why?' because of the way our minds have been developed in school.
The 'why' is vital, essential, anchors the project and generates it's purpose and success. A building that ignores its context, culture, history or user group is a failure. A building can be designed through a exhaustive 'how' process yet if you could pick the building up and place it on another site I believe it is a failure. We have the unique position as architects of creating a built environment that will be occupied by people....real people that will generate real memories.
It blows me away (and frustrates me) that we are so heavily involved in nearly every discipline when designing because our creation has that much impact. To be successful it needs to be that involved. It needs to answer every 'why'. We are translators. Architects are required to be "jack of all trades" and master of all.
I agree with what Andrew said in class. We relate extremely well to answering the 'why?' because of the way our minds have been developed in school.
The 'why' is vital, essential, anchors the project and generates it's purpose and success. A building that ignores its context, culture, history or user group is a failure. A building can be designed through a exhaustive 'how' process yet if you could pick the building up and place it on another site I believe it is a failure. We have the unique position as architects of creating a built environment that will be occupied by people....real people that will generate real memories.
It blows me away (and frustrates me) that we are so heavily involved in nearly every discipline when designing because our creation has that much impact. To be successful it needs to be that involved. It needs to answer every 'why'. We are translators. Architects are required to be "jack of all trades" and master of all.
I think it requires a balance of how and why. "Why" for the very reasons that you stated, if we aren't involved in the process of the community and not taking the time to hear, respect and understand the context that we are working in, the project will fall flat. As for the "how" I can't help but think of the TEDtalk for this week and how most things fall under the umbrella of common sense.
ReplyDelete"We are translators"
ReplyDeleteI like this a lot. Especially after reading Andrew's 'designing for the deaf'.
It's the perfect metaphor for the battlefield we deploy ourselves to so often known as client meetings.
I wouldn't go as far as saying it is a failure, but a building that doesn't respond to it's surroundings does lack the architectural understanding that we strive for in our education. I believe good architectural techniques are able to stretch across many different environments but is also able to adapt certain aspects to respond to the environment to create a cohesive building.
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