Conflict With Reality
How much time do we spend thinking about the parti of our projects? What's the idea? Why? It all seems very conceptual. We spend so much time discussing the philosophy of architecture, we leave very little time for the realities of architecture. How do you turn a corner? How does the balance of this facade feel? Are these columns visually too small for the big box on top? We do not even ask these architectural questions any more. It feels more a like a game of justification. If you have a strong narrative, you have a strong design we are taught. That is not true. Narrative = talk. Design has to walk.
We need to wrestle with reality. Reality is an over-broad term, let's reduce it. Off the top of my head, here are five things we don't articulate very often when discussing projects: water intrusion (the biggest liability for architects), code (biggest safety issue), weathering, future uses, and aesthetics - beauty. Water and code, both extremely important, seem to have been left to the firms to teach. I guess that works.
Weathering is something that we should really think more about. How will our buildings look in five, ten, twenty years? What sort of maintenance are we expecting? Will our white always be white? Will the blank canvas of our concrete just be a blank wall for years, until it finally starts cracking around the edges, with black splotches growing on random locations.
Future uses are something rarely considered, but maybe that works. After all, some of the oldest buildings in the world still maintain their original uses. If people like a building enough, they will keep it.
The last point, aesthetics, is a highly controversial one. I argue (parroting others) that the aesthetic experience is real, somewhat measurable, and somewhat consistent across human (even accounting for taste). Aesthetics is the heart of architecture. If you a design a super cool building that functions super well, with net-zero carbon, passive cooling, green energy, yadda yadda yadda buzzwords, but it is ugly, you have failed as an architect (but succeeded as an engineer!).
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| example of the reality of the aesthetic. building facades need to be organized. They need hierarchy and order, openings and texture. |
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| the unbearable monotony of modernity |
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| my favorite philosopher |
Recommendations:
I highly recommend British philosopher Roger Scruton. This is a long video, but possibly worth at least skimming through.
Aesthetics of Architecture by Roger Scruton
Anything by Christopher Alexander.
A Theory of Architecture by Nikos Salingaros
Architecture: Choice or Fate by Leon Krier
You know what? I agree with basically everything in this post, and that Kanye lecture at Oxford is loaded with great quotes. Not that I agree with all of those, but it's a fun ride for sure. Also, your middle image showing the sort of evolution/devolution of luxury brand logos is interesting because I feel like it kind of brings up opposite questions about the modernization/anonymousation(?) of these kind of storied, exclusive products. On the one hand, should they not evolve? Fashion changes, after all. On the other hand, if you're all going to evolve into sort of the same typeface then where's the identity? And on the third hand there's a die-a-mond encrusted piece (ba dum tss)
ReplyDeleteInteresting post Lee. I thought you touched on a lot of good topics... I liked when you said "Narrative = talk. Design has to walk." This is something I feel like I have been trying to find the balance between all of grad school. Half the time I feel like I design a building first, get it to work and function efficiently, etc. and then I'm like oh shit I need to make up a story about how I got to this to "back up" my design or its invalid. Anyways I could go on about that, but I agree that we often brush off the nitty gritty aspect of architectural design for the sake of an interesting narrative.
ReplyDeleteAnd not gonna lie, that first picture you put of the buildings I looked at the Georgian home. I wish I hadn't because I feel like that means you proved your point, but it use true the one on the left, the glass facade, is at a bad angle, doesn't really have anything extraordinary going on with it so it wasn't as appealing at first glance.
Kanye's quote... I feel that honestly; that could be talking about anything these days really. Okay I'm done thx.
This is a comprehensive call for architects' engagement with reality! Just a bit on the aesthetics you mentioned: although tastes divide from people to people, the feeling of being touched and moved by a building is inherently universal. Aesthetic experience as the enlightening and elevating effect is shared. Architecture is about uncovering universal aesthetic experiences from divided tastes.
ReplyDeleteLoved this post - one thing that really got me was the evolution of logos and the typeface they are changing to. This bring me back to sustainability and the topic of trends and fads. If something is trendy (to me) it is unsustainable. If it is mean to be be a fab - it wont be a fab in a month and it will be tossed or thrown away. I think we need to think of the buildings we design like this, like the fashion industry which has crumpled over the past year. We need to make sure we are taking the 'minimalist' approach seen in fashion. Making sure we spend our money on high quality items (buildings) that may cost more but last x100 longer than the trendy cheap building that will have to be re-skinned, re-roofed and gutted in 5 years to 'keep up with the times'.
ReplyDeleteThinking about architecture and fashion in the way Marissa describes is very interesting. I think the timeline of architecture fabs are a little longer then the fabs we see within fashion and style, but buildings also last much longer and impact the world significantly. Design of buildings should try to avoid being luxury and start satisfying the basic needs of the occupant.
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