Reality vs Ideology

 

Architects have an expertise in design and showing clients what they need, even though they may not know it yet.  This is something that schools strive to teach us when we are students.  We are responsible for a lot.  Designing something functional, that is appealing, sometimes in a given budget, and that structurally and mechanically works.  

While personally I love the challenge of checking all the boxes on a given list, while expanding the list with certain things I think would enhance the design, sometimes it is hard to stay within the realm of reality when our limitless ideas take precedent.  In architecture school, and in most studios in particular, this doesn’t matter.  Sure, in a review they may question you if your structure appears to be totally unfathomable, but overall most studios do not task you with designing the full construction document set.  This leads me to the quote below:     

“Architectural firms of course manage to live with the conflict between ideology and reality.  They could not be in business otherwise.  But while they do, they often are apologetic for compromising the ideals learned in their student days and often repeated in professional discussions and by critics of architecture.  Caught in the tension between self image and reality, they lack an intellectual support system that only schools can provide.” – Habraken, Questions That Will Not Go Away (p. 16)

I absolutely agree!  Even though students (for the most part) understand the fine line of studio projects (where all of the logistics may not be worked out) and real world projects (where every little detail matters), it is totally different when working for a firm.  It may take three years to develop a full project working under a firm, where you did the same scale in school in three months.  While I feel like timing isn’t necessarily the main issue, coming up with a feasible design early on while progressing it throughout the process leads to less headache, stress, and ultimately better time management.  Designs (more or less) begin in the schematic design phase.  In school, this is where we can get all of our ideas out on the table and really focus on an awesome design with really no boundaries before ironing out some of the details.  In the real world, if we use the schematic design phase to design an awesome building with no boundaries, then present it to clients who love it, and later find out it doesn’t work, that just kills time.  Obviously, this is just one minor point to my argument, however I really feel like having studios that focused on the reality of design would be much more beneficial.  For example, maybe one studio requires the student to design the whole structural system.  The next studio requires the student to design with the mechanical system in mind and that works.  I am a big advocate that classes should work in tandem with studio projects.  (Like this semester).     

On the opposing end, I do love the endless, creative juices that flow in studio.  The chance to design without limitations essentially really allows students to push themselves and come up with some amazing projects.  However, in my opinion, this could still happen with the use of implementing problems faced in a real architectural firm in the studio project.  

Below is an image of an impossible piece of architecture (left) and a really cool piece of architecture that was actually built in NYC (Stairway to Nowhere - right), that is extremely creative, but works in reality as well.

VS   

I have truly learned more than I could have ever imagined in my time at Clemson.  So, I do not think that Clemson, or the studios, are an issue at all.  I just think there are little aspects of reality in an architecture firm that could be added to studio to enhance them even more.  I really do respect the distinct differences of an educational architecture degree, and the career of an architect in a firm, but would love to see more of a coinciding relationship between the two.  

Image Sources: 

Ideology: https://www.ft.com/content/7fc0f074-f16a-11e8-9623-d7f9881e729f       

Reality: https://weburbanist.com/2019/04/03/stairway-to-nowhere-behind-the-hate-for-nycs-new-hudson-yards-vessel/