What to Expect When You Have Absolutely No Clue

My first initial reaction to the IKEA disobedience installation was a mixture of confusion and interest.  At first it just seemed like a lot going on with no real rhyme or reason to it.  The fact that Andres Jacque just took a bunch of IKEA furniture and used it in complete opposite ways than how it was intentioned to be used is an interested concept.  I think it underlines the fact that we can never really tell what is going to happen to our architecture after it is finished.  We have no clue what the clients will do with the spaces; how they’ll decorate, if they decide to tear things out or add all kinds of ugly rugs and furniture.  The truth of the matter is, we can control it at all, so this begs the question, why even try?  This may have seemed like a foreign concept to the modernist, but it is a very real thing that needs to be dealt with in design.  How are people going to use things in unintended ways, and how and why would you want to stop them?  It’s an interesting thing that I like to think about sometimes, people are going to do what they want regardless, so why not give people freedom to do what they are going to want to do anyways and see what the result is?  Sometimes it’s fun to just start the beginning of a story but don’t give it an end, just suggest and see where it takes the idea.

Comments

  1. I think the bigger idea here is that the success of architecture is that in it the users feel comfort in the everyday of the architecture, enough that they feel as though they have the right to make the place their own. Often you find failures when years after construction, the building seems cold and under utilized.

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  2. You brought up some of the same questions that came into my head after reading about the ikea installation... we never truly know how the spaces we design will function and be used. We as architects need to be mindful and maybe think about designing in more of a universal way, but ultimately that is out of our control... I guess it is fun a way to see how others understand your spaces.

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  3. I really liked your post Aaron. I began thinking while reading your post about flexibility in architecture. Maybe there is a technique or design strategy that we can take that will allow for our designs to become more adaptable as they age. Then the project begins to invite the owners of the home to add to the design as they wish?

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