Architects = Special Agents of Reconciliation
As an architect from Alabama with strong ties to Auburn, John Hudson who runs 100 Fold Studio draws a lot of inspiration from Sam Mockbee and Rural Studio. While I was out in Montana this past summer, many of our lectures hit on this aspect of critical regionalism that runs through the veins of projects such as Mockbee's. Interestingly enough, we had our own version of rural studio... Summer Studio in Lakeside, Montana. Our project started simple enough, almost too simple: Design a 6x8 shed for Lakeside Community Garden. Let's just say it's difficult for 20+ designers to try to design something as small as a shed that could be purchased at Lowes.
As the design progressed, we hoped to buy ourselves some more space by expanding the footprint of the shed outside the fence boundary where we were designing the shed. To do this, we needed to get the approval of another party... the church board that actually owned the land this garden was on. In trying to get our design past this quasi "review board", we learned that the leadership of the garden team had apparently not been communicating with the church in the past few years. While the church loved our design, they were sharply opposed to where we wanted to build the shed in the garden as it would interfere with the church's front elevation as you approached the site. But the church told us that we could build whatever we wanted on the north side of the garden. They also shared that their main concern was with the garden fence that was an eyesore and in disrepair. Mind you... at this point in time we are a week out from building said 6x8 shed design.
Long story short, as architects do, we redesigned the whole thing at the last minute, and our design evolved into a 50'x8' garden storage arbor and an additional 250' of new fencing for the rest of the garden. You do the math on how much more work we took on...
My point in this story is that as architects, we became this "middle man" between the community garden leadership and their landowners, the church. While this can be the most debilitating thing for design, it can actually be used to respond in ways that are healing or restorative. Our little design team got to act as agents of reconciliation between two parties that didn't even know how to communicate. As a result, every single party got more than they bargained for in the best way along with a beautiful piece of architecture perfectly designed for the place that it's in.
Sydney,
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experience in DesignBuild last semester, and found myself feeling like I needed to work on being a good architect in a group. It's hard juggling all those feelings and thoughts towards design.
I think being the mediator, thus taking yourself out of the situation is a great GROUP design skill that is necessary, especially in these community-based projects.
I think this is such a great story for many reasons, but I especially like how you point out that sometimes the architect becomes the "middle man". While this is easier to recognize in a situation such as this with two parties present, I think that in every architectural intervention this is true. Even without two neighboring, and conflicting, parties there is always some negation that the architect is the middle man for. This could be between two communities, a government, developer, etc, or even something such a main constraint such as climate, flooding, or history of a site.
ReplyDeleteSydney,
ReplyDeleteYour story does a great job of explaining some of the many problems architects face – even during seemingly “small” projects. I was once told by a mentor that the most important task of an architect is to act as a mediator. I truly thought it was a joke until I started to gain more real-world experience! It’s funny to think that design comes second to facilitating conversations between two or more parties. But as explained by Samuel Mockbee, we are public servants – and sometimes that means acting as the middleman between our clients and our community.