ARCHITECTURE IS CONTINGENT Architecture is a largely untapped medium for exploring the potential of human interactions and contributing to the texture of the urban world around us. While there is an art to making architecture, architecture is not art. Art is inexpensive, quick to make, materially simplistic, and answers to nobody. Architecture, on the other hand, is expensive, takes time to make, is complex, and answers to everyone. It is contingent upon a wide swath of information, forces, and flows. While it is formal in nature, it is impregnated with and layered upon by dozens of systems that ideally work together in a harmonic assemblage. Architectural knowledge should be used to make social and spatial sense.
ARCHITECTURE IS SHAPED BY ITS LIMITATIONS Economics, site, context, budget, labor, available materials, and sustainability are just a few of the constraints that affect architecture through the process from beginning to end. Architecture should leverage its various constraints in an effort to subvert, seduce, transgress, and wow those that rely upon it every day. Otherwise, they are just dumb buildings.
THERE IS AN ART TO ARCHITECTURE Architecture has taken many things from the world of art, including stylistic movements & studio culture. However, buildings are designed to accommodate & protect human life while simultaneously representing their culture & values, good or bad. Buildings should not be reduced to objects of adoration alone, nor should such an exercise be exalted as it diminishes the potential depth and breadth of good architecture. As the author and educator Thomas Fisher suggests, we should consider architecture to be a performative art that enlists a large group of highly talented & knowledgeable people to produce it for the benefit of many.
ARCHITECTURE IS A BUSINESS Traditionally architects have seen themselves as painters or sculptors, but they would do better to align themselves with doctors and lawyers. The amount of schooling, complexity, and dependency upon clients is far removed from the self-interest of contemplative and often misunderstood starving artists. Architects must recognize their value and work collectively to raise the tide for both themselves, and their peers, rather than constantly driving down costs through petty competition to the benefit of everyone but themselves.
ARCHITECTS MUST SHIELD THE PUBLIC While there was a time when the state was the architect's biggest client, private interests in a world of finance capitalism now hold sway. They must recognize their unique opportunity to stand as the voice of reason and ethics to the most self-interested of their clients. And be willing to walk away when maximum returns are elevated above the public good. If the community agrees, and detractors shunned, change is inevitable.
ARCHITECTURE IS A SPECTRUM Rather than suggest that architecture is a limited to a particular caliber of building designed by some misunderstood savant, my friend and former colleague Andrew Gale once suggested to me that something becomes architecture when it "enters into the conversation." Not every building will be the Taj Mahal, nor should it be, but that doesn't mean that it is not or should not be a part of the conversation. Let's be clear, some buildings are simply more beautiful and/or more considered than others, but architecture is a spectrum that encompasses a wide range of built work by both humble builders and starchitects alike.
ARCHITECTURE IS NOT LINEAR The napkin sketch that results in a skyscraper is a silly notion at best. Buildings are complicated, and the path to produce it does is not linear or rigid. From conception to construction & through its multiple life cycles, architecture is never static.
THERE IS NO "I" IN T-E-A-M Architecture is not produced by a single individual with a magic pen and matching cape. There are far too many things that must be considered, decided upon, coordinated, drawn, tested, and revisited before it's all over. This takes an army of persistent and organized individuals and their collaborators to cross the finish line. Even the worst office building in history had no less than half a dozen people involved in its conception. Now think about a good one.
PERFECTION IS A SILLY NOTION There is no such thing as a perfect piece of architecture. Architecture is a physical manifestation of a problem, or rather a series of problems at a given point in time. In order to "solve" the problem, decisions must be made in an established order of priority. Prioritization implies limitations. Not every problem will be solved, and even if they could be, these problems will change over time. Architecture is a 'wicked problem'.
TIME NEVER STOPS Much to the chagrin of architects, time never stops. As soon as a building is built, it begins falling apart. Over the course of a building life cycle, a substantial portion of the building will be incrementally replaced. This means that we architects have an obligation to consider the building after it is completed. We must consider how to extend the life of the building, and anticipate ways to facilitate both maintenance and upgrades. Why? Because building and operating a building accounts for nearly half of gross annual carbon emissions worldwide. Sustainability is not building new LEED buildings, it's sustaining the buildings we have, and adapting them as needed.
CLIENTS AND USERS ARE RARELY THE SAME Compared to art, architecture is expensive. Few architects have patrons; most have clients. However clients, are not necessarily the end users. Despite the codependent relationship between architects and their clients, architects must keep the end users in mind. This is the only way to facilitate actual use, reduce waste, and give back to our fellow humans in a truly meaningful way that is devoid of ego & vanity.
THE WORLD IS CHANGING Making typological assumptions about what your office, your house, or your roof deck should be before you have examined how you live and work in this rapidly changing society is a mistake. Just because your parents or friends live and work one way doesn't mean you must follow suit. Design should work for you, not against you.
A GOOD ARCHITECT IS ON YOUR SIDE Spending hours watching HGTV or tagging a thousand images on Pinterest may sound like a great idea when you decide to embark on a new project, but it will only lead to confusion and disappointment. It is good to have an idea of what types of things you are drawn to, but expecting an architect to stitch them all together into a monster is ill-advised. We are all familiar with stories of vain and narcissistic architects convincing you of things you don't want, don't need, or can't afford. This is a practice of yesteryear, and any good architect today knows that the best architecture is produced with the end user and the budget in mind. Architects have an ability to absorb, sort, and use what works and what doesn't to make a cohesive design for the program you have agreed upon. It's what they go to bed thinking about at night, so try not to suffocate them and let them do their job.
ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE SUSTAINABLE According to the World Economic Forum, buildings represent 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 28% in operational emissions and 11% in building materials and construction. Global building floorspace is projected to double by 2060, but only 3% of new construction investment is green. And the renovation rate for existing buildings is under 1%. As the saying goes, when your only tool is a hammer then every problem looks like a nail. This is the confirmation bias of an architect who sees a building, "green" or otherwise, as the solution to every client's problem. And Insanity is repeating the same mistakes and expecting different results. Sometimes the answer to the problem is not necessarily another carbon emitting structure but something altogether different. Sustainable architecture is using design thinking to avoid driving yet another nail into earth's coffin.
ARCHITECTS MUST ZOOM OUT It is all-too-common practice for architects to design a building and walk away as soon as they are complete with no useful data collection or knowledge transfer. There is no post-occupancy evaluation, no confirmation that the building performs as it was intended or in ways suitable to the end users, no maintenance plan, no operating budget, no staffing guidance, and no life-cycle capital improvement projections. Useful data is simply not captured and transferred from one project to the next. This has led to a secondary market of architects whose sole job is to clean up the messes of their predecessors. Architects must zoom out and see the longue duree of their work, and stop reinventing the wheel every time they start a project.
ARCHITECTS MUST COLLABORATE Architects pride themselves on absorbing large amounts of information and synthesizing it to solve problems. While this is an incredibly useful skill, it can also lead to overzealousness & arrogance. Architects must check their ego at the door for the sake of a better project and admit ignorance. Collaborating with others who are specialists in their own respective fields, not to mention the end users, will lead to more effective solutions. This includes, for example: the receptionist, the janitor, the general contractor, the plumber, the art handler, and the engineer.
ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE CONTEMPORARY We do not leave the house in powdered wigs or platform shoes anymore. Not only is it impractical, it is out of step with the times. Architecture should reflect the society and lifestyle in which we live, not serve as a nostalgia machine. It should reflect the advancements in materials, technology, communications, and engineering. It is only by moving forward that we can head into the future.
ARCHITECTURE IS NOT LIMITED TO BUILDINGS Architecture is a door to the world of design all around us. This includes not just "machines for living" but the guts of those machines, as well as the larger urban context in which they reside. The color and material of the couch is as important as the placement of the windows, the type of shower head in the bathroom, or the relationship to the street. All things must be considered.
