ARCHITECTURE IS CONTINGENT Architecture is a medium for exploring the potential of human interactions and contributing to the texture of our built environment. While there is an art to making architecture, architecture is not art in the traditional sense. It is a public performance art that you live and work within. Traditional Art is relatively inexpensive, faster to make, materially simplistic, and answers to nobody. Architecture, on the other hand, is expensive, can take years to make, is highly complex with many moving parts, 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 rules, regulations, and systems that ideally work together in a harmonic assemblage. All architecture is contingent, but not all architecture is a result of that embrace.
ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE SHAPED BY ITS LIMITATIONS Economics, site, context, budget, labor, insurance, climate, and available materials are just a few of the constraints that affect the production and performance of architecture from beginning to end. Architecture should see constraints as opportunities 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 borrowed many things from the artworld, 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 superficial exercise be exalted as it diminishes the potential depth and breadth inherent in the medium of architecture. We should consider architecture to be a performance art that enlists a large group of highly talented & knowledgeable people to produce it for the benefit of many. Let's put on a show.
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 patrons & 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, who are rarely the end users of the architecture in question. And, they must be willing to walk away when maximum returns are elevated above and byond 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, 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 them is not linear or rigid. At least not for the ones that will meet the needs of their users and stick around for the next generation. Design is iterative. Think obliquely.
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 a dozen people involved in its conception. Now think about the kind of teamwork it takes to make a good one. Check your ego at the door.
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 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. From conception to construction & through its multiple life cycles, architecture is never static. It remains in flux as needs, culture, and technology progress. Over the course of a single 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 constructed, because it will never be "complete." We must consider how to extend the life of the building, and anticipate ways to facilitate both maintenance and upgrades by baking in flexibility and deconstructablity. Charles Darwin once said "It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change." The same is true of buildings.
CLIENTS AND USERS ARE RARELY THE SAME Architecture is expensive, so those non architect-developers must rely upon outside funding to realize a project. 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. Buildings are completed through their use; not before.
THE WORLD IS CHANGING Making typological assumptions about what your house, your office, and/or your local library 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 will follow suit. Design should work for you, not against you, and be express the spirit of our time.
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 know what 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 that makes sense. It's what they go to bed thinking about at night, so try not to suffocate them and let them do their job.
ARCHITECTURE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE According to the World Economic Forum and The US Green Building Counsel, buildings represent 39% of global greenhouse gas emissions, including 28% in operational emissions and 11% in building materials and construction. Despite the fact that these figures include CO2 emissions from electric power plants, essentially doubling what buildings use in fossil fuels for heating, cooling, lighting, and heating water, 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," as the only solution to every client's problem. Unfortunately, we can't solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. More than likely, the answer to the problem is not another carbon emitting structure but something altogether different. Sustainability is not building new "green or LEED buildings," it's sustaining the buildings we have, and adapting them as needed because more buildings means more carbon emissions. This type of sustainable architecture is using design thinking to avoid driving yet another nail into earth's coffin. Get to the root of the problem and consider asset improvements and adaptive reuse over new ground-up construction whenever feasible. Architect's must be a good steward to our planet.
ARCHITECTS MUST COLLECT DATA It is all-too-common practice for architects to design a building and walk away as soon as they are complete with no collection of useful data 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. Critical 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. Drawing from the ethos of vernacular architecture, what works and doesn't work must be captured and carried over to trigger adaptation and evolution of good ideas in built form over time from real information.
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 outsiders who are specialists in their own respective fields, not to mention the end users, will lead to more effective solutions. This includes, among others, the receptionist, janitor, general contractor, plumber, art handler, barista, clerk, and the engineer.
EVERYTHING IS A REMIX In the world of design, there is an obsession with originality. The "cult of the new" enraptures young architects much to our detriment. In the search of the new & novel, more extreme and impractical architectural absurdisms are being envisioned despite their high costs, unsustainability, and extremely impractical nature. If architects would look to other disciplines, like music for example, the would see that immersing yourself in history and building upon the lessons of the past incrementally makes for better buildings. As Kirby Ferguson says, the Elements of Creativity are Copy, Transform, & Combine.
USE THE BEST IDEAS There are no shortage of ideas out there, but the best ones tend to come from the trench, not from the top brass. They are from those of us taking fire; the operators who see the moving parts on a daily basis. Once should not be concerned with the source of a good idea, whether it's a janitor, a Board President, or a seasoned designer. Good ideas are good ideas, but they should be pitted against one another and battle to the death. Only the best ideas should prevail, regardless of where they come from.
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, and design can be applied to everything.
