Architecture is shelter. It is art and science. It is an enabler. It houses us and our stuff (too much stuff). It is responsible for about a third of the climate emissions we need to curb, worldwide. Architecture is beautiful (but by whose perception?).<\/p>\n
One of the most famous answers to the question \u201cWhat is architecture?\u201d says that architecture is like frozen music<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n I have been reflecting on this answer, and I think that it is a definition seriously out of date, a poignant statement that itself is art and thus present to make us think but not necessarily depicting truth.<\/p>\n Let’s recognize that the building is not the point at all.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n When I hear \u201cfrozen music\u201d I think of stagnancy. Too much architecture has this stagnant moment of perceived beauty due to the lovely photos and renderings with the perfect lighting quality, grown up trees and gardens all properly in bloom, and no pesky wires, fire alarm pull boxes, or errant trash. Or people, unless they are hired models. God, I hate that part most of all.<\/p>\n Give us back the living, functioning, evolving and often messy reality of buildings in real life. Make architectural photography street photography (@erik_smits_ on Instagram) instead of staged, artistic, completely stagnant, 2D compositions. Because I believe we have done the industry serious damage by marketing our sole purpose through depictions of perceived to be perfect single-moment beauty.<\/p>\n First, we have sold the building as an object,<\/strong> allowing users to divorce themselves from how the building works, and how to maintain their own comfort, health, and joy within that structure. There has been research about how pristine plastic, shiny surface, need-no-care buildings are less loved and more likely, as a result, to have a shorter service life.<\/p>\n Second, the profession (yes, I am calling you and me out, architects) has forgotten that we build buildings for people!<\/strong> I mean, yes, we build for them, but we think the building is the point. Let\u2019s recognize that the building not the point at all. It is the function, the living, the building supports that is the point, and that use, that access, must be successful in inspiring the people within to fulfill their own purposes and passions.<\/p>\n Third, we forget that a building needs to exist over time, and time can be a cruel participant.<\/strong> Time is the valued fourth dimension we MUST include. We in the design industry are all so proud of our spacial comprehension, our 3D creatives, but we need to go beyond this to evolving systems that embrace time and become 4D. Even energy modeling, though reflecting time, is a moment in time capture that gets flattened and does not often reflect the intricacies of human interactions with the building, over time.<\/p>\n Lauren Staniec and I had part of this conversation with Bill Reed of Regenesis in an S2C interview. We talked about how his beautiful library in his background on the zoom call was alive because of its history, the changing books, the idea that the shelves needed to be dusted and maybe repaired. It is truly the interactions WITH a space, a building, that create the beauty and value.<\/p>\n The video interview below is quite long, but worthy! (For the mentioned section, click in at 33:52 Participate in Aliveness.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n