Monthly Archives: May 2015

Practice, Practice, Practice! … Architecture and Music

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by Thomas Hoffman, PE

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It was suggested that I write something about the similarities between music and engineering/architecture. At first I was going to write about rhythm, intervals, phrasing and mathematical similarities. However, that has all been done before. That led me to the old question: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Getting to Carnegie Hall represents the pinnacle of a career in the music profession. Same with architects and engineers – how do you get to the pinnacle of your profession? Practice, practice, practice. Do you get it right the first time? No. Do you get it right the 100th time? Perhaps not. But after you do get it right, do you stop practicing? No. That’s when you REALLY have to practice. So here is my completely different list of similarities between music and engineering/architecture:

Performance. Image is everything. When you meet a client, you don’t go in cold. You must warm up and have practiced what you are going to do and say. Everything you present has to be first class — it has to look as good as it sounds, just like a live musical performance. As with any live performance, it doesn’t always go as planned. Being proficient with your skills allows you to improvise through those unexpected times until it all gets back on track.

Practice. Don’t just practice until you get it right — practice DOING it right. Don’t stop after you do something correctly the first time. You don’t just go on stage and play; you have to practice. It’s the same with a presentation to a client to get that big job or when designing a building. You have to practice. You may spend weeks or months practicing and fine tuning a 30-minute presentation. When you finally give that perfect presentation to the client, that feeling is almost reward enough.

Focus, Concentration and Planning. Even as things are happening around you, you need to maintain your concentration and stay focused on the task at hand. This does not mean you should do only one thing at a time; just don’t get distracted. Keep everything moving — don’t stop playing because you dropped a drumstick. Have another one ready, pick it up and keep on going; plan for it. People are depending on you. If you stop, it will have a chain reaction and everything else will come to a stop.

Harmony. Work together, in harmony, like an orchestra or band. The architect is usually the leader of the design process — the front man, everyone else plays a supporting role, but make sure you don’t play through their solos. Sometimes it is not how well you play, but how well you play with others. Working well with other is the key to the longevity of your career.

Stay away from long, complex, incomprehensible or overly intricate words or phrases. You can get an amazing solo from just one note; it just depends on how you play it.

And in closing, another old saying: “If it were easy, everyone would be doing it”.  It is not easy!

Tom Hoffman, PE  is a professor of architecture at SCAD [www.scad.edu] and a rockin’ drummer.

SCAD ARCH Rock Stars: Fernando Munilla

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FernandoMadridbyLauren

If only we could all be as cool as Professor Munilla….

by Marilyn Armstrong

Professor Fernando Munilla joined SCAD at the urging of his wife, who had heard that SCAD had an architecture program. At the time, Fernando was working with a firm in Statesboro and had never even considered teaching. He was, however, mentoring a draftsman at the company and soon realized that teaching was, indeed, one of his strong suits. He applied, interviewed and started in 1988, where his first architecture department meeting included a whopping five professors, including the chair. We’re fortunate that he made this decision; Fernando’s list of former students includes the likes of Christian Sottile, dean of the School of Building Arts, and professors Scott Singeisen, Anthony Cissell and Craig Clements. Teaching at SCAD, Fernando likes helping students develop their design ideas and credits his favorite professor, the late Olivio Ferrari at Virginia Tech, as his academic hero.

He remembers when architecture shared Henry Hall (now Eckburg Hall) with the painting program and having to navigate his way through the painters’ studios to get to the architecture spaces. With no NAAB to be concerned with back then, planning each quarter’s classes and lectures was done at the chair’s home over goldfish and beer. Fernando remembers early tours of Eichberg Hall, when prospective students wanted to see the computers. SCAD led the way, he says, with implementing the latest in technology and hiring faculty who were tech-savvy, giving us an edge over other colleges and universities.

Fernando lived in Queens, New York, until he was 12 and then his family moved to Miami, Florida. He recalls the New York World’s Fair and that he could walk to it, which he did almost every day. His fascination with the unusual buildings and the General Motors exhibit Futurama sparked his interest in architecture. With science and math among his favorite courses in high school, he was already looking toward architecture, though he didn’t know it at the time. He liked his architectural drafting course, especially working with the graphics and symbols. (Keep in mind, back then, there was no AutoCAD and all was done by hand.) He went on to complete a B.A. in design at the University of Florida and then his M.Arch. at Virginia Tech.

With 27 years of being a familiar face around campus, you’d think we knew all there is to know about Fernando Munilla, but did you know that he owns guns and that he likes Willie Nelson? When asked about the guns, he assured me that he shoots only at targets made specifically for that purpose! Whether he’s listening to Willie while he shoots, though, is unknown.

Fernando is looking forward to his retirement and seeing the country with his wife, a retired professor of marketing at Georgia Southern. A fan of western movies, he hopes to visit some of the locations where his favorites like True Grit and High Noon were shot and to see Mount Rushmore. Fernando will also get to spend more time with their three children and especially his granddaughter.

The fun stuff

If you were a rock star, what would you insist on having in the green room before a performance? Green tea, Hostess Ding Dongs and Shania Twain

Who are your three fantasy dinner guests? Jimmy Stewart, Le Corbusier (Charles-Édouard Jeanneret-Gris) and my maternal grandfather, who died before I was born

What can you not leave home without? My keys!

What are you really bad at? Ty#%ping!!!

What are you really good at? Explaining things in ways that people can understand

  • Your favorites —
    • Color: Royal Blue
    • Food: Anything with rice
    • Animal: Dog
    • Book: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
    • Movie: North by Northwest

Hypothesis: Finding the Silver Lining

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Emads SpiralBy Emad M. Afifi, D. Arch.

Noun: hypothesis; plural noun: hypotheses

  1. a supposition or proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.
  2. a proposition made as a basis for reasoning, without any assumption of its truth.

We live in a world that wants or pretends to be customized for individual needs. We fall in love with i-this, i-that, My this, and My that. But, fact of the matter is: the digital age has put us all in a programmable mode of existence. The choices are many but are hardly unique or precisely yours! We must follow the procedure, click here or there, drag-and-drop, don’t go back, etc… We got so excited when we became able to zoom-in and zoom-out, touch the screen, swipe, and watch the computer gene respond with all of its might.

Let’s now zoom-in for specific examples. Many of us have tried a custom designed exercise routine, diet, or any other program only to find out that it does not work very well, not for you. We try again and profess that “change is good”. Success often becomes a mirage on the horizon, or a short-lived experience that dissolves in the face of the next temptation or serious challenge. We search the web, again and again. Constant change is sometimes done just for the sake of change; it becomes an escape and an alternative to genuine creativity and a real custom-designed solution. But we often see no problem, we just keep trying… harder. And, while this is a natural part of life that we call “trial-and-error”, it should not be the norm or one’s way of life. We can do much better than that.

The silver lining to this information age is buried underneath the tremendous wealth of knowledge offered freely on the Internet. We can learn from and share with one another all of our unfiltered experiences and know-hows. Yet, we need to recognize the fact that there will be the good, the bad, and the so-so! We need to figure out how to pick and choose, how to weed it all out and how to craft our own individual solutions. Then, methodically test, observe results, and reach conclusions as to what works and what does not work—for you!

In a way, this is the modern day version of the good old collective or “conventional wisdom” humans developed over generations in all cultures, usually in a specific social, economic, and environmental context. But now that most of these conditions we have in common are dissolving in a global melting pot, we need to re-discover individuality in a more meaningful way. In a way, the art of living becomes similar to seeking various design solutions to a common design studio project or assignment. Solutions are all different but they all should be good, viable, and meaningful; some will be excellent or outstanding but there is not necessarily one optimum solution to seek or to emulate or to negate all others.

What is missing and needed for the new “i-age” as I will call it, is the first thing a serious scientific researcher needs to start with—a plausible hypothesis that is specific to each individual or situation, and that addresses exactly what matters to the individual or entity involved. Then we need a possible solution or a carefully crafted set of solutions. Then we can proceed with systematic implementation and observation, then a conclusion: what works and what does not work—for you, not for the entire universe!

This takes patience and perseverance. But, over time, it will build up to individual wisdom. I will call it the “i-Learn” or “i-Wise” approach. Isn’t this what life is all about?

Emad M. Afifi, D. Arch. is a professor of architecture at SCAD.