Category Archives: Design and Life

I Am Not Going To Be An Architect.

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by Ragon DickardArchitect Student

I have spent the past three years of my life studying architecture. Three years of pretending that “I’m definitely not going to need to pull an all-nighter tonight.” Three years of gluing tiny paper columns to tiny paper buildings, clicking through Archdaily articles, and wondering how many imaginary people should realistically be hanging out in imaginary gathering spaces. Three years of hard work, hard study, and wait-I-forgot-my-physical models, and I am not going to be an Architect.

That’s right, I will be getting my undergraduate degree in architecture and, unless something drastic happens, am not going to be an architect… or an interior designer, an urban planner, or a sustainability consultant. During the long schooling process, I made the very important discovery that I am not interested in pursuing a career in this field. The building arts field just doesn’t light my fire, and it hasn’t from the start. And that’s okay, I desperately tell myself as I hear students anxiously comparing internship applications and grad school plans. It’s okay if at any point, now or in the future, you find that you are straying from the path of the building arts, because you’ve collected some pretty valuable tools along the way. An architecture education provides much deeper skills than just designing and presenting buildings.

“Less is more,” is one of the first architectural concepts taught in Intro to Architecture, and is one of the furthest reaching. The phrase has grown so well known that it precedes even the person who uttered it. Recognizing the value of minimalism allows us to design buildings that are more practical, economical, and (at least right now) more stylish. Beyond design, the concept of minimalism can be applied to how we work, by teaching us to put more effort into fewer concepts. It is the idea of quality over quantity, which is easily translatable to a variety of fields of work. It is also a lesson in how to live our lives. Fewer distractions mean greater speed, concentration, and quality of work. Fewer, more significant possessions means less room needed to store them, less money going to corporate giants, less items filling landfills in the future, and greater appreciation of what possessions remain. Minimalism stems from design and feeds into allowing us to be better, faster, and happier contributors to the world.

“We do not design in a vacuum” has been constantly reiterated throughout my architectural education. I have learned through the process of designing buildings and spaces that there are forces beyond myself that effect me and that I am in turn affecting. Not only do we need to be aware of ways that we can manipulate design to serve a purpose of whatever kind, but we learn to be aware of our unintended consequences on the world through design, art, and action. We need to be aware that our courtyard designs could discourage crime, strengthen a community and get people to stop and smell the roses, but they can also direct polluted water to the ocean, encourage social stratifications, or eliminate an animal’s habitat. This lesson stretches beyond architectural design to our everyday lives, we find that everything we do has an immediate and not-so-immediate effect on other people, other animals, and becomes a part of history. Architectural design has taught me to educate myself on my effect on the world so that I can strive for as positive an impact as possible.

“Nothing you do should be arbitrary,” is told to architecture students constantly through their schooling. Their instructors are repeatedly asking “Why?” Why is your building shaped that way? Why is it facing that way? Why did you choose that material? If the answer is “I don’t know,” or “I didn’t really think about it,” then you’ve done yourself and your design a disservice. Every choice made in architecture is a very expensive, and potentially dangerous, choice. So building arts students are pushed to consider every facet of their designs and to be able to manipulate those facets to create a comprehensive whole. Even outside of the field, the ability to objectively question your choices and analyze their impact on the whole work is indispensible. It’s what makes great works of literature so successful; every detail serves a greater purpose in the story. It’s a skill used in business, painting, songwriting, branding, and editing. If the details are sloppy and inconsistent, the whole does not have the desired effect. Learning to design a successful building is learning to create a relatable overall experience through manipulation of details.

“Do more than just architecture,” does not mean to me to do “architecture with a capital A” or include elements of other building arts fields in my design work. Doing more than just architecture means that all art forms are linked. It means that architecture becomes a space to highlight the sound of music, to make a painting shine, or to frame a dancer’s gliding pirouette. It means that powerful films like Metropolis look to monumentality in architecture as a means of representing the social striations of the imagined future. It means that Frank Lloyd Wright did not just design homes and office buildings but also chairs, door knobs, and patterns. To study architecture is to learn a multi-purpose design process that can apply to any creative field, art or otherwise.

I majored in architecture, and now I can feel my life drifting down a different path. But I’m not a failure, and I haven’t wasted four years. Yes, I was obviously taught very building arts specific skills and knowledge, like how HVAC systems work, the nominal and actual sizes of lumber, and which way egress doors should definitely not be drawn (swinging in.) Maybe this information will be useful outside of the field, or maybe not. But an architectural education also teaches more unique skills than just general art and design, although I have learned InDesign, hand sketching, and the value of craftsmanship. More general than just buildings, more specific than just art, getting a degree in Architecture has provided me with a unique understanding of the world around me and how I affect it. So don’t be disappointed or afraid if you feel yourself desiring to become an entrepreneur, filmmaker, politician, or dog/emu trainer. It’s all a part of the journey.

And you’ll definitely never forget to draw your north arrow.

Ragon Dickard is a terrific Senior at the SCAD School of Architecture. (Architecture lost her, but the world wins her. SCAD says, “You’re welcome, World.”)

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.

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.