“creativity
has taken command and it’s on steroids”
Evidence
is abundant. World-wide, construction is
booming. In Los Angeles, the Wilshire
Grand Center; transformation of the L.A. River; big plans for the Los Angeles
County Art Museum; a boom in multifamily housing; the emerging tech center in
Culver City; and an ever-expanding transit system.
Clients
want an architect on crazy jobs. We’re
leading a design team replacing HVAC units in aging schools and another team
installing a VoIP system in the headquarters of a major utility. And we’re helping a local city develop and
integrate their infrastructure and facility data into an easily accessible
form. Why don’t they just hire
engineers? Clients recognize an
architect’s leadership skills and ability to synthesize complex problems.
New
Materials and Robotics – Have you seen this months’ Metropolis (April 2014)? Consider
this quote from page 16: “Though few of
us attempt to dive into the cultural tsunami we’re riding, we feel this massive
wave raging and roiling around us. It’s
sweeping through every aspect of our lives….”
You can expect a real shake up in new materials and fabrication
techniques in the near future. You know
about 3D printing, and you realize we won’t be printing whole buildings. Andreas Froech, designer-technologist, has
linked robotic fabrication and architecture.
Working with architects, they are designing amazing new forms (see “Blobwall”
by L.A. architect Greg Lynn and architect Clive Wilkinson’s “Superdesk”, a
1,100 foot long working surface). At
Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, experts are exploring
nanotech materials that could self-assemble.
World-wide
Challenges
– Here comes the “downer”. Did you hear
that Habitat for Humanity is in bankruptcy?
That will be fixed, but globally we face seemingly insurmountable
problems. A raging religious war in the
Middle East. The widening gap between
rich and poor and the shrinking middle class.
Extreme poverty. Global
warming. Rising oceans and water
shortages in the west. Yesterday I heard
that one-third of the fresh water globally is consumed by the dairy and beef
industries. Yikes!
Ethics,
Architects, and Our Future – At last, our
profession is talking about ethics. See Architect, February 2015. The Harvard
Graduate School of Design is requiring an ethics class for architecture
students. Architects share obligations
with other professionals: “Do no harm,
pursue fairness in every engagement, behave appropriately” (page 41). But beyond that, don’t designers face a
dilemma each day as our clients tell us what they want? Their wishes may not be right socially,
environmentally, etc. We are given a
choice – do we take the job and take the money?
So What? – Good news. There’s
a huge need for designer–architects. A couple of suggestions: 1) in your incredibly busy life, take time to
ponder and think big; 2) consider what
you can do to begin to solve our global problems by starting locally. Do you know about Public Architecture’s 1%
Program? It’s pro bono service, giving back to those in need for 1% of your
annual work hours. That’s just 20 hours
a year. Embrace this program and you may
discover how great the rewards are by helping others.
