Title Deed by Ante Liu (Part of the ASAP exhibit)

Please take a moment to read it, and more importantly, the dialog afterward. This is a relatively heated topic, with strong opinions on both sides, but I’d be interested in hearing what non-architects thoughts are on the subject.

Architecture, to me, is an art and more. It’s not merely a service, hence the bar for becoming a licensed professional is so high and takes as long as it does… With that said, architects need to work on how we’re perceived by the general public, in terms of what value we bring to society. Certainly we do bring things of an aesthetic value and stir up debate like other types of artists, but we also shelter and protect people and property. There isn’t, as far as I’m aware, another art field in which people’s lives are in the hands of the artist in such a literal way, and I fear that we do a historically bad job of reaching out to the rest of the public about the weight of that responsibility and the qualifications it entails.

I welcome the debate, but prefer the field of the built environment as the context for the discussion. When talking about our roles in regards to societal needs, ethics, ecology, et cetera… I find it difficult to take an architectural conversation seriously when the actual subject of the debate is not, in any direct way, related to the icons, images, or pieces included in the exhibition. That’s not to say that these artifacts aren’t related to architecture, they very clearly are, but they all seem abstracted or somehow separated from the art and science of building. With that said, I’d love the opportunity to see this exhibition in person. Who knows, maybe I’ll find myself in New York in the near future?

Thanks for reading. And in case you missed it, I was also given the recent opportunity to share a little bit over at Triangle Modernist Houses. (My short piece is directly under Chad Everhart’s.)

Update!

Great quote from Tina di Carlo showed up via the discussion post article:

I don’t advocate architecture as art … I advocate architecture and its value as part of a broader discourse, this doesn’t undermine traditional practices and it does seek to represent architects through the myriad media in which architecture is practiced. It also aims to expand architecture’s public which can — quite simply — bring work. ASAP advocates different positions within architecture, and it aims to produce as well as collect work. It is not a traditional storehouse, but an archive of practices. There can be nothing that speaks more strongly of the value of architecture as a discipline in this way. This was a position that is rooted in architecture’s own history by the way, from Miesian to MoMA. If you are going to take on a debate — which I don’t mind and in fact welcome — then at least practice responsible journalism and be sure you have a good understanding of the subject matter that you are covering.

The intention of the post was not to bash the exhibition at all, but ask a question that came up as a debate with a good friend. Still, the debate so far has been entertaining, if not productive.

East Elevation - Riverbirch Residence

The Riverbirch residence is located at 3921 Red Hawk Road. Commissioned in 2008 for Michael Hutchinson and Gerry Mauro, construction completed in 2010. Long designed the residence while working at Davenport Architecture and Design.The home was designed to maximize views of the wooded lot while simultaneously creating a private retreat.

Constructed with a combination of off-the-shelf building materials and an energy efficient building envelope, the home was built for less than $300,000. Utilizing proper passive solar orientation and a rain water collection system for irrigation, the 2,431 sq ft structure seeks to minimize its environmental impact.

Speaking of the project, Long stated “From the first meeting, it was clear that Michael and Gerry wanted to build an energy efficient, custom tailored home on a modest budget. The completed structure shows that a custom designed home is within reach for the average home buyer.”

The Hillsborough Modernist Tour, sponsored by Prime Energy Group and Hill Country Works, will take place on Saturday, August 13, from 9AM until noon. Advanced tickets are $8.95 or $12 at the door. For tickets and further information about the tour, visit Triangle Modernist Houses at http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/hbtour.

The tour was featured in the Independent Weekly, and will hopefully show up in other print publications.

Even the Center for Disease Control, has latched onto our apocalypse fixated culture. In a blog post from May of this year, they wrote on the significance of a Zombie Apocalypse in preparedness planning. Their post seeks to answer what is likely the hardest sought after question in the history of horror films:

How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?

I’m seeking to take that conversation down a slightly different road, namely, one in the context of architecture. Whether from a satirical horror/sci-fi perspective, or the more serious conversation about sustainability, it’s clear that today’s home buyer is more concerned with these issues than ever. Check it out here.

While one of the more obvious and common uses of the platform is to help musicians pay for studio time, there are also other types of creatives out there making amazing use of this tool. (I first discovered Kickstarter via a friend linking to Coffee Joulies‘ project mid-funding.)

Recently I discovered two local projects, one now funded, another still underway that are bringing cool architectural ideas to fruition right here in North Carolina:

The Leaf – Bringing Shade to Durham’s Central Park

The Leaf is a project being undertaken by a grad school design / build studio at NC State’s College of Design. The project is located in the middle of Durham’s Central Park, and will be a very cool addition to a very design-focused neighborhood.

This project was successfully funded and is under construction right now, with an expected completion later in the summer / early fall.

Wear You Live – A CityFabric Project

City Fabric - women's t shirt

Wear You Live is a project set to offer a line of figure-ground maps of different American cities, offered up by CityFabric. In addition to being a nice fashion statement and a clever play on words, this project proposes aims to spark a dialog about the spaces we live in, and what makes that urban fabric so important.

This project is currently taking backers and is about halfway to their goal.

A CityFabric Exhibition

A key to making the KickStarter projects successful, is offering incentives for folks to back a project. Some projects have more straightforward incentives (copies of a book, or album), but in the case of an architectural project, things are a little more difficult. Both of these projects include t-shirts enabling an backer to show off their support around town, but I’d like to see a more direct connection between the goal of such a project, and the reward.

Obviously a person can’t just give away a building… Or can they?

The majority of respondents live in single family homes, and own those homes.

The number of individuals in the home varied, and the square footage varied widely as well.  Ranging from 450 square feet to just over 3000 square feet. With the average square foot per person varying between 250 square feet per person, to 2600 square feet per person.

What’s most telling, I think, about the survey is how those square footages, and square footages per person, translated into feelings about the size of ones home. In short? There was very little correlation.

The majority of individuals, about 72%, felt that their home was either just right, or even too big. This is in seeming contrast with the boom-time mindset of bigger-is-always-better. There is an unfortunate tendency in the business of real estate and home building to focus on square footage primarily, rather than quality of construction, energy efficiency, or livability.

Certainly there is a ‘bottom’ level of house size that the average consumer is comfortable with, but what my small survey seems to indicate, is that there is a lot of flexibility in that bottom. Even suggesting that the average person can be content at just about any size.

A lot of folks surveyed, haven’t even considered buying a new home in recent years.

Of those individuals, even less have considered hiring an architect to design a custom home for them.

A myriad of reasons were offered, the ‘other’ answer consisted largely of individuals who themselves were architect (selection bias I suppose) and specific individual reasons relating to income, neighborhood, etc. Immediately following that concern, was the feeling that “I don’t think I can afford to hire an architect.”

Having worked on several very small house projects, directly with a trusted builder, on a modest budget, I can say for certain that a lot more folks can afford to have an architect involved in the process than they think. I think question really isn’t whether or not one can afford an architect, it’s whether the perceived cost / benefit makes the cost worthwhile.

Clearly there is a disconnect with the general public over just what architects do, how much we cost, and what the benefit of hiring an architect is… I, for one, am doing everything that I can to change that.

This survey brought me a lot of useful data, and I thank everyone who took the time to fill it out! I hope to do additional surveys & giveaways in the future. Any suggestions on questions, topics, or gift items are more than welcome!