Rooftop ‘cacoon’: Sky Pavilion
The architectural profession and its journals, publications and prizes tend to focus on architecture’s value as built artifact. The corollary to this is that the unbuilt has less or no value, or at best that it comes in a poor second place. This binary is a consequence of a professional body of knowledge that focuses on buildings alone and that arguably misrepresents the fuller dimensions of our practice. Rather than exposing the broader knowledges that go into architectural production, it commodifies the notion of “building” as object. Consequently, what architects actually “do” at work is often undervalued by the public and there is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of an architect’s work and what it is that architects actually believe they are doing. And if architecture is diminished to a narrow bandwidth in which the labour and expertise of the architect is collapsed into three-dimensional form alone, then the two-dimensional expression of that form, as epitomized by CGI renders, is allowed to dominate. The spectacle of the architectural render becomes a lens through which our discipline is framed, arguably stripping it of all except taste and aesthetics. Worryingly, the profession often actually promotes its services using these same principles – for example, through the architectural competition and its presentation boards. Not surprisingly, the real value of architecture is therefore poorly understood and we are in danger of allowing ourselves to be represented through global architectural competitions and on redevelopment hoardings as a pure commodity.
Rather than seeing architecture from the outside as object, we need to understand it as a form of production, from within
Returning to architecture’s value and the binary of built and unbuilt, establishing our value(s) across a richer matrix of knowledge exchange and production is critical to restoring the ethical relevance of the profession. Practically speaking, it’s also timely because current existential challenges present in the climate emergency have brought forward the need for systemic change – for paradigm shifts, even – in how we use cities. Bizarrely, the current pandemic has prototyped some of these changes, including reduced mobility, the reconsideration of the workplace, the repurposing of the home, and localized and distributed production.
Ironically, reassembling a more robust architectural engagement in material production, and reasserting the role of the practitioner as a protagonist, would provide the connective ties back to the material, technical and tectonic dimensions of our environment – but this time with a clear ethical mission that allows agency and leadership in the face of challenge.
Cementing architectural patronage: Carpenter’s Square House
The architectural profession and its journals, publications and prizes tend to focus on architecture’s value as built artifact. The corollary to this is that the unbuilt has less or no value, or at best that it comes in a poor second place. This binary is a consequence of a professional body of knowledge that focuses on buildings alone and that arguably misrepresents the fuller dimensions of our practice. Rather than exposing the broader knowledges that go into architectural production, it commodifies the notion of “building” as object. Consequently, what architects actually “do” at work is often undervalued by the public and there is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of an architect’s work and what it is that architects actually believe they are doing. And if architecture is diminished to a narrow bandwidth in which the labour and expertise of the architect is collapsed into three-dimensional form alone, then the two-dimensional expression of that form, as epitomized by CGI renders, is allowed to dominate. The spectacle of the architectural render becomes a lens through which our discipline is framed, arguably stripping it of all except taste and aesthetics. Worryingly, the profession often actually promotes its services using these same principles – for example, through the architectural competition and its presentation boards. Not surprisingly, the real value of architecture is therefore poorly understood and we are in danger of allowing ourselves to be represented through global architectural competitions and on redevelopment hoardings as a pure commodity.
Rather than seeing architecture from the outside as object, we need to understand it as a form of production, from within
Returning to architecture’s value and the binary of built and unbuilt, establishing our value(s) across a richer matrix of knowledge exchange and production is critical to restoring the ethical relevance of the profession. Practically speaking, it’s also timely because current existential challenges present in the climate emergency have brought forward the need for systemic change – for paradigm shifts, even – in how we use cities. Bizarrely, the current pandemic has prototyped some of these changes, including reduced mobility, the reconsideration of the workplace, the repurposing of the home, and localized and distributed production.
Ironically, reassembling a more robust architectural engagement in material production, and reasserting the role of the practitioner as a protagonist, would provide the connective ties back to the material, technical and tectonic dimensions of our environment – but this time with a clear ethical mission that allows agency and leadership in the face of challenge.
Beyond building: Redefining architectural production
Take your time.
The fascination with architecture as built artifact eclipses the much broader expertise of the architect and establishes a misrepresentative binary of built and unbuilt. Mel Dodd discusses how we might reconsider professional and public views of architectural production.
Rather than seeing architecture from the outside as object, we need to understand it as a form of production, from within.
— Rabindranath Tagore
Breathe the world.
The architectural profession and its journals, publications and prizes tend to focus on architecture’s value as built artifact. The corollary to this is that the unbuilt has less or no value, or at best that it comes in a poor second place. This binary is a consequence of a professional body of knowledge that focuses on buildings alone and that arguably misrepresents the fuller dimensions of our practice. Rather than exposing the broader knowledges that go into architectural production, it commodifies the notion of “building” as object. Consequently, what architects actually “do” at work is often undervalued by the public and there is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of an architect’s work and what it is that architects actually believe they are doing. And if architecture is diminished to a narrow bandwidth in which the labour and expertise of the architect is collapsed into three-dimensional form alone, then the two-dimensional expression of that form, as epitomized by CGI renders, is allowed to dominate. The spectacle of the architectural render becomes a lens through which our discipline is framed, arguably stripping it of all except taste and aesthetics. Worryingly, the profession often actually promotes its services using these same principles – for example, through the architectural competition and its presentation boards. Not surprisingly, the real value of architecture is therefore poorly understood and we are in danger of allowing ourselves to be represented through global architectural competitions and on redevelopment hoardings as a pure commodity.
So what is it that architects actually do? What is this hidden unbuilt work and, more importantly, what is its impact?
Enjoy the morning.
We need to shift from a mono-dimensional view of practice that emphasizes the delivery of built form toward a multidimensional engagement in our society where architects are responsible, alongside others, for maintaining the complex, ongoing and contested ecosystems of the city. As a profession, architecture emerged in parallel with the growth of cities and we still have an enormous role to play in their sustenance, especially in light of contemporary ecological and societal challenges. Cities are more than just physical places; they are complex interconnected systems of hard and soft infrastructures, environments and ecologies, economies and services. As an interrelated matrix of “things,” cities are in constant need of maintenance, repair and attention by a network of actors and players, contractors, makers, designers, maintenance operatives and users. Architects have the opportunity to act within the wider public domain of local government planning and service policy alongside multiple stakeholders across civil society, industry, business and the public sector. Our engagement with these multiple other knowledge systems offers the possibility for great impact, relevance and innovation in sustaining equitable urban systems.
This means a focus on architects as workers, and on the skills and knowledges they hold, rather than on architecture as an abstract body of knowledge.
Free your mind.
Returning to architecture’s value and the binary of built and unbuilt, establishing our value(s) across a richer matrix of knowledge exchange and production is critical to restoring the ethical relevance of the profession. Practically speaking, it’s also timely because current existential challenges present in the climate emergency have brought forward the need for systemic change – for paradigm shifts, even – in how we use cities. Bizarrely, the current pandemic has prototyped some of these changes, including reduced mobility, the reconsideration of the workplace, the repurposing of the home, and localized and distributed production. Ironically, reassembling a more robust architectural engagement in material production, and reasserting the role of the practitioner as a protagonist, would provide the connective ties back to the material, technical and tectonic dimensions of our environment – but this time with a clear ethical mission that allows agency and leadership in the face of challenge.
Capture the Beauty of Interior through Design
The architectural profession and its journals, publications and prizes tend to focus on architecture’s value as built artifact. The corollary to this is that the unbuilt has less or no value, or at best that it comes in a poor second place. This binary is a consequence of a professional body of knowledge that focuses on buildings alone and that arguably misrepresents the fuller dimensions of our practice. Rather than exposing the broader knowledges that go into architectural production, it commodifies the notion of “building” as object. Consequently, what architects actually “do” at work is often undervalued by the public and there is a mismatch between the public’s perceptions of an architect’s work and what it is that architects actually believe they are doing. And if architecture is diminished to a narrow bandwidth in which the labour and expertise of the architect is collapsed into three-dimensional form alone, then the two-dimensional expression of that form, as epitomized by CGI renders, is allowed to dominate. The spectacle of the architectural render becomes a lens through which our discipline is framed, arguably stripping it of all except taste and aesthetics. Worryingly, the profession often actually promotes its services using these same principles – for example, through the architectural competition and its presentation boards. Not surprisingly, the real value of architecture is therefore poorly understood and we are in danger of allowing ourselves to be represented through global architectural competitions and on redevelopment hoardings as a pure commodity.
Rather than seeing architecture from the outside as object, we need to understand it as a form of production, from within
Returning to architecture’s value and the binary of built and unbuilt, establishing our value(s) across a richer matrix of knowledge exchange and production is critical to restoring the ethical relevance of the profession. Practically speaking, it’s also timely because current existential challenges present in the climate emergency have brought forward the need for systemic change – for paradigm shifts, even – in how we use cities. Bizarrely, the current pandemic has prototyped some of these changes, including reduced mobility, the reconsideration of the workplace, the repurposing of the home, and localized and distributed production.
Ironically, reassembling a more robust architectural engagement in material production, and reasserting the role of the practitioner as a protagonist, would provide the connective ties back to the material, technical and tectonic dimensions of our environment – but this time with a clear ethical mission that allows agency and leadership in the face of challenge.