if rem was more details oriented, i think his big picture stuff would look and weather/last significantly better.

that being said, i lean more to the details side of things, and find more enjoyment in that world.

i wish to be a big picture architect with detail oriented partners/staff.;.)
however, usually, you already are either one and can't 'be' the other. commonly, architecture is about having a healthy dosage of both.
also, what is your understanding or definition of detail? sometimes treatment of a whole city block can be a detail.

Renzo is good at "detail" but his architecture has a big picture, too.
Baudrillard even thought that the Pompidou is the most contemporary architecture philosophically. Whenever visiting his architecture, there are always something surprising.

I agree with Holz's opinion. If Rem concerns a little bit more about how building to be assembled and what his building would be after construction, his architecture would become much more significant.

He is a Genius and some of his building are really surprising. However, his theory wouldn't last long but his architecture could if he concerns about more his architecture than whimsical political theories and images.

if you are working right now, you will do whatever they have you doing, if you ever want to be licensed you should strive to be more than just a detail and big picture architect, you have no choice if you want to be good.

i should add;
"sometimes treatment of a whole city block can be a detail and sometimes the curtain wall becomes the big picture." bah, big words..
but yes, i agree with above, be both and much more. if you can, that is..

design thoughtfully regardless of scale

My issue with detail oriented architecture is that the building industry has built in specifications that make misalignments and centering of differing trades acceptable. Its frustrating to accept it and I know all of you will say that details should be developed to take account these tolerances but when items are supposed to be aligned there isn't much you can do with reveals, etc to hide acceptable tolerances. I guess if you are on the detail side of architecture you're setting yourself up for disappointment and eventual depression.

You need to line things up man..

Tell that to the contractor building the detail who needs to get their subs to rip out their work at their own cost.

know your audience. high end contractors = high quality detailing. low end contractors = bonehead detailing. site, owner, budget, tolerances, materials, climate, contractors. just one more thing to consider in the design.

The problem is that even high end contractors have tolerances they work with and ones expectation is even higher to achieve perfection.

are inevitable. Try your best to avoid them whenever possible, but sooner or later, they will happen.

actually this is the better one imho

http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=65965_0_42_0_C

le bossman, that was a great thread.

justyell:"The problem is that even high end contractors have tolerances they work with...
...like rem considering the construction tolerances built into the building industry?
... I know all of you will say that details should be developed to take account these tolerances..."

What's with the obsession with tolerances? Installation tolerances have nothing to do with good detailing practices. Tolerances are there because sometimes designing everything to 1/64th of an inch is not realistic or economic.

who need tolerances when we've got these beauties?

Rustystuds is right.

SketchUp, by default, only designs to a 1/16th of an inch.

And my Mexican day laborers are only accurate to 3" depending on the time of day and how many cervezas they've had.

LOL @ tagalog.

I was just about to say the same thing! Who needs accuracy when you have trim and veneer!

acute angles seldom work....it is a bitch to swing a hammer in a tight space

so you're a flipper celles couillies? or a GC? though not sure what the difference is. If you pay enough i'll perform a 1/16" tolerance, though when you speak of that kind of accuracy i hope you are talking about mill work, and not something else. Otherwise if you are a cheap bastard, i wont even get close to a 3" accuracy.

Neither. I gave up drafting and designin'. I'm not cool enough to do either!

I am a bit of a details person though. I'm a little Mies, a little Foster and a touch of FAT.

Basically thoroughly boring and orthogonal. A good detail can really break up a whole lot of boring.

simplicity is hard..... angular isn't......

I know your mom is easy and she isn't angular either! Quiet robust, actually!

Both.

Le bossman. I know mistakes happen but it seems we as architects lose in the construction period. If we make a mistake we ave to pay them. If the contractors make a mistake we ultimately pay since often the client withholds payment instead of tearing things out to stay on schedule and we don't get our design intent. It is very frustrating.

All architect's fault actually. It's noone else's problem that architect often use up their entire fee before construction administration even kicks off. You have so many tools at your disposal to ensure quality control. Sometimes shit still happens, but most construction errors are preventable.

honestly, we are painting with such a broad brush here that i don't even know how to have this conversation. i've worked on projects that came out exactly as i envisioned them, others not so much. this may or may not have had anything to do with the quality of the design, or the construction work. you just have to keep your head up and know that for every time something doesn't come out the way you wanted it to, on another day it will be even better. if your drawings are tight and to code, and the paper trail is appropriately documented for all of the life and safety issues, then you should sleep easy. it sounds to me like you are just frustrated by a project you are working on. personally, i could never see tearing something out for anything other than a life-safety issue. move on and do the next project better.

I love figuring out details and working out construction issues during CA. The technical and CA people end up having a huge influence on what the final product looks like.

If you just learn to embrace imperfections and develop smart details that account for the way materials actually behave and age, and if you take into consideration the fact that human hands are putting all the materials together, you save yourself a lot of aggravation and you end up enjoying your work a lot more. I lot of the architects I have worked with have ideas about how something should look like, but I can tell that they have no clue how the stuff actually comes together.

And forget it... I can't work with "designers." Design is not something that can be taught or learned. Not everyone has the capacity to design, regardless of how many "design" degrees you have confered upon you or how many projects you have under your belt. Design ability is an innate quality, in my opinion; you either get it or you don't... but that's a conversation best left for another thread.