We create beautiful architecture, yet we work, live and study in dumps. There isn't any other profession where what you sell isn't what you consume. Try finding a dentist with rotten teeth or an Apple employee with a Samsung Galaxy S6.
hah Pete you have a point. if it was not for my wife and kids i would live in a studio apartment with a matress and stacks of books.....maybe we can not commit to spaces to live in because we spend our days imaging better spaces? what was that movie with Keanu Reeves maybe, deconstruction architect, in the 90's - he could never finish his apartment....
after living a life of squalor, leaving your family, dying in a train station bathroom alone and leaving a legacy of the some of the finest built work in modern history. yay! architecture!
Environments need to be designed to accommodate the activities to take place within them. Architecture is kind of messy with models and glue and papers flying around. The need for space and light is more important than polished marble counter tops and walls made out of some expensive shinny stuff. Architectural studios are a small step back from the mess and chaos an art studio might have. All of those fancy shinny surfaces in the school of dentistry would be destroyed in a few weeks if the space were handed over to architecture students. Also remember that you have a dedicated studio space that is as large if not larger than a typical office, and all of the support spaces like shops and printing labs. The spaces in a school of dentistry are much smaller per student and the labs and classrooms are shared between many students. It takes more square feet of building to educate an artist or architect than it does a dentist or business major and that is why they often have nicer looking buildings. Also their alumni have more money to give to their schools.
As for the studio space, it's alright for it to be a bit messy and industrial feeling, it's a place of creation and innovation after all. However it should at least be adequate and safe. My architecture studios were in a 60s modernist building that had some character, but the building was so inadequate for the program's needs that one studio was taught in the basement. They had to purchase electric space heaters since most of the heat was lost through the single pane glass. Across the hall they had practice rooms for the music program so you got tired of hearing the scales over and over again.
the biggest irony is not how we live and work, it's what we do after we leave school, bent over backwards to please developers and make a buck out of something we don't really like and would have never passed a studio examination.
I was at a meeting a few weeks back where the client and builder were discussing their landscaping costs for their private residences. $80k, $100K, $400K...
Don’t think it’s consequential for the average architect, but for principals it is important to buy what you sell…think the dentists teeth is a good analogy. In my 48 years since deciding to be an architect in a market area of about 2 million I can count on one hand the number of architects that lived in architecture…and those that did were wildly successful.
In my first job I had to draw 75 iterations of a kitchen for a high value client, one of the sponsors for the kitchen was Miele. Each kitchen was a minimum of 100k GBP ranging to 250k GBP. This was for a interior designer, fuck interior designers.
Carrera, of those wildly successful architects that lived in architecture, which came first; the wild success, or the architecture to live in? Did one the success allow for the ability to purchase the architecture, or did the architecture somehow contribute to the success?
marketing: if you have a client (residential or otherwise) that you an invite to dinner in a house that you designed you are going to get the job (unless you suck).
credibility: if you have enough money to live in architecture with a capital A (drive a fancy car, have a rolex, etc.) and can talk about finances on that level with potential clients, it makes you seem more credible. Rich people want to hang with other rich people because they have common interests and can relate.
^ Chigurh, would you invest your 401k with a guy who drove an old Ford? Isn’t logical.
^^^ Everyday, didn't know all 6 personally (thinking of 6 now) so can only speak of 4, 2 built very early and used the houses socially to make connections & grow, the 3rd lived in a Mies townhouse mid-career and did likewise, the 4th built mid-career and didn’t get a chance to because his wife kicked his ass out 2 years after it was built. So no, the houses mostly came first….for a reason.
3 of the 6 were my partners, the count doesn’t count me…think using a house to subtly promote is more important than owning it…speaks to what you’re all about without having to say a word.
None but 1 of the homes was anything extravagant, here is a prime example of getting it right.…just 1,700SF built in 1959 by a 35 year old struggling (sort of) architect....he lived in and promoted this thing till the day he died.
Jul 28, 16 8:25 pm ·
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The biggest irony in architecture
We create beautiful architecture, yet we work, live and study in dumps. There isn't any other profession where what you sell isn't what you consume. Try finding a dentist with rotten teeth or an Apple employee with a Samsung Galaxy S6.
hah Pete you have a point. if it was not for my wife and kids i would live in a studio apartment with a matress and stacks of books.....maybe we can not commit to spaces to live in because we spend our days imaging better spaces? what was that movie with Keanu Reeves maybe, deconstruction architect, in the 90's - he could never finish his apartment....
My house is actually nice.
Eh, whatever. I worked in science and couldn't afford the medication we were developing.
after living a life of squalor, leaving your family, dying in a train station bathroom alone and leaving a legacy of the some of the finest built work in modern history. yay! architecture!
^ was the train station at least designed by Calatrava?
^ No it was designed by Libeskind. eww
eww indeed.
Hey that's my undergrad studio!
I liked it :(
My house is great, designed and built by my friend and mentor who apprenticed with Frank Lloyd Wright in the 1950's.
^does it leak?
No, the technology exists to fix those sort of things.
my my. The times we live in.
Environments need to be designed to accommodate the activities to take place within them. Architecture is kind of messy with models and glue and papers flying around. The need for space and light is more important than polished marble counter tops and walls made out of some expensive shinny stuff. Architectural studios are a small step back from the mess and chaos an art studio might have. All of those fancy shinny surfaces in the school of dentistry would be destroyed in a few weeks if the space were handed over to architecture students. Also remember that you have a dedicated studio space that is as large if not larger than a typical office, and all of the support spaces like shops and printing labs. The spaces in a school of dentistry are much smaller per student and the labs and classrooms are shared between many students. It takes more square feet of building to educate an artist or architect than it does a dentist or business major and that is why they often have nicer looking buildings. Also their alumni have more money to give to their schools.
Over and OUT
Peter N
As for the studio space, it's alright for it to be a bit messy and industrial feeling, it's a place of creation and innovation after all. However it should at least be adequate and safe. My architecture studios were in a 60s modernist building that had some character, but the building was so inadequate for the program's needs that one studio was taught in the basement. They had to purchase electric space heaters since most of the heat was lost through the single pane glass. Across the hall they had practice rooms for the music program so you got tired of hearing the scales over and over again.
the biggest irony is not how we live and work, it's what we do after we leave school, bent over backwards to please developers and make a buck out of something we don't really like and would have never passed a studio examination.
approximate cost of my kitchen appliances: $2000.
approximate cost of client's proposed kitchen appliances: more than I make in a year. Maybe even two years.
I would live in a tent if it had a bathroom. And heat. And power... Nevermind, my house is nice.
+1 tintt
I was at a meeting a few weeks back where the client and builder were discussing their landscaping costs for their private residences. $80k, $100K, $400K...
100k 5'x8' bathroom tile...cool man.
Don’t think it’s consequential for the average architect, but for principals it is important to buy what you sell…think the dentists teeth is a good analogy. In my 48 years since deciding to be an architect in a market area of about 2 million I can count on one hand the number of architects that lived in architecture…and those that did were wildly successful.
In my first job I had to draw 75 iterations of a kitchen for a high value client, one of the sponsors for the kitchen was Miele. Each kitchen was a minimum of 100k GBP ranging to 250k GBP. This was for a interior designer, fuck interior designers.
Carrera, of those wildly successful architects that lived in architecture, which came first; the wild success, or the architecture to live in? Did one the success allow for the ability to purchase the architecture, or did the architecture somehow contribute to the success?
My place is nice though.
I'm gonna be an interior designer.
Carrera is right for a number of reasons:
marketing: if you have a client (residential or otherwise) that you an invite to dinner in a house that you designed you are going to get the job (unless you suck).
credibility: if you have enough money to live in architecture with a capital A (drive a fancy car, have a rolex, etc.) and can talk about finances on that level with potential clients, it makes you seem more credible. Rich people want to hang with other rich people because they have common interests and can relate.
You have to look successful to be successful. Not easy without a source of early capital. Inherit it, marry it, or figure out a way to borrow it.
The 600 lb gorilla in the room is Money. Most of us dont make enough to afford decent digs...
As someone famously said, we are like barbers (because they cannot cut their own hair)
^ Chigurh, would you invest your 401k with a guy who drove an old Ford? Isn’t logical.
^^^ Everyday, didn't know all 6 personally (thinking of 6 now) so can only speak of 4, 2 built very early and used the houses socially to make connections & grow, the 3rd lived in a Mies townhouse mid-career and did likewise, the 4th built mid-career and didn’t get a chance to because his wife kicked his ass out 2 years after it was built. So no, the houses mostly came first….for a reason.
3 of the 6 were my partners, the count doesn’t count me…think using a house to subtly promote is more important than owning it…speaks to what you’re all about without having to say a word.
None but 1 of the homes was anything extravagant, here is a prime example of getting it right.…just 1,700SF built in 1959 by a 35 year old struggling (sort of) architect....he lived in and promoted this thing till the day he died.
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