Last semester I really enjoyed doing this "sustainable design" stuff, architecture for the poor, the affordable, the minimalist... Well this semester my new professor "killed" any will to continue my dream. He said, "everybody can do a box, and you can do a box, you can do affordable, you can do it all, but then, who needs you?" And this question is stuck in my head!!! Its making me do all this crazy stuff now, that stuff that has no meaning, that stuff that is just glueing trapezoids together, and making it look cute, and then when u have the form u just plug in your rooms, make a floor plan... I was completely against this... Now, its just like I am making it for the professor, for his approval, not for my approval... Everything because of this question: "then, who needs you?" Now I feel like I just wanna get done with this class, just finish it, do some crap, and be done.......
Think Tadao Ando's Church of the Light......
Simple concrete box imbued with spiritual beauty.
It is not so much about whether you should do a box or not. It is about what you put in that box.
i would choose Tadao Ando over santiago calatrava any day.
oh and there arnt enough architects/people concerned with sustainable design and low income housing and such. It's not because a house is cheap and for the poor that it should be a boring and uncomfortable. think of Le Corbusier's "habitation de Marseille" simple shapes but facinating spaces.
if i were you i would say the hell with my grade and do the designs i want.
everybody can make a blob too..or any other shape.
If the prof askes: "then, who needs you?" the answer is simple: he (or she) does, you are paying their wage and make them feel important.
Just follow your own path.
who needs you? the majority of the world. how many ppl do starchitects like gerhy or hadid help? not many. and for that matter, who do they help? typically, those that do not need help.
no doubt. you make a mistake with a simple box and everyone will notice. you make a mistake on a coop project, it has the possibility of looking like just part of the chaos.
Basicly good design wins out. Whether is a great box or soem formal thing. Look to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and japan to see what good design is. Form is great and Calatrava's expressive structures are wonderful because they are done well. Still making a great box or even box-based idea doesn't mean it has to be simple. Good wins everytime. SO do what you want and force the professor to work with you on it. It is your education not his.
Your lecturer/professor was/is probably just down with architecture, don't let him get you down, view the whole thing as an intellectual and academic challenge. Then maybe one day, you can go out and help somebody.
The problem is that he doesnt want me to do anything that has "order", because i think Calatrava, Steven Holl, and even Zaha Hadid's structures are ordered. That is what I am trying to understand, and not just blow it up, and make my design based on number of accidents (then it will never be finished, it will have unlimited possibilities, I will just call it, just like all other students call it: "this is my design, and the concept is: CHAOS"!). I don't believe in architecture as a mistake. So what if we have the materials to make it a mess, I still believe in Greek design, you can call me old fashioned, but I don't care.
And I don't mean we should just copy Greeks and Romans, but I think that we should be our own Greeks and Romans, and our age, think like them, but build like us, and what is neccessary, and not, NOT MAKE AN ACCIDENT!
I'd say serving the client and fufilling the purpose of the building is a priority over anything else. If you can do it the simplest and most affordable way, I would consider it a success. Screw the prof.
Maybe the professor is trying to 'widen your horizons', so to speak. It is very easy sometimes to get caught up in your own thoughts and ideas, not actually thinking beyond the stuff you have already done.
Try and glue the trapezoids in a interesting way - Id suggest you to have an open mind and make HIS method as interesting to you as possible - you will learn a lot. If it does not work out, go back to your original thoughts.
Of course I am a believer in the powers of innovation and thats why im saying this.
Just remember, school is the best time to be playing around with ideas and experimenting with new things - so yes as steph says, just loosen up a bit.
well first you gotta tell him you're doing architecture, not boxes. then you tell him if everyone can "do" "boxes" (second pair of air quotes at your discretion) then we have a very low threshold for architecture because we got some really fucked up boxes out there and you can't just put the homeless in the menil collection. then you tell him that architecture needs you, and you can shove the romantic hero shit up your visionary ass, i don't need no damned trapezoids to make me us our space...but...more chilled than that
if it's just one semester, screw it and glue trapezoids.
wow.. i really appreciate the response from all you! I thought about it and maybe you guys are right, maybe I should loosen up a bit and try something new. I think I expect too much from the professor, maybe it is his way of teaching...thank you all! you are the best!
Choice or No choice?
Last semester I really enjoyed doing this "sustainable design" stuff, architecture for the poor, the affordable, the minimalist... Well this semester my new professor "killed" any will to continue my dream. He said, "everybody can do a box, and you can do a box, you can do affordable, you can do it all, but then, who needs you?" And this question is stuck in my head!!! Its making me do all this crazy stuff now, that stuff that has no meaning, that stuff that is just glueing trapezoids together, and making it look cute, and then when u have the form u just plug in your rooms, make a floor plan... I was completely against this... Now, its just like I am making it for the professor, for his approval, not for my approval... Everything because of this question: "then, who needs you?" Now I feel like I just wanna get done with this class, just finish it, do some crap, and be done.......
Can anybody answer that question, please??
"you can do a box, but then who needs you?"
a good box is hard to do
Think Tadao Ando's Church of the Light......
Simple concrete box imbued with spiritual beauty.
It is not so much about whether you should do a box or not. It is about what you put in that box.
I love that building
"everybody can glue trapezoids together, and you can glue trapezoids together, but then, who needs you?"
i vote for the box too...
i would choose Tadao Ando over santiago calatrava any day.
oh and there arnt enough architects/people concerned with sustainable design and low income housing and such. It's not because a house is cheap and for the poor that it should be a boring and uncomfortable. think of Le Corbusier's "habitation de Marseille" simple shapes but facinating spaces.
if i were you i would say the hell with my grade and do the designs i want.
everybody can make a blob too..or any other shape.
If the prof askes: "then, who needs you?" the answer is simple: he (or she) does, you are paying their wage and make them feel important.
Just follow your own path.
What is your project?
who needs you? the majority of the world. how many ppl do starchitects like gerhy or hadid help? not many. and for that matter, who do they help? typically, those that do not need help.
A simple box, well designed like Ando's, is more difficult to accomplish than a clusterf.... of forms.
"it better to be good than to be diffrent" mies
no doubt. you make a mistake with a simple box and everyone will notice. you make a mistake on a coop project, it has the possibility of looking like just part of the chaos.
Basicly good design wins out. Whether is a great box or soem formal thing. Look to Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Netherlands and japan to see what good design is. Form is great and Calatrava's expressive structures are wonderful because they are done well. Still making a great box or even box-based idea doesn't mean it has to be simple. Good wins everytime. SO do what you want and force the professor to work with you on it. It is your education not his.
Your lecturer/professor was/is probably just down with architecture, don't let him get you down, view the whole thing as an intellectual and academic challenge. Then maybe one day, you can go out and help somebody.
Otherwise why do anything at all?
"everybody can do a box, and you can do a box, you can do affordable, you can do it all, but then, who needs you?"
Indeed.
The problem is that he doesnt want me to do anything that has "order", because i think Calatrava, Steven Holl, and even Zaha Hadid's structures are ordered. That is what I am trying to understand, and not just blow it up, and make my design based on number of accidents (then it will never be finished, it will have unlimited possibilities, I will just call it, just like all other students call it: "this is my design, and the concept is: CHAOS"!). I don't believe in architecture as a mistake. So what if we have the materials to make it a mess, I still believe in Greek design, you can call me old fashioned, but I don't care.
And I don't mean we should just copy Greeks and Romans, but I think that we should be our own Greeks and Romans, and our age, think like them, but build like us, and what is neccessary, and not, NOT MAKE AN ACCIDENT!
maybe your prof. just wants you to loosen up a little.
I'd say serving the client and fufilling the purpose of the building is a priority over anything else. If you can do it the simplest and most affordable way, I would consider it a success. Screw the prof.
at your studio desk, put up pics of your favorite boxes... barcelona pavillion, the menil collection, something by herzog & de meuron, etc...
He might be trying to bust your chops. Trying to make you think in a way your not comfortable with. PLAY HIM. It could be interesting.
let me try and be the devil's advocate here:
Maybe the professor is trying to 'widen your horizons', so to speak. It is very easy sometimes to get caught up in your own thoughts and ideas, not actually thinking beyond the stuff you have already done.
Try and glue the trapezoids in a interesting way - Id suggest you to have an open mind and make HIS method as interesting to you as possible - you will learn a lot. If it does not work out, go back to your original thoughts.
Of course I am a believer in the powers of innovation and thats why im saying this.
Just remember, school is the best time to be playing around with ideas and experimenting with new things - so yes as steph says, just loosen up a bit.
well first you gotta tell him you're doing architecture, not boxes. then you tell him if everyone can "do" "boxes" (second pair of air quotes at your discretion) then we have a very low threshold for architecture because we got some really fucked up boxes out there and you can't just put the homeless in the menil collection. then you tell him that architecture needs you, and you can shove the romantic hero shit up your visionary ass, i don't need no damned trapezoids to make me us our space...but...more chilled than that
if it's just one semester, screw it and glue trapezoids.
even in chaos there is order. (you can read up on the Chaos Theory it's interesting stuff!)
actually in retrospect, it also depends on the project, no???
if you are doing 'lo-cost architecture for the homeless; for a art museum, might not be the best idea
but if the program warrants it, then why not try and explore????
im over-generalizing, but im sure you get what i mean
Oh, are you taking Advanced Trapezoidal Gluing this semester? I took that. As well as a semester of Boxes for Poor People.
If either of you are caught up in only one way of doing architecture you both need each other. I say argue, give and take, and grow.
wow.. i really appreciate the response from all you! I thought about it and maybe you guys are right, maybe I should loosen up a bit and try something new. I think I expect too much from the professor, maybe it is his way of teaching...thank you all! you are the best!
Long live the new orthoganality. Down with the old new heteromorphology.
Seriously - god bless the box. Self-important hacks tend towards the trapezoid.
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