I don’t tweet or do Facebook. I use a computer for email and searches but not for design. I walk around the office giving out pens and saying, “Try that, you might like it.” You should conceive and sketch first. Architects get seduced by wild shapes designed on a computer and build these things whether they work or not in the environment. That’s the danger of computers: There’s a facility about them that allows you to do charming, seductive things that have no deeper meaning. — nytimes.com
32 Comments
I could not agree more, parametricism has not brought about any greater connection between the public and the built environment (that's meant to serve them) but has done well to widen the gap between the public and its buildings as well as the public and architects. Moshe's words are a warning if anything...
lol. new york times out-does itself again. next he'll be telling kids to get off his lawn like all the other old senile people. lots of other good useless click-bait to rile up the folks here if they read the link.
good on him for winning the aia gold medal though. he's got a lot of great projects under his belt.
Unless of course you conceive architecture in your mind and then this whole conversation becomes futile..........whatever.
that is the warning? give me a fucking break. smut.
The tool influences the work. It always has and always will. Just because a new tool allows you to do something that couldn't easily be done before does not mean that it is a good thing. Tools always have limitations, often in unintended ways.
Because we can is never a good reason to do anything.
What he does not understand, is that the new generation of kids thinks completely differently. I consider myself of the older generation - I always need to draw a quick sketch to understand what to model. But I have seen younger people that have no need to draw that sketch
For a second I thought Miles was calling Safdie a tool......since Miles is usually being cynical I just assumed that was what he was saying, ha
same ole got it.
The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.
Hand drawings can be just as deceptive. Good architects think beyond the medium; bad architects suck no matter what their tools.
I think Gehry said much the same thing somewhere in explaining the sloppiness of his sketches.
Congrats Moshe!
Once again, I'm just here to make sure we all recognize and appreciate Safdie's awesome mustache. These lumbersexuals running around Brooklyn should be ashamed.
I wonder if Mr. Wright (FLW) would say the same caution as Moshe Safdie said about computers if still alive. Guess only those who were at Taliesin during that time and still around today might be able to give an insight regarding computer application.
Would hope he would have honor computers as a tool for quick viewing an analysis of his ideas or visions.
lumbersexuals
lol Donna that's great!
Personally, I cant imagine how anyone can bypass the sketching phases and jump into the computer. It seems really strange and counter productive to me. Sketching allows for many many quick drafts...If one skips that phase and invests too much time into the first draft the project could never evolve at a fast enough rate into something that has any integrity. There is only so much time.. a virus evolves faster than an elephant simply because they can squeeze thousands upon thousands of generations into a 50 year time frame whereas elephants can only fit one or two...We have only months to design....time is very limited...many quick iterations seems to get the project closer to something "good"......
To jla-x I don't wish to be obstanant but the purpose of butter paper sketching is to think on paper and how ideas go together or influence other thoughts. So what's so different with using the electrontic tool. Bad sketching on paper go into trash! Electrontic design can easily be altered and then one has a design that can be detailed quickly for client observation, altered or changed. One has then the beginning of construction drawings. To use your words, "time is very limited.
I guess everyone keeps forgetting we have Brains! jla-X
See you imagine the architecture, you walk-thru it in your head, move the layouts around, etc...and then when you feel like it - you go into production.
I agree Olaf, the premise is kind of weird. and to be honest i dont believe him. what architect would pass up opportunities to understand a design simply because the medium is seductive (whatever that even means).
Its like getting pissed at stephen hawking for relying on a computer instead of pencil and paper to do some math. Misses the point entirely about.... well, everything doesnt it?
oh and donna lumbersexual is awesome term! never heard it before. describes every male in my family growing up.
I can't take credit for coining it, I read it in the NYTimes or somesuch.
Are you more lumbersexual if you build with a table saw or a CNC machine, presuming you are brewing a strong IPA concurrently?
"So what's so different with using the electrontic tool. Bad sketching on paper go into trash! Electrontic design can easily be altered and then one has a design that can be detailed quickly for client observation,"
I think you just answered your question. The computer makes things undeveloped look so finished that one is tempted to continue modifying it while the underlying premise might be faulty. It seduces one into thinking you have it all figured out. Plus, I'd challenge anyone to come up with as many permutations on the computer as one can sketch out, and I mean content. No one is rejecting the computer, but those who reject the sketch are probably horrible at it.
Well Olaf you don't have to worry about your artisan plaid flannel shirt and suspenders getting ripped if they get caught in the CNC machine, so I'm thinking that's the more lumbersexual path.
ok, so i started making my own beer because i like drinking beer and got pissed off that so many american beer companies sold to foreign investors. i might have more of an inclination towards learning how to make things myself than a lot of people have too.
but i decided to kind of focus on pale ales rather than ipa's. i just don't really need to feed more hops into the beer and don't need the development of more acidic hops. my beer isn't going to sit in a boat being shipped from england to india. i'ts not going to warmer climates or anything, it's just going to sit in a frigde until i turn it into pee. i know it's not a popular decision, but in the end it's beer that i'm going to be drinking.
do i lose my street cred for shying away from the ipa, or am i actually more counter-culture for going a more traditional route?
I certainly don't reject the art of sketching design ideas on butter paper but many paper sketches are so ambiguous and subject to many interpretations. They can be numerous and many are worthless but look nice. Wonder if that's a reflection of the style of today's Architecture. Will admit creating a design on computers today takes a bit longer but if software was as I wish I could produce a far better presentation of ones concept. On computers one could select elements they like as a composite drawing rather than start over on another butter paper sketch.
I wonder if Mr. Wright ever put on butter paper a sketch. Guess only those who were at Taliesin during that time and still around today might be able to give an insight regarding sketching. What I have seen are deliberate, fully consider, not impulsive drawings he put together that are far better than the nice looking rendering chicken scratches so many designers produce.
I think of the story of FallingWater where Mr. Wright sat down at the drafting table just hours before client presentation and put together that design.
I wonder if Mr. Wright ever put on butter paper a sketch. Guess only those who were at Taliesin during that time and still around today might be able to give an insight regarding sketching. What I have seen are deliberate, fully consider, not impulsive drawings he put together that are far better than the nice looking rendering chicken scratches so many designers produce.
I think of the story of FallingWater where Mr. Wright sat down at the drafting table just hours before client presentation and put together that design.
curt, what's your facial hair status? We can't offer an opinion on your street cred until we know.
ya, i quit shaving a few years back
i have a beard :(
To what activity do you devote the most time: grooming your beard, or sterilizing your beer bottles?
i keg. saves sooooo much time over bottling. in general, grooming is probably ahead of sterilizing, and there is still a lot of sterilizing of all the other stuff.
a Lumbersexual is a delicate tri-blend of L.L. Bean, Timberlake, and Sears
the calculated look of "ruggedness" and hetero-normative "manliness"
Another imaginary sector identified as a marketing target. Appearances are everything. Be careful not to break a nail.
You should do trappist ale........the reason every hobby brewer brews IPAs is because they all taste like shit and it's near impossible to tell a good IPA from a bad one. And like Curtkram pointed out,it was made in the first place for shipping not for a better tasting beer.
I brewed a batch of pumpkin ale this past october that was just delicious.
Does that make you a brewsexual?
Block this user
Are you sure you want to block this user and hide all related comments throughout the site?
Archinect
This is your first comment on Archinect. Your comment will be visible once approved.