From ILLUSTRATION we move to the LESSONS and THE ROAD AHEAD. This will compete Part 2 of this Thesis Overview and Introduction. A link to Part 3 is at the bottom of this document,

Lessons

Over 48 years of pursuing architecture I have learned some lessons. These are not necessarily to my liking but they are what they are:

lesson_1

New innovations in architecture, to become widespread and sustained, result only when there is a broad movement made up of many individuals of varied backgrounds, skill-sets and personalities; and, these individuals have to be spread over the entire spectrum of effort required to produce and appropriately use architecture. It takes a SCHOOL of architecture to sustain the energy and effort required to accomplish the number of built examples necessary to influence a society - critical mass is important. There may be a leader by which the school is known but it takes far more than any one person or lifetime to make significant and enduring change upon the social and physical landscape. [details]

lesson_2

There are windows when social change is possible. To make major pushes outside these windows is a waste of time. The best use of time between these windows is to prepare for the opportunities ahead. When windows do open, immediate, effective action is necessary for they typically stay open only for a short period of time and are intolerant of the heuristics of start up. You successfully fulfill when the need is perceived to exist or you fail. Fuller called this process Anticipatory Design Science [link]. The understanding of timing can be accomplished by practicing what I call Weak Signal Research [link]. [details]

lesson_3

The present economics of architecture work against the creation of good and sustainable work. This problem ranges from fee structures which reward the creation of more expensive work, to finance and real estate practices that bias toward turning buildings into commodities, to tax laws that punish capital investments and reward high expenses in buildings written over the long term. To make change in architecture it is a good practice to insulate yourself as much as possible from the present economics of architecture, building and development. To do effective work, you must be independent of these financial systems and processes. Great wealth can be accrued in real estate by staying away from highly leveraged financial deals which are vulnerable to boon/bust cycles. A cash basis, long term investment program in high quality, well built and managed architecture is the best way to finance a viable practice that I know of. [details]

lesson_4

To prevail in architecture requires a sustained effort. A few accomplish an early success bur rarely sustain it. Architecture is a star based system with most architects laboring in relative obscurity. On the local level, work is mostly secured by good-old-boy networks of architects, builders and property managers. Licensing practices appear to me to be designed more to protect existing architects than the public. The economic rewards for most architects are low with a few doing well with only a handful of stars making money doing the kind of work they want. There are other pressures on these stars, however, and one does not envy them. The availability of projects tends to be both erratic and cyclical and based on selection highly biased processes. This is a tough business. The production of adequate drawings and specifications is getting more difficult, technical demands are increasing and the legal liability from projects is growing exponentially greater. The forces of compromise and out-and-out cheating are as strong as any time I can recall. You have to be extremely ethical and very good at business basics to survive at all. If you can do this and keep your reputation in tact you have accomplished something. [details]

lesson_5

You have to guard against your own expectations else they will lead you false When I started out in architecture, I had not expectation that I would find myself where I am today. Yet, it is my values, decision by decision, that have lead me here. Had I a better sense of what this journey was to be like I could have better prepared myself and been able to better deal with the social and economic ups and downs. This would have helped in the realm of relationships and reduced frustrations. This is not to say that a vision of a practice is not a good thing. I may end up with that studio in San Francisco and CAMELOT sailing on the bay, yet. The path is rarely direct, however. You cannot make it happen. You follow the path and that path leads to what your vision can become. Don’t get lost in the particulars. Don’t get seduced by the attraction of a possibility. Don’t confuse dream with reality and don’t give up the dream either. [details]

lesson_6

The practice economics of architecture are such that the architect should seek business opportunities and revenue sources beyond a simple fee-for-service model. [details]

What these lessons add up to is that you have to approach the practice of architecture with a great deal of realistic self-awareness and a good plan. Historically, most serious architects have paid dearly for their accomplishments. Our society traditionally has not supported the kind of work-life style and finances required to consistently produce innovative and great architectural works. We live in a time when almost everything is a commodity including one’s home. The measure of all things has become a false and short term concept of wealth and power. Ours is not a contemplative society nor one that paticulary honors philosophy and art. However, the general increase in affluence is helping these conditions be challenged and producing an increasing social acceptance of a greater range in work-life styles. Bank financing is becoming more liberal and based less on old employment models and more on actual financial performance. Entrepreneurs are better appreciated with the occasional “failure” understood for what it is. The Internet offers tremendous tools and affordable access for getting ones work out to those specific individuals who can appreciate it. Micro markets are becoming a reality. Great architecture from the past is being preserved, ecological issues are gaining exposure and awareness about health and lifestyle is on the rise. These conditions, good and bad create an opportunity for a new voice in architecture to be heard and a new movement to be founded.

It seems to me a window is opening. If ARCHITECTURE cannot be put on the public agenda now I do not know when it can. If we do not do it now I am at a loss to see how we will escape devastating consequences.

road_ahead

The Road Ahead

The greatest challenge along the road ahead is that we have to learn to see and successfully practice architecture on a global scale and not remain practicing architecture at the scope of single buildings, sometimes complexes with some pretense at fitting them into the larger community or cityscape. At the same time, we have to embrace the true complexity of a single building, let alone its global context, and learn the science and art of facilitating the emergence of a great work. These two points mean that an entirely new approach to the practice of architecture is required and that this be performed by an entirely new set of organizational principles. As we embrace this radical increase in both the scale and scope of architecture, we have to include the entire biosphere and all plant and animal life in our program as much as we do individual human client’s and societal interests. This means we have to take an unprecedented action: as a species, refrain from doing some things just because it is expedient and that we (for now) have the power to do them. We also, no longer, can compete or bifurcate craft and manufacturing - as a means - nor, can we work in the simple material palette that is now common. We have to learn the nature of, and appropriately employ, all materials, as well as, non-material elements in the “gene pool” from which we build. We have to both broaden and employ all the form-factors of cities from the medieval village to the mega-city and the space city; all are appropriate in different circumstances and all offer an unique viewpoint and context for living a human life - these are not competing forms - they are each valuable contexts for the development of living art.

Ideally, the distinctions between nature and human-made; between fixed and mobile; between rich/privileged and poor/disenfranchised; dense and distributed; human dominated and annual/plant habitat; earth-bound and space; all, disappear. It is all architecture and each piece of it is unique and precious - each has a place and all can be integrated into an Earth as a garden and a work of art [link]. If we fail to do this, we are likely to design an Earth that is a barren rock floating in an empty space. There is, perhaps, few greater sins than trashing an entire planet and much of the life that inhabits it.

To not commit this sin we must:

To see our planet and all species upon it as a single system - and, to see this within the larger context of, at least for now, a solar system. Define the rights of all species according to their nature not merely according to the utility they provide we humans, in the short term; and, given the fact that we now have the power to destroy anything - including ourselves and our planet - develop a new set of ethical meta-goverance principles and processes [link] that can attenuate the destructive tendancies of our species. Create a planetary architecture that provides the armature which facilitates the making of a human-nature co-designed artifact that provides habitat for all living beings. Bring to critical mass an architecture which makes art by transforming the mundane and provides focus and expression to those aspects of ourselves which represents our best: the manifestation of the practical application of our highest human values and the reality of being able to experience ourselves - and all of nature - at this level of being. Create a means by which every human on this planet can participate in the great adventure of “completing” a planetary work - as art, as environment, as the tool of our own transformation to the next level of our personal and social evolution. Create new architecture practice models that eliminate the overspecialization and organizational redundancy now prevalent and which impose too much cost and time delay on projects, thus, effectively preempting affordable environments. Train a new generation of green, organic architects as the main stream, next generation producers for transforming the built environment. Research, develop and employ green technology and scale it from single dwellings to city structures to infrastructure (road, bridges, dams, power grids, mass transit, etc.). Create an economic model for architecture basted on fully loaded comprehensive life cycle costs, the true ecological impacts and real user economics. Integrate architecture, the allied engineering professions and the building professions and develop an ethical/legal/financial system that makes it possible for these professions to refuse to produce work that they know to be mediocre or bad for individual or planetary health.

There is an abundance of good architecture being done; unfortunately, it is largely ignored or not considered practical for the mass of projects under way over the globe. More unfortunately, these are, overwhelmingly, “piece work” projects - there is virtually no systemic architecture being done and the planet is in the process, by default not design, of being rapidly turned into a human artifact of the lowest common denominator [link]. There seems to be no end to the rash of franchise “architecture.”

We have to create a new paradigm of what is architecture and new pracice models to bring that paradigm into existance.

We have about one generation to accomplish the mission of creating a habitat for all life on Planet Earth; a generation is not a great deal of time to change the embedded habits of centuries. Architecture, as I have defined it, is not only a means for doing this - it is a major measure which shows, exactly, our progress alone the path I have proposed.

This THESIS is one life’s view of how we can proceed along the path to creating a finer and life-giving architecture - hopefully, there are many others. It is based on better than a half century of thinking and taking action; in putting all that can be put on the line; of seeking the means for rebuilding Earth as a work of art to enjoyed by all. Nothing less is acceptable. Nothing less is human. Nothing less is moral. Nothing less is sustainable. Nothing less is art and worthy of our attention.

Return to Overview and Introduction Part 2 - ILLUSTRATION

Part Three will focus on the the technical aspects of my work: mind/brain theory and human processes; design/build processes and techniques; and, the creation of ValueWebs as an alternative to conventional organizations.

Go to Thesis Introduction and Overview Part Three Go to Thesis Introduction and Overview Part One Return to Thesis Index Return to INDEX Architectural Projects 1952 - 2004

posted February 20, 2004