waffle

Once again, the universal approach, presented slightly differently. Joshua Prince-Ramus talks about how architects have strayed to being “above” execution; how the sketch and the initial idea is genius, and the rest is a long, grueling let-down as the artistic vision collapses into a realistic compromise. And shows a project he was involved with where they didn’t do that — a theater that is flexibly constructed and can be arranged into different configurations.

I say the universal approach because this pattern is evidently sane, well-tested and produces good results: talk to people. Figure out what they want. Don’t rely on them telling you what they want, and don’t rely on you knowing what they want. Figure out a way to separate what they want from how they want it, which problem they want solved from how they want it solved, and work towards delivering that in the most appropriate way possible. Do rely on them and yourself telling you what they like.

This way of doing things is hard: it takes time and effort and introspection. Easy mode for Joshua would have been to tear down the hulk of an arena that was there before and build something that was just beautiful instead. People would have liked it and he would probably have gotten awards and pats on the back. And then ten years later, when the theater had lost their advantage (watch the talk; I won’t spoil everything), people would blame it on the stupid new building and conclude that beautiful is bad and that architects will charge a mint to make things pretty and round every corner but not actually do something. That’s not only stereotypical but probably true in a sad number of cases.

Look deeper. Think about things. Change them. But do it as you get the facts, not beforehand.