Inspirations (of the techie variety)
Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.
A obviously biased account on why an individual might wish to pursue the joy of being an Architecture Professional.
Holographic Architectural Imaging by Zebra from Core77 on Vimeo.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about context. Traveling halfway around the world does that, I assume. Comparing where I was to where I am is putting contradictory lives aside one another. You can easily draw out the contrasts – the density, the language, even the side of the road people drive on. It ain’t
But, more than comparing this place to that, traveling has made me thing about the idea of context itself - how we as architects or designers use it, speak about it, manipulate it. I mean, we refer to it all the time. I can’t count the times I was asked in a critique, is the design contextual? Or, how has context influenced the product? But, in thinking about my answers then against my experiences now, I wonder if, perhaps, I got context all wrong.
Studio may be the place where context is most revered. I don’t know about you all out there, but every project I ever had started with an analysis of context. Go to the site. Make observations. Photograph, document, sketch. Those were the fundamentals that you made sure to complete before any designing began. Why? Well, as I was taught, by addressing context, the design was grounded with reason. And a design with rationale allowed others to understand the project and critically assess its success.
It is here where my problem with context begins. Maybe it’s in the semantics, but I realize now that, many times in studio, context and site were often interchanged. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well, in a place like
As I wandered around the maze that is
Why make the distinction? Well, imagine approaching the design for a project whose site didn’t exist a year ago? Or imagine designing a project knowing that, within the very near future, everything bounding it might change? What do you respond to? Plan for?
But, if context is separate from site, then in situations like this, there are still influences to guide a design, both in its development and in its assessment. Maybe this isn’t a concern to others, but for me, it seems like a way into a project that might, at first glance, seem endless in its possibilities.
This site and context distinction is not black and white, by any means. Really, as I write this, there are still plenty of questions – this is something that I kept coming back to, but not necessarily something to write down as rule and law. Maybe I’ve delineated something that will better inform my own design philosophy. Maybe putting this out there helps someone else who has struggled with this. Or maybe I’m completely wrong. It wouldn’t be the first time. Whatever the case, it’s bugged me enough that I needed to write about it. So, if nothing else, it’s de-cluttered my head a bit. Which means I might have some room to think about other things, like that small little thing of where do I go from here…