week 4 response

This reading brings up the idea of a mission statement.  I'm not sure how necessary it is to come up with a formal statement as opposed to determining major goals and priorities.  Some mission statements I've read use flowery language, but I'm not sure how they translate into everyday decision making.  However, group goals do need to be discussed along with logistics about time commitments, availability, and group meetings.  I think how a group makes decisions is extremely important and needs to be discussed early.  Discussing all these things early will help prevent resentment from people feeling like someone assumes to much of a voice for the team or someone feels left out when they can't go to group meetings when the group needs to get together more often to get work done.

The section on the differences between a team and a working group was something I never thought about.  I'm think the differences are more fluid then they appear and the dynamics may change over time as needs change.  In my gateway group last semester, in the beginning the project advisor took on a leadership role to assign responsibilities and people worked on specific aspects individually.  However, by the end, most work was done collectively with discussions about what needed to get done and no one person making final decisions.



Design teams face the unique challenge of no hard answers and therefore needing more group  feedback on different ideas and directions for the project to take.  For example, a research project can have many possible topics, but once a topic is decided upon all is needed is compiling research into a cohesive group.  It is unlikely for partway through a member will discover something that sends the team in an entirely new direction.  In design, there are infinite possibilities at every stage of the process, so open, constant communication is more important.  In design there are very few hard facts that make one approach better than another.  So decisions are much more subjective and potential causes of arguments and conflict.  This means that how a team makes decisions and comes to a consensus is even more important than for other types of groups.

 Week 3 Readings (Perkins/ Lepik)

The paired readings for this week’s discussion focus a lot of attention on the integrity of a designer within a community practice and specifically the operations of a firm.  ‘Chapter 22: Talent is Not Enough’ by Shel Perkins was an extremely insightful read, written for the audience of emerging designers his writing embraces the social format of the architectural trade. His perspective of operational formatting within an office was for the integrity orientation for someone such as myself that has not yet received this experience.  This configuring of social hierarchy within the architectural field is how Perkins explains never a cookie cutter structure, Architecture firms have a cultural philosophy unlike any other profession; as this reading was also paired with ‘Building On Society’ by Andres Lepik, Its evident that the cultural philosophy of architecture in light of unfortunate global occurrences has started to focus attention back to communities in need.

Collaboration functions at multiple scales, and these reading are evidence of such. Collaboration functions within the office format in the social interactions between designers/interns/ and principles as well as contacted offerings with outside engineers and construction firms. Perkins describes the process of the inner office hierarchy as not the typical top down approach but more so principals and leaders serve as a facilitator and a catalyst. The reason for this embraced philosophy might correlate with the level of risk a design team might be willing to take. True innovation requires creative risk, and this creative risk should be implemented in every level of the field including the social structural of firm.

With risk comes innovation, in the design field innovation and technology work in a symbiosis with ideas and concepts. Ultimately new innovations will eventually evolve to being new standards. Lepik references many contemporary instances of community outreach from designers who showed integrity for providing underprivileged communities with access to properly designed infrastructure that will potentially enhance pride and lifestyle . Most of these communities Lepik described were communities in desperate need of infrastructure, these are opportunities for designers to embrace these localities and design for their prescribed needs. Through these opportunities designers have moments of showing that we are more than just skilled professionals but that we are human and design with empathy and social structures.

 

 

3 questions for an architecture firm

1.       What was the pinnacle moment of achievement for your firm.  how did you gain this success.

2.       What is your office philosophy, how do you collaborate within the firm.

3.       How did you emerge as an established firm and how do you see potential growth of the firm 20 years now.

Week 3

Building on Society – Andres Lepik

Architecture and Designers besides being hired to design conceptual “icons or object”, is a key tool to solving problems and ask questions on changing/remodeling any poor society. Within this reading, it points out how architecture in itself is a powerful tool. One example that it shows was how Anna Heringer, Diebedo Francis Kere and Hassan Fathy studied the materials that were available in these cities, then teaching their students and communities about design solutions in using them. I believe that as a designer we should help these poor communities and be “moderators of change.”

Successful Design Teams – Shel Perkins

“In the design profession, nearly all important projects are too large to be completed by just one person. Because of this, each creative firm strives to develop a culture that fosters effective teamwork.” In this reading, this quote stood out to me in defining that every office environment is different and that all office should work together as communities of skilled people to create a successful end goal. The reading shows an exploration of how a firm gets the right mixture of skillsets, to defining each person in the team’s personal role, and even how to face problems as a team. It’s interesting to me how the size of any team is determined by the “number of separate skill sets required for a project.”

Some of the quotes that I like from this reading…

“Design teams have fewer rules and greater flow of information…for rapid innovation.”

“Projects benefit from creative tension but not personal conflict.”

”Fun is a powerful motivator. It puts things into new contexts and leads to fresh ideas”

Questions

1)      Are the skills you hold in the office/firm (big or small) a good reason on how one gets chosen for a project?

2)      How does work within the group get split up so that each team member has contributed a good amount of ideas?

3)      How would it work if the team members want to work on a skill that they have never faced or would like to learn about while on a project?  

Reading Summary and review

Building on Society – Andres Lepik

Architecture has more than basic housing requirements and urban planning to offer, it is powerful tool in transforming any society and with the myriads of problems combating the built environment it is beholden of architects to ask the all so important question of how architecture can be used for greater good. Redefining the role of architects in social responsibility transcends the usual surface dressing of providing shelter and housing under general blanket design considerations, design solutions need to be localized to the problems, should identify specific needs and meet them in conjunction with community participation.  The article mentions Anna Heringer, Diebedo Francis Kere and Hassan Fathy who all employed in depth study of the communities they were designing for and allowed that influence the choice of material, construction techniques and interactions with the communities. The measure of success of any public project is dependent on the community’s involvement and how that building blends with the architectural language of its surroundings. The works of Bryan Bell’s design corps, Samuel Mockbee’s rural studio and a few others were highlighted in relation to how design can overcome obstacles to serve the underserved and marginalized communities. Architects need to see themselves as change vectors.

Successful Design Teams – Shel Perkins

Putting together a design team that works like a well-oiled machine takes not only advance planning but also good judgment and strategy to find the right mix of skills, talent and expertise. The success of any project depends on the team success. The article outlines the various tasks of the team leader and of the project manager and each is important to the smooth operation of the team. Fast and efficient conflict resolution is imperative to ensure that the team stays on focus and the project doesn't suffer.

Talking about how architects seem to be service providers for those who can afford to huge commissions, the privileged and powerful because of the inequality in the distribution of income and wealth, while I am all for social responsibility and community involvement, architects need to make a living and funds are needed for research as well so the upper class clientele is very important serving as a doorway for resources and funds. I especially liked that the article on successful team said that fun is a powerful motivator capable of infusing the project with fresh ideas and contexts and I find this to be true when done within reasonable boundaries. When working on large projects or time intensive design it is easy for team members to feel somewhat  overwhelmed with the work scope and I think this is why tracking progress and celebrating milestone is very important for boosting team morale. I have been in team where the mood of the team, either negative or positive, greatly impacted the quality of work produced.

Questions

1-When a building wins an award there is usually a team that worked on the design and construction not just the principal architect alone but when such designs are been recognized all credit goes to the principal and he/she is heralded as the genius behind the design. How is the team rewarded and recognized for their role in birthing an award-winning design?

2- It is not uncommon to see partnership split and principals go their separate ways. If this happens in the middle of the execution of a building project what determines who gets to proceed with the project and who is held liable in the case of a lawsuit?

3- It is usually said that a design is never complete but at what stage in the construction process do you decide that there won’t be any further design changes/work done on a project?

Assignment A-3

Building on Society by Andres Lepik

This Reading was very interesting, it talks about how architecture is a powerful instrument and how an experienced architect make a big impact on the society. "According to the United Nations, roughly one billion of the world's population of some 6.75 billion people live in extreme poverty, with an income of less than $150 per and limited access to clean water, education, and health care." In this reading they also talk about how mother nature destroyed villages and homes of people in various location around the globe, also the lack of education from which many people were living in poor construction buildings, and homes. Something I really loved in this reading was the topic on the materiality. They really focused on sustainability using earthy material and using the local work force as labor to build a Eco friendly and environment safe building. Using these earthy material not only is good for the environment but also cost efficient and cheap for the client. By using these material we can make a housing community for the poor people around the world to give them a shelter to live under.

Another thing I was really impressed by was that the fact when they build project over any country they would bring in the community teach them, educate them on how to make the materials, by this they created more jobs and skilled many people. With that skill they can go other places and work at different projects. That's what I like how an architect makes a change in the society. On page (14) Creating Pieces of Social Identity, In the second paragraph towards the end "More than two hundred jobs were created during construction, and about seventy people are now employed by the museum in various positions. I love this because this shows how an idea originated by the architect has made this  society a better place.

Quotes:-
Page 21 (Middle Line) "Open architecture network, a website that helps to bring architects, designers, engineers, nonprofit organizations, political representatives, and others together in order to collaborate on projects and share expertise." "These organizations largely respond directly to natural disasters and consequences of war, and other humanitarian emergencies, They must react quickly to specific situations, and in most cases the architects' responses are by necessity ad hoc design efforts.this work is extremely important and unfortunately, will likely be needed long into the future."
Page 21 (End of paragraph) "To increase the social relevance of architecture at the beginning of the twenty-first century, architects must no longer think of themselves simply as designers of buildings, but rather as moderators of change."

Successful Design Teams

All design teams are different. Every office is different in terms of how they work in teams, and collaborate. Every office has different sets of skill by the people working in them. Everyone acquire different skills. Every person is chosen carefully by determining there skills on different projects. " An individual team member can become distracted by a personal issue. it may be as a result of something that's happening in his or her private life, quite outside of work. this may lead to loser productivity, self-frustration, even quitting the team without completing assigned tasks.

What happens if the team leader or project manager has an issue going on outside of work and cant focus do they get replaced by someone else?

How many different skills are you looking for when you get a new project?

If the final project is built does everyone who worked on it gets to see the final building when its completed?

Are team member allowed to pick who they would like to work with or the team leader and project manager picks them?

WEEK 3 - NOTES AND REFLECTIONS

WEEK 3

If you could ask a professional design team anything about the process of actually building a building, what would those questions be?

How much of the process is paper-work and talking to people rather than actually detailing the building before construction?

If you, as the architect, are able to detail the building, why can’t you take part in its actual construction?

What is your role as the architect before construction and why can’t you tell construction people on site how to build the building?

“Building on Society” by Andres Lepik

In Building on Society by Andres Lepik, I agree in the fact that architecture has come a long way to grow a Social awareness into the design process of a building – a neighborhood – a city. As designers and architects, we have a social responsibility to help the poor, and not only the ones who can afford our services; we are not just simply service providers who work to fulfill commissions for clients that can afford our services as stated by Lepik. We must instead use our expertise – our design ideas to bring about a social impact to the communities we help build. There are millions of informal settlements spread around the globe occupied by the poorest residents. And we as designers and architects need to become more sociably responsive to the communities’ given realities. We no longer can think of ourselves “… as simply designers of buildings but rather as moderators of change.”

Quotes I like from Building on Society:

“Is it enough to simply be a service provider who works solely to fulfill commissions for clients who can afford such services?” “…Spread of informal settlements, usually by the poorest of residents…” “Little if any thought has been given to the massive influx into cities of the extremely poor, whether they are migrating from the countryside or arriving from another country.” “…illegal status and the absence of public service…led…to high crime rates and a general lack of security.” “…necessary to give the settlements permanent legal status, that their inhabitants enjoy the security of being able to stay in the structures they have built themselves.” “Design ideas that could contribute to the eradication of poverty.” “…social impact of a design is the primary consideration.” “..architect become more responsive to the community…approaches must not be driven by preconceived political or architectural theories, but rather consist of responses to  given realities…no longer think of themselves simply as designers of buildings, but rather as moderators of change.”

“Successful Design Teams” by Shel Perkins

As stated in Successful Design Teams by Shel Perkins a design teams come up with the best design approaches when they treat each other as equals with equal rights and opportunities. The idea is to have fewer rules in the design team in order to have greater flow of information and greater possibility for coming up with quick innovative ideas when opportunities are presented, especially during unprecedented events. In a team of this nature, individual’s personal and professional growth depends on self-motivation especially during difficult challenges  and in turn encourages self-management and regular participation. However, to keep the design team functioning this way, the team has to be assembled with the right mix of resources and skills – that also means having a team manager and a team leader.  These two important team members do not control the design team – they are moderators. The team leader does not directly tell each design member what to do, he allows each individual to work independently on tasks and then bring the work to the group for evaluation and integration. The project manager takes care of the logistics, he “…arranges any necessary meetings, distributes updated information, monitors budgets and deadlines, and documents the progress of each assignment.” When everyone gathers to go over project, you must keep updates short and simple – “...state what has changed and what has been achieved…praise publically and criticize privately.” When the project is over make sure you celebrate because it’ll have an impact on morale – “…savor what the team has accomplished together…discuss what went well and what didn’t and to learn from any failures.” And get ready for the next project!

Quotes I like  from “Successful Design Teams” by Shel Perkins

“Design teams have fewer rules and greater flow of information…for rapid innovation.” “…have an egalitarian nature that encourages self-management and regular participation...” “Invididuals who do well in this environment…are drawn to challenges and are strongly motivated by opportunities for personal and professional growth.” “..effective size for a problem-solving group is between  five and seven people.” “…competencies… projects skills…provided by the client organization.” “..have assembled the right mix of resources, how do you keep everything functioning…a team leader and a project manager.” “..a decentralized approach to authority, allowing individuals to work independently on tasks, and then bring their work back to the group for evaluation and integration.” “The project manager arranges any necessary meetings, distributes updated information, monitors budgets and deadlines, and documents the progress of each assignment.” “Projects benefit from creative tension but not personal conflict.” “To respect everyone’s schedule, keep it short and simple. In the meeting, state what has changed and what has been achieved.” “…praising publicly and criticizing privately.” “…set up workroom where all of the materials related to a large project can be left spread out.” “…pause and savor what the team has accomplished together.” “…discuss what went well and what didn’t and to learn from any failures.” “…impact on morale.”

week 3 response and questions

The article, Building on Society presents many interesting ideas, but doesn't show the ideas limitations.  At the end of page 13 and beginning of 14 they talk about New Gourna  designed by Hassan Fathy.  This is an example of architecture using local/historical methods and using locals for to do the construction. However, according to 100 years of humanitarian design (pg 42/43)  this specific town failed because they didn't want to move.  Historical building techniques might also no longer be feasible due to reduction of local resources like forests for wood or animals for hides.  Some might not have been intended for lasting shelters, but rather be intended to be quickly built.  As an example, natives in earthquake ridden areas might have built structures that were only intended to last till the next earthquake.  This works for small homes in small villages, but not for larger cities where people aren't close to exits for quick evacuation and with plenty of room between structures.

The article also has a lot of good advice to keep in mind when dealing with underprivileged communities:
"While there is no instant solution to the extreme poverty and other deep-seated problems these communities face, the belief is that such small interventions will, over time, improve living conditions for all residents" pg 18 end of first paragraph.
"standard planning strategies that focus on traditional solutions such as simply inserting streets into the densely populated areas need to be rethought" (pg 21 end of first paragraph) and as an alternative "to create new social facilities while keeping the high density of the neighborhood and not demolishing or forcing people to leave their houses" (pg 20 middle of first column).
In summary, this means to keep an open mind about how to build up a community without first tearing it down either physically or culturally.

I enjoyed the article on successful design teams.  Two comment particularly struck me as things often forgotten: "Fun is a powerful motivator. It puts things into new contexts and leads to fresh ideas" (pg 302) and "it can be frustrating if there is never a moment's pause to savor what the team has accomplished together" (pg 306).  If people don't enjoy their work, then they aren't as invested in going the extra distance to do the best work possible, but simply doing the bare minimum they need to do.  Seeing good results often makes all the effort put into it worth while.  With out this conclusion, work seems continuous and looses its appeal.  Therefore, my questions to a design team would be:

1) How are members of the team chosen?  What professional skills and character traits are needed to create a good team?

2) What happens when there are problems within the team?  Are teams members ever changed as a result of conflict?

3) What happens at the end of a project? Does everyone see the final product or get a chance to celebrate?

4) Is the same team ever used for multiple projects to build a stronger team dynamic?

Week 2

After reading 100 Years of Humanitarian Design, by Kate Stohr it showed a mix approaches to natural disasters and slums. What stood out the most to me is Housing is a necessity… it becomes a luxury when their inhabitants maintain and care for it but in these cases war, natural disaster and poverty could take a toll on things. I found it interesting that an architect/designers role in these times are not to create a better future but their positions are as trainers to help the community rebuild itself temporarily. Another thing I notice was that funds were the biggest problems for community design projects so having the community build it instead of hiring a contractor conflict with the community peoples approaches to design.

Heading towards Professional Practice: can professionalism be taught in school? The article itself shows you the development more towards education but, I find that professionalism cannot be taught but can be building towards using the resources we learn in school as a tool. I believe it’s something you will gain along the way as you further work in the field and become more involved.

Lastly, In Community Engagement, I find that we need to balance out the needs of people socially by providing inhabitable space. This is where we will help solve problems and have architecture engage society on every level.

Responses to Week 2 assigned reading

Professional Practice

George Barnett Johnston

“Architecture educators need to reach out of the classroom into the world, and their gesture needs to be reciprocated by practitioners who come into the schools and bring the schools into their offices.” This I believe is the summary of the matter. Architecture is a learned discipline and there is only so much that can be taught in the classrooms, where boundaries sometimes exist between theory and practice. There are contexts in which professional practice can be taught in schools in areas of law, economics, management and such but when it comes to addressing the inter-disciplinary relationships in the field of construction, client protocols, project delivery and execution, brainstorming and managing emergencies and crises on the job, a lot of the knowledge that will be applicable won’t be what was learned in the classroom. Rather it would be from being in situations where the architect confronts such issues in reality and learn from those experiences, having the guidance of experienced hands teach them “performance-oriented, culturally inflected and ethically motivated professionalism.”

Community Engagement

Anthony W Schuman

The way architecture as a vocation has evolved over the years is remarkable and if one looks closely enough parallels can be drawn between developments in architecture and economic and political happenings. This is a testament to how architecture engages the society on every level, whether consciously or subconsciously. With the Russian revolution, the working class became fore front and architects designed houses, schools and social facilities around this sect. Moving from designing for the masses without engaging them in the 40’s and 50’s to being involved in community service. The move to social responsibility and involvement coincided with the civil rights movement sweeping the nations at the time. With the Reagan administration, there was a dwindling of funding and support for community development assistance and once again theoretical preoccupations dominate the architecture world, less practical involvement and more lectures. Bill Clinton’s administration with an interest in community engagement saw a revival with architecture student ready to do ‘real’ projects. Real projects that are transformative to the community and beneficial to the students as well.

Programs like the design/build, Design corps, the Pratt center, Rural Studio, Public Architecture, Architecture for Humanity and a host of others have undertaken community projects geared toward public welfare. They have sort of become the conscience of the vocation, seeking to redirect our priorities, addressing how architecture can provide solutions to humanitarian crises and ease suffering. Community engagement and betterment should be fused with architecture’s traditional focus on physical design. The best kind of community engagement is the kind that survives and thrives after the project is done and all the volunteers and designers have left.

100 years of Humanitarian Design

Kate Stohr

September 11 attacks, the Tsunami devastation, Hurricane Katrina, earthquakes, wars and violence. These are disasters that have impacted housing a great deal rendering countless people homeless but it has also provided an avenue for designers to participate in relief efforts and emergency sheltering. While the government, policy makers and NGo’s have made efforts to relocate the displaced and provide a means for them to start over, slums keep springing up everywhere because the agencies are not able to address the needs of everyone affected by disasters or reach them effectively. There still seems to be a disconnect between the worlds of relief and development and the world of architecture and design. What needs to be addressed is the role of the architect in disaster management and relief, how to foster better collaboration between the aid groups and the design community. More architects and design professionals have to become more socially attuned, reach out of their comfort zones to the communities that desperately need their intervention.

Week 2 - Responses - Jamie

An quote to remember is “Building is a collective action”. This appears to be a common theme in all of the readings. In many instances of the stories of history by Stohr, building has been a collective interest that turned into a collective action. There are many issues in-between but the collective interest will make it simple or difficult. In terms of emergency shelters from the San Francisco earthquake in 1906 or population growth and implementing veterans back into society after the war. In times of emergency situations, the role of the architect may not be as critically needed due to time constraints but as we are moving towards community design, there appears to be more time for architects to have an opinion.

As the Professional Practice talks about the need for less artistic characteristics in architects any more practical matters. The architect’s role is defined strongly by what they are perceived to be and who they believe they are. I believe the role of the architect should be more practical and less artistic. But the fundamental difference between architects and engineers is the level of science involved. Engineers help determine form but architects explore space and possibilities. I believe building as a collective is required so everyone can self regulate and works together to form a successful project. The problem is when the project has too many people or when roles overlap and they cause more problems than solutions.

This response leads to the community engagement article by Lepik where it seems like the field is going more in that direction. Where we relook at the spaces that exist and we need to balance out the social needs of people by providing space. We must be the ones to solve the problem of social injustice within spatial rights in a city because of the overincreased interest and pop culture of "pretty designed buildings".

week 2 response

I was surprised while reading "Professional Practice: Can professionalism be taught in school?"  On page 371 it says "If the candidate gets an x in construction, he is registered as an architect; if he gets an x in design, he is registered as an engineer; and if he gets an x in both design and construction, he is registered as an architectural engineer."  This is very different from the way we think of architects and engineers now.  Today, engineers are generally the ones to make sure the building is functional no matter what it looks like, while the architect worries about the design and less about the details of how to make the design function.  The title is also deceptive.  The article isn't about arguments for or against education vs apprenticeships, but a history of the progression to more education.  I think this basic question about the value of education hold true in any trade.  There is a limit to how much can be learned as theory and be able to apply to real life scenarios.  You can learn all the codes, but the only way to learn about dealing with problems dealing with code it when actually faced with the problem.  However, there is still a need for education to make sure people have learned the codes before they are allowed to build anything.

The other two article both deal with community projects and history.  In "Community Engagement," I was interested to see how some community-design programs survived during the time of lowered interest and decrease in available funds only to fail later when the original founders left. "Community-design programs need not only to have dedicated leadership but to plan carefully for transitions and to find ways of maintaining institutional support."  This puts more of a burden on leaders to find and train replacements and to take make sure they are still available to guide their replacements even after they have left until the transition is final and their help is no longer required.  This can be very challenging for some people, since it requires giving over most of the responsibility while they are still active, and standing by even if the new leader decides to take a different approach, such as the transition between designing for greater social change or just on a project by project basis, which, according to the article, was the general shift recently.

"100 years of humanitarian design" showed an interesting mix of of approaches to slums and natural disasters over time.  Especially interesting to me was the idea of governments providing funds to people to build their own homes and the different results.  The biggest problem for most of community-design projects is funding, so by having people build their own homes, they reduce the financial burden of paying contractors.  The overall results for all approaches is that people have their own minds and don't like being told what to do or how to live.  Most of the failed experiments occurred when the government tried to forcible move people.  When designing for a wealthy client, the client chooses the architect based off previous work, so they have an idea of what might be built for them.  In most failed projects, the people who would be living in the housing had no say over the architect or design.  The other problem is making people feel dependent, that they are living off charity from the government.  Unfortunately, it has become more accepted.  But generally, people who don't grow up depending on charity are too proud to ask for it and feel insulted when someone tries to force charity on them.  This is why trailers would be so popular, since they could be bought for less than typical homes, so people could afford them with out applying for governmental assistance.  However, I'm not sure how accurate the statistics are, since some trailers aren't owned by the poor, but by those who have the trailer as a second home or who just like to travel.  Many people in campgrounds are retired and have a desire to see more of the world now that they aren't tied to one place by a job.  A trailer is an easy way to bring home with you where ever you go.

WEEK 2 - NOTES & REFLECTIONS

WEEK 2

Professional Practice:  Can Professionalism be taught in School?

Professionalism cannot be taught in school – school is a resource, a tool if you will to help student become critical thinkers. But school does not help student become professional practitioners in their fields for their communities. Professionalism is something you gain as you experience working – only then can you value the importance of given opportunities. “…the practical arts of engineering and construction…” need to be “…the focus of formal architecture education.” If you want students to become more involved and active in the academic world make them work with their hands and mind – theory and practice go together, not separate. You imagine, you design and you build. In design school you are not taught a general body of guidelines in the creative process – you have to gain experiences through thinking ideas and creating theme – making them and remaking them over and over – with a continuous practice to gain a general body of knowledge and of expert labor! But I don’t see how architect school is preparing students to become professionals and competitive practitioners in the field of architecture.

100 Years of Humanitarian Design

Housing is a necessity – it becomes a luxury when their inhabitants maintain and care for it. Yet “…housing has been gripped by a cycle of war, natural disaster, and poverty…” And of course, architects have been called upon to provide solutions, designs dictating the quality of living and over the time working collectively with communities to design an appropriate home – a united community. Many years of history in collected experiences throughout the globe helped shape this unity between architect and community. Star architects in their minds held solutions they thought would atone for the failures in urban planning. There was Le Corbusier’s Maison Dim-ino concrete housing strategy, Walter Gropius’s prefabricated walls to whole structures for affordable housing projects, K. Buckminster Fuller for his experimentation with standardized building components, modular systems and prefabrication – all three believed that mass-manufactured dwellings represented the future housing.  And in America, the automobile was the integral part of American life style – portable housing such as mobile homes which allowed people to live on the road. As the housing process continued to evolve, more humanitarian strategies were approached to understand communities – their values – in order to design homes where people are united as one.  

Community Engagement

“…architect as a public servant, yet serving a public that for all intents and purposes was abstract, anonymous and remote.” “to bring moral and social conscience to the practice of architecture.” “Design-build programs…involving students in actual construction – learning by doing while providing a community service as a collateral benefit.” “…academic program where students live full-time in the community…take full-time academic load…” “…community-design centers….design built programs suggest that the underlying principle that makes community engagements successful…is an approach that identifies local skills and resources, treats the community as an equal partner, and pursues an open and sustained process of exchange.” “…benefit the community or benefit the student.”

WEEK 1 - NOTES & REFLECTIONS

WEEK 1                                                                                                                                                                     

What do you hope to understand, or know, better at the end of the semester?

I want to be a better leader that can take on projects, able of mentoring a team regarding with teamwork, professionalism and time management. I want to learn and hone my management skills, as I help manage other students, workflow, deadlines, and client interaction. I want to understand the value of, and effective strategies for, community engagement. I want to learn and hone collaboration and cooperation skills. I want generate work for my own professional and academic portfolio.

Reading Reflection: “The Troubled Craftsman,” by Richard Sennett

For my reading reflection I simply extracted all the quotes that got me interested and motivated about the reading. I feel that I needed to do this exercise – of typing quotes – short phrases like these to help me remember things better and help me become more engaging during group conversation.

Individual and Community – Problem seeking and imagination: “skills progresses…become more attuned…people with primitive levels of skills struggle more exclusively on getting things to work.” “Technical skill has been removed from imagination” “craftwork…brought people out of the isolation.” “Great technical skills but whose talents earned them no political recognition or rights.” “To become skilled required, personally, that one be obedient.” “…the aspiration for quality will drive a craftsman to improve…” “The unity…between skill and community…weakened.”  “..Available to anyone…employed and adapted by anyone; people donate time to improve it.” “..How can quality of knowledge coexist with free and equal exchange in a community?” “…about solving problems, about solutions that end task, about closure.” “…problem solving and problem finding.” “The desire to work hard and well…for the sake of the community….competition…competing against others stimulates the desire to perform well.” “People – in general – don’t care; they are demoralized.” “..again and again in his mind before setting them in ink.” “Going over an action again and again…enables self-criticism.” “Skill development depends on how repletion is organized.” “You think and you do at the same time. You draw and you make. Drawing…is revisited. You do it, you redo it, and you redo it again.” “…Disconnection between head and hand in design: the idea of a thing made complete in conception before it is constructed…disconnect between simulation and reality.”  “Simulation can be a poor substitute for tactile experience.” “..how to think like a craftsman in making good use of technology.” “the head and the hand are not simply separated intellectually but socially.” “…difference between correctness and functionality…the  point is to finish so that the piece can be used.” “..People train and practice in developing a skill, the more practical minded they will become, focusing on the possible and the particular.” “…the machine is a better craftsman than a person.” “To do good work means to be curious about, to investigate, and to learn from ambiguity.” “..curiosity and experiment..” “People have to learn how to put the changes into practice ..” “..joined skill and community.” “three troubled ways…institutions motivate people to work well….developing skill…conflicting measure of quality, one based on correctness, the other on practical experience.”

Response to The Troubled Craftsman by Richard Sennett

Sennett starts with painting a picture of dedicated craftsmen, each hard at work showing their commitment and dedication to their craft. This is what makes them craftsmen; their dedication, refined skill and passion for good quality work. Reflecting on the time when craftsmen were celebrated and had a standing in society, their role in the community was honored and respected but a shift occurred and the craftsmen became marginalized. He addresses some forces that influence modern craftsmanship; Weakened motivation with the direct results of poor craftsmanship and stunted corporate growth; Abuse of technology consciously and subconsciously eroding the place of iteration in design and skill development creating a disconnect between the hand and the head; and finally conflicting standards on what constitutes quality service in which the craftsman finds himself in a game of tag.

Reading through this piece, I found myself readily identifying with many of the salient points he made. In my previous studio all my drawings were hand drawn as opposed to the all too common CAD generated drawings. While, it took longer to churn out the drawings and meet the requirements for each class, it forced me to engage with the site and my building design in a very different way. As architects we all battle with the perfectionist syndrome, between doing it right and just doing it at all, it becomes both our blessing and our curse. The issues facing the craftsman are the issues we as designers have to contend with today; recognition, technology and the standard of practice.

Gateway: Community Practice

As I go through Graduate school, it is increasingly easy to just get lost in attending classes, meeting assignment deadlines and basic requirements but I perceive there should be more to the experience. The school should not only engage the students but the students engage the school, the student body, the community on every level. It is in this regard that I want to see myself blossom. I want to know what it means to be a design professional in the truest sense of the word, develop the skills I need to be a successful architect and design practitioner. At the end of the semester I hope to have a firm grasp on how through collaboration I can further integrate with other students, the school, local design professionals and the larger community.

The Troubled Craftsman

The article's comments about moral and individual motivations reminds me of labor unions, which as designers in the Boston area we often need to use workers in labor unions.  Just like in communist Russia, labor unions formed in protest against unfair treatment.  Unions have brought about better working conditions so workers should be able to do their job better.  The problem is that it creates uniformity so one worker is treated the same as another regardless of production.  In fact workers are reprimanded if they do too much because it makes the other workers look lazy and makes it hard to keep quotas down (this happened to my uncle and was the motivation for him to go to college). The reason is that it creates the thinking of us (the workers) vs them (the employers) instead of promoting open communication.

I was also struck by the AutoCAD and NHS examples.  I both the drive for the ideal and correct solution sometimes ignores reality.  Not everything in life can be quantified, so it is impossible to include all variables while in a controlled setting such as an office or meeting room.  In the AutoCAD example, this was shown due to the heat not being factored in by those working in a controlled office environment.  In the case of the NHS, the ideal of efficiency and doing the most good for the most people doesn't factor in the individual.  Some illnesses or people can't be easily diagnosed, due to the illness being ambiguous or the patient not being willing or able to provide all needed information (memory loss, shyness, similar or vague symptoms).  An additional problem the article doesn't address is that human contact and the extra time spent with a patient is a form of medicine in itself (ex. it can calm the patient).  However, the improvement from human interaction isn't quantifiable to show that X amount of time will have Y results.  Therefore, it can't be put in a chart or form, unlike factors like total patients seen, and time till referral to a specialist.

semester goals

At the end of the semester I hope to better understand the problems, challenges, opportunities, and possible solutions to collaborating with a community of designers and users.  Everyone in a community has different goals, focuses, knowledge and cultural baggage.  The problem for a designer is the separate the kernels from the chaff.  This requires knowing what questions to ask and how to ask them.  It also requires knowing how to set priorities of importance and reconcile different people's diverging priorities.

Week 1 Response- Jeffery Hill

1. Semester Goals

This semester as a participant in the community pilot lab, I’m looking forward to understanding and experiencing collaboration within our group. Thus far in my design education I have not had the opportunity of working within a group format. This is an exciting experience not only because I get to build relationships with my peers, but also it’s important to fully understand the practice of collaboration. This venture of collaboration will be successful through the means of proper dialogue, in terms that ideas and expressions are properly executed so as a team everyone is always on the same page. Also through communication and trust, we can then challenge our ideas, and push a good concept even further. The responsibilities that our team has is to set a standard for this future course offering, and as a participant of the pilot lab I intend on making an impactful experience for the BAC community.

2.  "The Troubled Craftsman" by Richard Sennett - Response

 

Craftsmanship is a trade founded on skill development, especially when this development is recognized at a high degree of experience. The process of being a good craftsman is ultimately begins with attention to the details of a composition. The regarded composition can take the life of any format, such as a Musician, or a Lab Scientist, A film Director, or a Novelist all work within the confines of craft. The idea of craft is deeply rooted into the primitive senses of being human, tracing back to the ‘Hunting and Gathering’ era of human evolution. In sense the contemporary world is a response to these inherited traits of craftsmanship. The proof is in our cities, homes, and technological advancements the basic framework of our culture. However the future of humanities deeply rooted sense of craftsmanship is ultimately being jeopardized through the decay of the early modern society.

            Growing up as a child here in New England, I’m sure I lost count of how many times my Grandfather has said “They sure don't make them like the good old days” Indicating that his generation was somehow better than the current, that craftsmanship was more regarded in his time as a youth. The answer to this statement might be a complexity of issues. One of these issues regarding modern craft might unfortunately be that “People” in general don't care. That somewhere in history people became disconnected with their deeply rooted sense of craft but most likely because of larger political and economic issues of the 20^th century. This implication towards the craftsman’s profession has affected our culture, in what we accept as standards. The future of Craftsmanship can and will be long-lasting throughout history, except the audience and community for these skilled professions might be limited to the few and dedicated, in short its Darwinism, and with that said only the strong dedicated craftsman will survive.

Week 1 - Response to Richard Sennett - Jamie

1) I hope to understand how the design community that includes architecture, interior design and other related fields work well or not well together in this modern day society. I hope to learn how the system works individually within different fields and how they correlate together. On a wider scale, if we are able to map out how procedures and steps are taken to carry on a project, we might be able to find problems and challenges and we may be able to overcome. From my perspective, I believe based on my past experiences in Canada, that even between portions of North America, that we as a society have different societal expectations of design and procedures. There are many aspects to go about approaching a society and community for better design, I hope to learn how different areas of Massachusetts are connected together.

2) NOTE:  In this post, I have used the term "problem", referring to any problem encountered by people who need a solution to try to link it back to our Gateway. 

There are some important issues realized after reading this chapter by Richard Sennett. First is how we have no large overall guideline as to how to proceed with designing for a community because each and every problem or situation is unique depending on context, people involved, and goals. However, there is a way to learn problem solving techniques whether you are collaborating or cooperating. Some of the things Sennett mentions are being engaged and dedication (page 20). "It's certainly possible to get by in life without dedication (page 20)". I believe that to properly find a real solution to any of the situations Sennett has wrote out, that they need a level of engagement of dedication. This is an obvious statement but sometimes can be forgotten in this fast-pace society. Society has so many contributing factors to consider which connects the designer/craftsman to overall procedures that goes into the production of a product. In his story about Weakened Motivation, Russia and Japan were under different economic and political development (page 30). Russian workers felt discouraged where Japan was in production mode and promoting craft trades and cooperation between organizations that would benefit Japanese society (page 30-31). Where both societies promoted productivity and construction, both had different approaches, and as a consequence, different results. An important aspect of overall goals in a design community would be collaboration and cooperation and done properly together.

While the example above was for professionals working in the mobile companies, these principles can be easily applied to the design field between architects, interior designers, landscape architects, construction workers, and more. There is a strong need for social interactions for a collective goal where sharing information would keep those involved informed and engaged to promote wellness.

First Assignment

To get things started, we're reading the first chapter of "The Craftsman" by Richard Sennett, and making reading responses here on the blog. Additionally, I've asked all the members of the class to write a paragraph or so on what they'd like to know more, or understand better, by the end of the semester. I'm looking forward to seeing the responses!