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!