Exuberance

There are words which we seem to exclude from our lexicon when we talk about architecture. They tend to be words we think of as less grown up: words which seem less sensible when compared with, for example, the thoughts of Vitruvius. For a start you don’t need to translate them from their classical origins.

Some words are unashamedly about how you feel – today. They escape from your thoughts like visceral responses to what is happening around you: rather like how we react to great spaces. 'Exuberance' is one of those words we rarely use about design.

William Blake said Exuberance is Beauty. He was a great poet and visionary. And we need to embrace exuberance, and words like it, if we are to inspire design that is poetic and visionary.

Read more...

Subtext

Sometimes you enter a space in a building, and your first thought is – I’d love to live in a place like this. Sometimes these spaces are designed to be exceptional like the interior of the East Wing of the National Gallery in Washington DC, designed by IM Pei. And sometimes you’re genuinely caught off guard by the quality of an everyday space.

Ayr Academy has a fair claim to be the oldest school site in Scotland, and, at the rear of the building, overlooking the river, is a wonderful northlit art room. You could discuss its history and architectural references – or you could just say that it is a great place to be in.

‘A great place to be in’. Sometimes, we need to remember that this is always a part of the brief: the subtext of living well in buildings that we ignore at our peril.

Read more...

Shadows

In the Northern Latitudes it is not enough to specify lighting levels. The fact of the matter is that without an understanding of landscape and light, we can find ourselves literally learning in the shadows.

The way the sun traverses the brow of a hill can help define our sense of place, and of wellbeing. The outdoor learning space perpetually shaded by the juxtaposition of topography, buildings, and latitude – is a constant reminder of what it can mean to learn in one place as opposed to another.

Location matters – and not just because we have created boundaries on a map – but because maps are a narrative of how we might experience time in a certain place. Shadows are not an accident.

Read more...

Tweet

The Economist’s recent special report on social networking was entitled ‘A World of Connections’ and concluded simply – The world is better off for it. Its survey of the diverse means by which millions of people are now connected in real time, and the myriad of innovative ways in which this emerging technology is exploited, would suggest taking an eclectic, agile approach to this whole area.

What can you say in 140 characters? Rather a lot if you are a poet, or a songwriter, or in mortal danger, or in love. The issue is not the format or length of what you say but whether it means something.

At the heart of communications and connections remains the need to use the language best suited to the message and the audience – the basis of a good conversation. The issue for good design is not how you choose to represent it, but whether each and every line is meaningful to the person you’re ‘talking’ to.

Read more...

Noise

I recall my acoustics Professor defining noise as unwanted sound. Which is which depends on your viewpoint. It is not obvious. Contexts change and lives change. My introduction to jazz was painful: my preferred music these days is jazz.

The same applies to design. One person’s classical perfection is another’s post modern nightmare. It is not the case that an opinion can only be voiced if it is professionally qualified. The truth about design may be out there, but it is not the same for everybody, everywhere, at all times – it is not an immutable, universal truth.

Paloma Faith’s song Do you want the truth or something beautiful? is inescapable background noise/sound at the moment. Listening to debates about design, you could be misled into thinking that the choice is that simple: truth versus beauty. Since the next line in the song is I am happy to deceive you, we should be careful about setting up either/or absolute choices.

Read more...

Slow

The Slow Food movement describes itself as an organisation that brings together pleasure and responsibility and makes them inseparable. It is an alternative to a life lived too fast.

Irrespective of how one chooses to eat, combining responsibility and pleasure underlines the importance of thinking first about the impact on the quality of our lives and on those around us of the decisions we make.

Design needs to be responsible. Design should be pleasurable. Do we design too fast? Maybe. But I suspect that the most important issue is that of imagination. The slow food movement dares to imagine another way of living. Good design springs from the same leap of faith that things can be different: that the irreconcilable can be resolved.

Read more...

Snow

Snow has a way of revealing both hidden beauty and hidden weakness. Even unprepossessing buildings can look radiant clothed in glistening layers of white water. And some snowclad buildings can assume an unlikely fairytale stature in the transformed landscape.

But snow is also insiduous in seeking out detailed flaws and thwarted assumptions – that water normally runs downhill, or that roofs can support the weather. It is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – invasive and innocent in equal measure.

Snow reminds us that we are not designing for a set of meteorological parameters but for difficult days in everybody’s lives when walking becomes an adventure and getting to work becomes a nightmare. Snow reminds us that design is not a fair weather activity.

Read more...