#224 - WHAT IS ARCHITECTURE?
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design give an introduction to what architecture is, covering how architecture is different from 'buildings'; the key aspects of a work of architecture (and what makes for good architecture); why architecture is necessary, but also unnecessary; the common belief that architecture only pertains to the exterior of buildings, the common focus on styles; whether or not architecture is subjective; and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(03:11) Introduction: Distinguishing a building, from architecture, from Architecture.
“In terms of the practice of architecture, it’s more about a mentality, a skillset, and a desire to execute things in a certain way, rather than it being a focus on a project type.” (20:24)
Key aspects of architecture:
(21:41) Form & Space
“A lot of architects will say, “I create space. I design space.” and what they’re trying to say is, “I’m designing space as opposed to nice looking things that have a good shape to them.” Because ultimately, at the center of architecture in all ways, is people!” (23:16)
(23:40) Materiality & Tectonics
(25:50) Program & Space-Planning
(26:33) Circulation & Function
(29:22) Light
“[In architecture] light is considered a tool or a material to design with […] and I think that notion is a lot of times lost in architecture offices. The idea that you would design architecture based on the material of light is one of the points that makes really clear the difference between an architect versus a draftsman or a contractor.” (31:24)
(34:24) Proportion & scale
“This gets to architecture as sculpture and the architect as the sculptor of space. The difference between a sculpture as an object that sits on a table versus architecture is that the success of the sculpture of architecture is dependent on how people feel. So when we’re talking about proportion and we’re talking about carving out space instead of just framing it with walls, it’s not just about it looking good, but how it feels.” (37:17)
(38:55) Clarity & honesty
(41:16) Sustainability, structural integrity, site response
“Nothing that we create exists in a vacuum. No piece of architecture exists in a vacuum, even architecture that’s a chapel on a hillside still has context. It might not be other buildings, but it still has context. There are things and forces that you are responding to and how successful a piece of architecture is is first dependent on how it replies to the givens that it is embedded within.” (46:54)
(47:27) Comparing architecture to food and clothing.
(53:55) The study of architecture and style in architecture.
These styles came around at a certain period in time and in a certain place for certain people and for certain reasons and at some point, they were categorized as being X-style, but we’re no longer in that situation. This is also why in architecture school we don’t design classical buildings because we’re not in the era when this was the thing to do. Buildings are done in response to things… these could be specific problems or larger forces behind society such as economic or cultural issues. When you just transplant those styles to now, it’s like a dinosaur walking around. It doesn’t really belong. So the question for architects is and should be what is an appropriate architecture for the specific place, people, and time I’m designing and building within? (01:01:47)
Common misconceptions about architecture:
(01:09:15) Architecture is only about the exterior
The delineation that architecture is only about the exterior and interiors are done by interior designers is almost like saying “I want one director to do the beginning of the movie and the end of the movie and then I’ll hire a different director to do the middle.” (01:12:12)
(01:14:52) Architecture is subjective.
(01:21:29) When to hire an Architect.
(01:25:40) Architecture’s value is primarily a visual one.
(01:28:42) Architecture is superfluous.
“When a shelter is thought about, designed, and created to meet some other set of criteria that is not about just survival, it’s no longer just shelter. […] To survive you do not need architecture, but if you are intending to be a human being and we’re talking about society and culture at large, then architecture is, by definition part of what it means to be human.“ (01:31:15)
“Shelter is all around us all the time. Even when we’re outside in cities, we are enclosed partially by architecture, by buildings. Even if we’re in a park, someone designed that park, [that’s] landscape architecture. Even if we’re in a big plaza, that plaza is manmade. All of that, on a bigger scale, is a collective expression of society. On an individual scale, a home is the expression of a person, or it could be and should be. This idea that of food, clothing, and shelter, most people are only able to express and think about their identity through clothing because it’s more accessible is to me quite sad.” (01:37:54)
