#423 - OUR FAILURES IN ARCHITECTURE
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss their failures in architecture and advice for aspiring architects. The two touched on design exploration during university; completing assignments on time; having too many ideas; not asking enough questions; external distractions; advocating for yourself as a young professional; not committing to an office; dealing with perfectionism; getting stuck on a certain project phase; too compliant with client demands; explaining project to non-architects; and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Introduction.
(01:18) Completing assignment requirements and sacrificing design exploration.
(12:43) Not completing assignments.
(22:38) Struggling with too many ideas.
“One truth with any creative project is the clarity of the statement. If you can summarize a project into one sentence. What is it doing? How is it doing it? The project can be very complex, confusing, ugly, or monstrous… It could be anything, but it needs to have clarity. As one matures, the work tends to become clearer because partly you're not forcing things. When you're younger, you have all these ideas you want to get out on paper…because you're excited and you want to get it out there. But you can't force it. If it doesn't belong in that project, don't shove it in the project.” (31:14)
(32:39) Not trusting teachers.
(37:59) Not asking enough questions.
“When I first started [working in architecture], I strongly felt that I needed to pretend like I knew more than I did to secure a position where I got paid enough money. I was always afraid that if I showed [my lack of knowledge], I was potentially going to be let go or not be hired. When it comes to a feast or famine mindset, because your best hope is to make $38,000 a year, you do everything you can to get that and then hold on to it. It was a survival mechanism that I should not have used, but it was a survival mechanism. I was afraid and thought, “I can't ask that.” It's a mistake because, of course, you're only like 22. You don't know anything.” (39:58)
(43:52) External distractions.
(50:06) Advocating for yourself as a young professional.
“As a young professional, you might feel like you don't deserve things because you're young and inexperienced. [It’s hard to] advocate for yourself, ask for a raise, or ask for things you think would improve your learning experience and career. I feel like the first few years I was taking the back seat. I thought, “I can’t ask for that. I started a year ago. I'm just a young designer. I can’t ask for a raise. I can’t ask for more responsibility.” Then at some point, you see someone else in the office who did it, who started maybe after you and they got [the things you were afraid to ask for]. Then you're pissed off because you understand that if you don't ask for stuff, it's never going to come to you. Then your perspective changes.” (50:20)
(52:26) Not committing to an office.
(56:39) Everyone has their shortcomings and talents.
(59:43) The perfectionist mindset.
(01:08:12) Getting stuck in the design process.
(01:11:42) Complying with client demands.
“Sometimes architects comply with clients’ demands too much. I think that pushing back is something that we don't often do as a profession. For example, saying, “I need more time.” One of the biggest failures for anyone who is dedicated to this profession is the failure to never turn off your brain, and never allow enough breathing room for the machine to restart, reset, and work at full capacity. Pushing yourself to exhaustion is too common.” (01:11:45)
(01:14:51) Explaining architecture to non-architects.
“You have to choose your words and structure them in a manner that makes sense for the audience. Always. However, it's a mistake to only create the presentation from the audience’s perspective. I think it's important to talk about elements that are important to the project, even if the audience might not understand it. Of course, you should try to explain it and not write it off as being incomprehensible. But we get into dangerous territory if we reverse it too much. You can't close the gap between architects and non-architects if you change the language too much and remove portions of the design presentation.” (01:20:23)
