new layout, new purpose

Things have been changing.

Architectural Design Work has seen a remarkable falloff in the past 2 years.  I fortunately have kept busy, too busy obviously to post much here.  One thing I’ve learned, I tend to be busier when I don’t have enough work to pay the bills!

I’ve spent the last  3 weeks mapping out a number goals, and an overarching career goal and have decided to not share the projects I’m working on.  The reasons run pretty deep:

  1. Projects are a symbol of the work of design and thought.
  2. What drives the profession of architecture and the building industry is not design or projects, or performance, but economics.
  3. Architectural Projects are complex and multi-dimensional, creating a myriad of perspectives in which to view them
  4. The general public is keenly interested in architectural projects, but fundamentally not interested in the aforementioned design and thought.
  5. Architectural History is culturally thought of in terms of historical projects, not the design and thought behind it.
  6. Construction focuses on translating a language of drawing into an expression of design and thought.
  7. Building Science as a discipline is largely unassociated with design and thought in architecture
  8. Building Architectural Projects consists of a vast majority of the thought process, but is highly technical labor.
  9. The Construction of Projects is Ultimately a limiting of a design and thought into physical form.
  10. Construction Pricing is not based on the value of design and thought of the project, but of the value of the construction.
  11. Projects are boring.

That’s my 11 points on why I won’t be posting projects.  Its also my eleven points on why I haven’t posted any projects in the past year.  I’ve been very busy, wishing I didn’t say I would.  So now I’m changing my mind, and saying I won’t.

I’d much rather just write, about whatever design or thought I’m excited about, and study what is moving and changing and make some decisions about where I’m headed and why you should join me.

The one constant right now is that the economy is changing.  We don’t know to what, but it is certain that this change in the economy is different.  Some say we’re at the bottom.  Some say we’ve just gotten started on a downward spiral.  There’s one common thread I see, and that’s that theories and structures are broken, and that’s because we don’t believe in them.

I’m not an economist, or much of a philosohper, but I do think and have ideas, and I’m going to need to make some decisions and believe in a few things, and work through the broken-ness in the present to do something great.