I was passed this photo and have been thinking about it now and again. I chose to post this today in response to conversations I have had recently about where my collaborative is headed and what work will be doing in the next year. Here are some reflections...
'A new generation of workers is entering the workforce at an extremely horrible time in...' alright, we all know the situation... However, there is also a huge change in work ethic of our field. We are increasingly part of a work force that relies on technology to give us access to information, information organization, and visualization techniques. The ability with which we access the information is different from previous generations of architects. Before, catalogs and 'standards' were used as reference materials in firms to guide drafters working at desk stations. Now, we have access to manufacturer models and BIM objects that we do not have to concern ourselves with eighths of inches...
It is time to clear the caches of architectural libraries? I propose we delete the mundane caches of knowledge and move toward using that space to think of new things we can apply our interests towards!
BTW, if you have not seen the movie 'objectified', what are you waiting for?
'Out of the million chairs that have been designed in the world, how could there be an uncomfortable chair?' - Karim Rashid
Posts
I propose a few questions in response and a few responses:
ReplyDeleteA. What and where is your collaborative headed? I think you are the only one of us that is involved in a non-firm/non-academic line of work and I am interested in seeing/hearing more.
B. Traditional architecture is a dying form, birthing a new form of architecture we harness technology. However, unless we'd like to release control over the construction of materials the 1/8" still matters even the 1/16" matters.
C. I am still in an office with a full product binder library - the time it takes to look up products in a binder is usually longer than to google them. However we still utilize the library ... it's a fine line and depending on the end goal deleting these caches is a new topic of discussion.
D. What would you fill the empty shelves with? What do you fill that time/space with instead of physically looking through a binder? Is it interfacing with a the screen/computer?
Objectified was great! Karim Rashid's nail polish was fantastic as well!
A. please check out our new website at theoverlaygroup.com to see who is involved. We are planning to seek out master planning work for community colleges, institutions, and other corporate entities. My influence in the group allows us to also propose design-build services to smaller clients. I think that ultimately we will interface with building component fabrication services. I foresee some work similar to D Pruske thesis projects.
ReplyDeleteB. First of all, I agree with the comment, but. Technology is decreasing our intention with the 'lines' of drawing. Sure, at some scale we need to concern ourselves with what the 'line' is, but technology allows us to tweak the inherent materiality throughout the course of design. As I learned in Neimann's classes and CCA the line is only of formal importance. However, we can imbue the line with dimensional variety. Since technology is now allowing us to sculpt material more fluidly our control over the construction OF materials is increasing.
C. Why do offices need to consume space with reference materials? We should be more flexible in our access to materials for specification. We can establish infrastructure for cities to utilize material libraries.
D. No need to fill the empty shelves or time. Let's increase efficiency and lighten our footprint.
In response - DIALOG
ReplyDeleteA. gonna check it out now - sounds radtastic!
B. I would counter with a clarification that Technology has the potential to distract and dilute our association and intimacy with 'the line' not that it is responsible or the cause of decreasing our intention with 'the line'. If one does not draw by hand first - the intention is lost.
I disagree with the line is only of formal importance. Perhaps in theory that is correct - but the line on a set of documents is actual associated with $$$ so it has more than formal importance - it is representational of objects, space, materials and those have associated costs and construct-ability.
Word to the extent that our ability to manipulate materials is increasing and developing.
C. Selecting components of a building, specifying components it is useful if not necessary to have materials available - saves time if in the office but not a must to have in office if you can visit a show room or supplier. What/How would this infrastructure and why would it work in a free enterprise economy?
D. Possibly but what is the offset for creating hard drives, conduit, wires, microchips, servers w/ all the hard metals, toxic materials as opposed to using a myriad of renewable resources to compile 'paper' type binders/pamphlets etc. If all companies could provide CADD files of products it would smooth the workflow for specifiying products...