#ArchiTalks 9 "my three favorite words"

 

My three favorite words…

Concept.

Design.

Reality.

I think they are some of my favorite words because they pretty much describe the process of architecture but they can also be related to my philosophy of life as an architect.

image of two harbors, catalina island by wickipedia

Concept:

"an idea of what something is or how it works"

the meaning that creates the design.

the theory that the design is based upon:

I remember really learning about Concept at Cal Poly Pomona in second year Design lecture and studio with the instructor Charles M. Calvo.   With his talent, intelligence, and boyish charm, he was coordinating second year at 26 years of age.   Charles was all about metaphor and about architecture telling a story. He had the patience of a saint, never criticizing anyone’s concept no matter how very bizarre they could be..A fish ladder?  Prince? It was all respected and built upon to create the design.  For our final quarter, the entire class piled onto a fishing boat to go to Catalina Island to see the site for a corporate retreat.  It took so long to get there that we only had 45 minutes on the island to do site analysis before we had to get back on the boat.  It was one of those experiences that happens in architecture school that connects us in a way that doesn’t happen with most other majors.  My concept for that project:  a greek acropolis (though i had never been out of the United States).  

Design:

Design would be the actual process that you develop to make your concept work

"to plan and make decisions about (something that is being built or created) to create the plans, drawings, etc that show how something will be made

to think of something such as a plan, to plan something in your mind"

hellerup havn housing (project) 1987

There was a name for the architecture students who returned from studying abroad; “eurotrash”. While we were gone, the campus had stayed the same, and everyone had registered for studios, in fifth year at the time, you had three quarters with the same instructor with a specialty, there was, urban design, interiors, theory and “another one that was less desired”.  Well, we felt that it was unfair, because after all, we had been in studio in Denmark, Italy and Greece and we were “designers”.  Well, we went to the new unsuspecting head of the department, Alan Forrest and asked him if he could do anything.  And he said, “Well, what do you want to do?”  So, we decided that we wanted to have a thesis class and that he would be our facilitator.  So we had a studio and designed our own class and our own projects had Concept and Program, and  Design, and a Thesis presentation.  Of course the fact that it was actually a success really pissed off three of the four instructors and the head of the department left at the end of the year but the class that we started, still lives on.  My thesis project was “A Place for Celebration of the Miracle of Life” but my designs on life were much different.  

study for preliminary project for thesis   1988

Reality:

Everything that you have to do in order to take the design and and make it a piece of architecture (or at least a building that stands up).  

"the true situation that exists, the real situation

something that actually exists or happens, a real event, occurrence, situation, etc."

I think building is important in architecture.  We can all create a concept, do pretty drawings, draft construction documents, but until it is built, we don’t know if it will ever work as architecture.  You can model the building in the most complicated rendering program available and it still is not reality.  Until one can physically experience the space, it’s all concept and design; it’s all a dream.  Constructing it makes it a reality.

However, as most of us know, this process does not always go smoothly.  

“The client didn’t get approved for that home equity line of credit because they are maxed out on their current one?”

“The client wants to add a second story after the plans were submitted???”

“The clients are moving from their house with a 360 degree ocean view to a place inland because they want more sun.”

These are all scenarios that have really happened to projects that I have worked on over the years where it didn’t get built.

But this one did.

point loma house sketch 2004

point loma house sketch 2004

point loma house 2006

These favorite words are also a metaphor that many architects can relate to in their own lives.

christmas 1965: always interested in 
architecture...

Concept:

I wanted to be an architect from the 8th grade, though, it could have been sooner.  I could always draw but I didn’t think that I would be able to make any money as an artist and I had taken a drafting class and I was pretty good at it.  

Design:

I decided to go to architecture school and in spite of all of the hard work and late nights, I liked it, and from working in an architecture office during holidays and summer, I knew I was making the right choice .  I went abroad to study, and I graduated and I looked for work.  I found work in Venice, California and I got married to another architect at an Irving Gill house.  I was taking my licensing exams, passed them, and I was able to call myself an architect and then…

sleeping baby one

I had a baby

and I started working for other architects as a consultant three weeks later.  And I started doing more work by myself. and I had another baby.  

sleeping baby two

We moved to La Mesa to be near my family, to have a house and good schools and I had to start establishing a practice all over again, with two kids and then in September 2000, I had another baby..

sleeping baby three

Reality:

And I thought:

“maybe I won’t be the architect that I thought I was going to be”

Though I was married, I had made the decision to be the main caregiver because I didn’t want to be away from them, and financially, it didn’t make a lot of sense.

In other words, I had a concept, but i had to design a project that was based on the program that I had before me, not work with somebody else’s. And for a field that prides themselves as being creative individuals, the way one gets there doesn’t leave much room for variation .  It meant having to redesign the project, and work with the elements that I had, to construct the reality i lived in. And  I am pretty happy with the architecture life that I have been able to experience. 

cal poly pomona ENV 2011

  

Charles M. Calvo architecture research scientist Charles M. Calvo of Starkville, research scientist and director of the Digital Research and Imaging Laboratory in the School of Architecture, died Sept. 24, 2000. He was 42. He was recognized internationally for his research in computer visualization and its application to education. Calvo established collaborations with the art department, extension service, University Television Center, and other campus units. He also directed research projects in collaboration with the state Department of Economic and Community Development, Millsaps College and other universities, and the U.S. Navy. These are my three favorite words, if you would like to read about other architect's three favorite words, part of the Architalk series of "Life of an Architect", please follow the links below. Enoch Sears - Business of Architecture @businessofarch 3 Words To Get Started Bob Borson - Life of An Architect @bobborson 3 Words: Are. Blogs. Important. Matthew Stanfield - FiELD9: architecture @FiELD9arch 3 Words Marica McKeel - Studio MM @ArchitectMM Never Give Up Jeff Echols - Architect Of The Internet @Jeff_Echols What's Your Story - My Three (or Four) Favorite Words Lee Calisti, AIA - Think Architect @LeeCalisti i make art Mark R. LePage - Entrepreneur Architect @EntreArchitect Evan Troxel - Archispeak Podcast / TRXL @etroxel Lora Teagarden - L² Design, LLC @L2DesignLLC #ArchiTalks: I love it! Collier Ward - Thousand Story Studio @collier1960 Cormac Phalen - Cormac Phalen @archy_type Nicholas Renard - dig Architecture @dig-arch Andrew Hawkins, AIA - Hawkins Architecture, Inc. @hawkinsarch Three Favorite Architectural Words Jeremiah Russell, AIA - ROGUE Architecture @rogue_architect three little words: #architalks Jes Stafford - Modus Operandi Design @modarchitect I Am Listening Cindy Black - Rick & Cindy Black Architects * Spirit of Optimism (my three favorite words) * - * * Rosa Sheng - Equity by Design / The Missing 32% Project @miss32percent Michele Grace Hottel - Michele Grace Hottel, Architect @mghottel architalk#9: my three favorite words Meghana Joshi - IRA Consultants, LLC @MeghanaIRA My Three Favorite Words Amy Kalar - ArchiMom @AmyKalar My Three Favorite Words (Architalks #9) Michael Riscica - Young Architect @YoungArchitxPDX How’s it going… Finishing The Architect Exam?!?? Stephen Ramos - BUILDINGS ARE COOL @sramos_BAC My Three Favorite Words - Brian Paletz - The Emerging Architect @bpaletz I am in Tara Imani - Tara Imani Designs, LLC @Parthenon1 Jonathan Brown - Proto-Architecture @mondo_tiki_man The Big Idea Eric Wittman - intern[life] @rico_w my three favorite [hardest] words Cindy Black - Rick & Cindy Black Architects Please contact me via my website below for more information on the firm and sponsorship of the blog and podcast. MGHarchitect: Michele Grace Hottel, Architect