SMART ARCHITECTURE
NOW WHAT?
As the great Frank Gehry, some time ago, before any of this Pandemic hit us and changed our lives, he raised a question and challenged the true scope of architecture and design.
Like many creative colleagues around the World, now that this crisis hit home, whilst we worry about our health and work to save our business, and safeguard the jobs of many, we enjoy for once the luxury of time. This time is an opportunity to re-think everything we do. Why we do what we do? For what? How should we look into the future? What is the true meaning of what we do? At the time when I first read Frank Gehry interview, I did not really understand the meaning of his unanswered question, NOW WHAT?
I used to believe that success for all architects, designers, urban planners and other creatives was measured by the number of awards, the size of their teams and their business, the reach they have around the globe and the size of the projects they get etc… Now after 3 weeks of real deep thinking about the meaning of life I think I can dare to give an answer to Gehry’s question which I would like to share maybe it helps us improve the way we see things. I am not sure we can now change the world and solve all the problems. Surely one generation cannot do this but we can change the direction of where we were heading.
Capitalising on the buzz word being used at the moment; SMART WORKING I want to summarise my answer to the Gehry’s question so we can remember it. I think the future should be about SMART. I don’t want to be misunderstood and this is not about Smart Working. It’s not about a future of working from home as we need to live and interact with each other. Working from home is a temporary measure and should be the exception not the normality in the future. I am referring to a new way of thinking SMART DESIGN, SMART ARCHITECTURE, SMART BUILDINGS & SMART PLANNING – SMART THINKING.
We should all think about this and realise that in the future design and architecture should not only be the result of a client’s brief with the aim of developing Iconic Buildings that stand out and maximise profits, nor it should be the aim to maximising the use of spaces working around / interpreting legislation as it best suits us, nor it should be speculative producing chaos with a lot of unnecessary clutter and products year after year, for companies that need new products at all cost as otherwise, they will not have anything new to exhibit around all the fairs and exhibitions happening around the World. This, unfortunately, even if we deny it, is the truth we were living in these last two decades. With all competition between all of us and the pressures from the markets we sold ourselves to this notion and went on building our businesses on delivering fancy and so-called ICONIC projects that gave us the exposure and profits, whilst keeping our clients (those paying our bills) happy.
We forgot that our architecture is lived by people and forgot that there are basic standards and needs that we should push forward, even against the will, sometimes, of our clients. We forgot about us; the PEOPLE, the end-users that need to be safeguarded by professionals doing their job with integrity and the passion and believe that DESIGN can make the World a better place, a better tomorrow.
I don’t want to sound too extreme or a converted of the sort because I am not. I just want to re-think about our priorities and imagine a better world we live in for tomorrow. A perfect world will never exist, but out of this crisis, I am sure most of us will start thinking SMART. By proposing the small little changes today, we will achieve BIG results tomorrow.
Smart production should focus on the cycle of any product start to end. We should consider what happens to the product after it has served the purpose it was built/produced for. What is the second life cycle of that object? How do we interact with its creation until it decomposes completely? It surely won’t change the world in a flick of a second. But it is important to set a new and re-interpreted approach.
Smart architecture can be also the responsibility, of each of us, to the planet.
Smart Architecture is about finding a responsible balance. It’s not about making decisions sacrificing one need versus another but it should be about finding true solutions that bring the equilibrium. In doing so we also safeguard ourselves from the potential threat of being controlled by totalitarian authorities. Better to be safe and smart now than being sad and sorry when it is too late. It’s not too late, we can start this movement and together we will manage. This Pandemic will pass and we will go out again and carry on with our lives. Let us not rush into chaos again. Let’s give something back to our future generations that is worth living;
SMART ARCHITECTURE, SMART CITIES, SMART PRODUCTS.
