My Architectural Design Themes

Over the past semester I have spent considerable time thinking about what my personal design tastes and principles are.  While they are most certainly still growing as I learn and explore, there are a few things I have come to know about myself.  Some of these are obvious and predictable, while others are less tangible ideas that I would like to incorporate or find intriguing. 

I am a member of CAP’s “Career Change” Graduate Program.  However, I do not like this term.  I have not “changed” my career.  I am, and always will be a civil engineer.  My professors at Rose-Hulman taught me that, first and foremost, engineers are problem solvers, and problems are not restricted to applied mathematical equations.  Issues present in the built environment include program, materiality, climate, flexibility, longevity, aesthetic, spatiality, etc.  There are innumerable obstacles to overcome, and I am learning to be a designer now so that I can better overcome them.  Becoming an architect has allowed me to get an entirely new perspective on how to approach problems, and the many ways design can influence people’s lives for the better.

Flexibility in design has been a big motivator for me.  I enjoy thinking about elements in my architecture that can serve multiple purposes, is mobile, or can be adjusted easily to accommodate various programmatic needs.  I hadn’t realized it until Harry pointed it out to me in studio, but I design very much around program, and it is likely because of my background.  I like things to function well, and if a building does not serve its function, it is a failure.  This naturally progressed to promoting flexibility, as it can improve the programmatic feel of a building through clever engineering and design.  I think studying Kenzo Tange for my research paper was very enlightening for me; I did a great deal of reading just about Tange’s design principles, and I found myself agreeing with a great many of them.  I really do not like megastructures, but that was just Tange’s own application of his principles.  That was largely how he viewed flexible design.  I like a subtler approach, but I definitely appreciate his motivations. 

Another architect whose body of work I greatly admire is Mies van der Rohe.  I find his structure to be beautiful in its relative simplicity.  I find structure to be fascinating in and of itself, and would like to learn to be less rigid with my own.  I can efficiently design a steel column bay system, but I want to learn to be more creative with it, so that it is expressed in a unique and integral way so it becomes a part of my architecture, and not simply what holds it up.  I want to incorporate the flexibility I experiment with in other aspects into my structure.  I am attracted to another of Mies’ design elements: the open floor plan.  I’m a big fan of the open floor plan because I want flexibility to apply to my program, too.  I like including as few interior walls as I can, and trying to divide spaces visually rather than physically wherever possible.  I find this allows for certain programmatic requirements and order, but also allows the order to be broken down when necessary, and for spaces to converge upon each other for multiple functions.