Comments on: the architect’s manifesto

By: Niko Nyman

Niko Nyman — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 04:16:29 +0000

This is almost the same comment I posted on Josh’s blog, but with less directed to architecture wonks:
My father is an architect and a retired professor of urban design. I do not know what’s the specific name for his area of interest, but I see it as equal to user experience for software design. Inhabitant experience? Resident experience?
Anyway, he has lots of experience with young, creative architects and I’m using some of his thoughts here.
What separates architecture from writing a book or creating an ad is that people will live with your “creative work”, each and every day, for years. And unlike choosing a book to buy in a bookstore, people are often not free to choose any house or building to live in (or around).
What is “creative” and “good” architecture is defined by other architecture geeks, not by the users of the architecture, the people whose life is affected by it. The criteria are mostly external and have to do with the technical and aesthetic design of a building. Yet these are tiny minor details if the building doesn’t make the inhabitants feel at HOME.
So, to me this list here looks like a recipe for those architects who are generally way too interested in themselves, their bank account balance and their ego.
It’s great for the profession. Which is great for the architect’s customers. So all is great, if you never mind the USERS.
Current “good” and praise architecture is a lot like building software without consulting any users, and concentrating only on making the surface look good. Sometimes the users stick with it, sometimes they don’t. And people can dump sucky software. It’s not that easy with buildings that are stuck in perpetual beta.

By: alan patrick

alan patrick — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 19:14:28 +0000

We need to return to “user generated architecture”

By: Aaron

Aaron — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:47:31 +0000

Nice one — it should all be a bit obvious to any creative professional, but it bears repeating often as its easy to loose sight of. You could insert any creative endeavor in place of ‘architecture’ and it would still ring true.

By: Nia

Nia — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:48:07 +0000

I think this applies to any profession. Anything can be done better if it’s done creatively. Many points sound like what I tell myself about my own job.

By: Kimber

Kimber — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 21:00:00 +0000

That is the same advice I hear about writing and trying to get published. Write for yourself. Approach the business of writing (getting published) in a creative way (don’t write the same, boring query letter everyone else does). Network.