82. You Don't Have to be Good - Part 1: BIG, JDS, PLOT



I don't want to be interesting, I want to be good
-Ludwig Mies van der Rohe


Good work + good promotion = fame in architecture
-Conrad Newel

Good: That is the common denominator in the two quotes above, and that is what I would like to zero in on in this note; specifically the former part of the equation "good work" which I have so endearingly engrained in the consciousness of all my long time readers.

I had a teacher in college that once told me that to be a good architect you have got to innovate; push the envelope and do something interesting or you have to go the way of Mies and raise the level of precision and craftsmanship to a level of high quality. I have always respected Mies but I also felt he was too extreme in his insistence on quality to the point that it was quite often boring for me, so I tended towards architecture that was attempting to do something interesting. My preference for interesting works however did not mean that I did not appreciate quality in craftsmanship and detail. To the contrary, for me good architecture means a combination of both.

So earlier this year I went on a trip to Copenhagen and I thought naturally I would grab my copy of "Yes Is More" to read on the flight over. With the book in one hand and a map of Copenhagen with all of BIG's projects clearly circled on the other, I embarked on finding and seeing all of these exciting works first hand.
 

The first stop was the harbor bath project that was done under PLOT with Julien De Smedt. As I approached, I recognized the profile from all the images I have seen of it before, but as I got closer it became strangely unfamiliar. The bright golden color of the wooden planks that made up the structure has aged to a dirty splintered gray. [Addendum: february 9, 2012: Some of my readers have informed me that this may be because the wood used here was either larch or some other kind of local Scandinavian wood that resists natural forces without need for any finish. It turns gray naturally and was most likely intentional by the architects. If that's the case I concede this point and kudos to the architects here] There was a roughness and uncraftly quality to it that was not present in any of the photographs or images that was seen in the publications. It seemed somewhat crooked and shabby. This brought to mind another maxim that was impressed upon me while I was still in school:

A good building should enhance in character with age like a fine wine; Since most buildings will last about 100 years or more, a good building should be designed with that in mind and consideration should be given to how it will appear as it ages.

Time and the effects of its aging was not considered here. I was disappointed but not deflated. Surely this was a fluke, BIG and JDS are arguably among the world’s most celebrated and exciting architects today.

The next stop was the VM apartments also done under PLOT. The buildings are located in a new suburban development just outside of Copenhagen called Ørestad. You can read more about it here. While on the monorail that takes you out there I saw quite a few interesting apartment buildings that caught my eyes. The area seemed recently developed and quite a lot of the buildings out there were attempting to do something interesting in some way or form. Though I did not know who the architects were, they were attention worthy and I wanted to at least go over and take a closer look. However, my time was limited and I was here to see the VM Apartments and the Mountain dwellings that I had read so much about.

Arriving was akin to seeing the statue of liberty for the first time. I have seen the images so many times before it felt like I knew it very intensely yet there it was; a strange yet familiar icon. Approaching it from a distance was exciting, it was just as how I imagined it: the genius man made mountain stood there shining in the Scandinavian light. It was a beautiful thing to see. Then there was the jeweled array of razor-sharp Leanardo DeCaprio balconies gallantly defending their facade.

As I got off the train and started approaching it up close I began to see another side of the project that I had hoped not to see. Just by looking at the quality of the detailing of the elements used; the fixtures, the handrails, etc. I could only imagine that someone was trying to save money. Either the developers were pressuring the architects to be thrifty or there wasn't much money in the project to begin with.

 

Little or no thought given to how the building or its materials ages and transforms as it weathers over time. The wood as you can see is already water-rotted and beginning to lose its integrity over just a few winter cycles. This demonstrates a gross lack of understanding of the properties of wood and its behavior in winter climates or capitulation to economic pressures to cut costs by using inappropriate wood sans proper finishing and correct detailing.

 

Facade elements already beginning to fall apart

  



Long institutional corridor with poor day lighting and fluorescent light strips glaring directly into your eyes.





Optimistic colors and snazzy graphics painted on top of sloppy concrete-work and cheap metal fittings: Clearly visible in the foreground is efflorescence leaking from grotesque concrete surfaces. Further in the background are water puddles accumulating because of shoddy leveling and grading work on the parking deck.



 Either way, at close range certain parts of the structures looks one grade up from the temporary utilitarian structures one might find at a construction site. There seemed to be no consideration or strategy for how the building's material would appear over time as it ages or how it would look after the first two weeks or so after the building was finished and after all the press photos were taken: Pieces were already falling apart and the materials used made it feel more like a temporary Hollywood stage set.

Whether Bjarke and Julian were simply making the best of what resources and budget they had is a whole other discussion. It could very well be that the both of them had a modest budget and they passionately worked their asses off to make something reasonably decent; in which case they should be commended for that deed. I tend to lean towards this theory, but since I have never seen a report that compares what the proposed budgets were and what the actual cost of the building turned out to be then I really don't know.
 

My point here is not to denounce BIG, JDS or PLOT as bad architects. To the contrary, I think they are probably better than most of the unknown Joe Blow architects out there that you have never heard about. The point I am trying to make is that famous architecture and quality architecture are not necessarily synonymous.

What BIG has been able to do is create buildings animated by playful and innovative ideas, poorly detailed with cheap commercial grade materials and clearly present/promote them with contagious enthusiasm and nifty little diagrams. The bottom line of this formula is that you can produce very interesting and popular buildings on the cheap. It wins you lots of competitions and makes you the darling of developers looking to turn a nice profit. This very project have received more awards and accolades than I can count. They are the inspiration for a great part of all the new projects that are being copied and pasted throughout the architectural hemispheres. I see copies of them in almost every architecture school I visit, and a lot of new residential projects all over the world. Just go to ArchDaily and browse around a bit and you will see the influence of these buildings. The ideas and main concepts are very interesting and admittedly worth inspiring the world, but qualitatively speaking, they are not very different from the crappy commercial office building that you can easily find at any strip mall down the road from where you live. This is simply put wonderful and interesting ideas built of crudely detailed shit: And that's a pity because I think the ideas and concepts that they represent deserve better.

I have never relay met Julian but I have met Bjarke and to be honest, he seems like a genuinely nice fellow. His personality, enthusiasm and mere force of character spits in the face of the notion that you have to be a conceited archi-speaking dick-head in order to be a successful starchitect. That's one of the major reasons I root for him and that is why I want to see him succeed.

However to continue to heap praises and accolades on these projects of his without pointing out their obvious deficiencies is to really do a disservice to architecture. It sends a message to the younger architects who take inspiration from it that this is acceptable, that this is something to strive for, not something to surpass.

After seeing these works from up close, the best conclusion I can come to is that the level of quality and craftsmanship was disappointingly shitty while the marketing and presentation of ideas was absolute genius. I am hereby disputing (or modifying) the maxim that I often touted on this blog

"Good work + Good promotion = Fame in Architecture"

Now I will have to say something like this:

Good (and /or interesting) work + Good Promotion = Fame in Architecture

The one thing I now know with all certainty is that the only thing that is invariably consistent with famous architecture is just good marketing and publicity.

Conrad Newel

NOTES ON BECOMING A FAMOUS ARCHITECT

Liberating Minds Since August 2007



80. Why be famous?

One of the most popular question I get from my readers is: Why do you want to be famous anyway? To me, I always thought the reasons were self evident. Its like the question "why would you want to sit in first class anyway? In fact I often wondered who wouldn't want to be famous? But it is a good question and well worth pondering. So below are 22 reasons (not in any particular order):

• People will respect you. For all the drawbacks of being famous people tend to generally respect famous people. Becoming famous is a tremendous accomplishment and it is universally respected in most parts of the world.

• Even though architecture is a team sport and the work that comes out of your office is a product of the many talented people who work for you, it is you that gets all the credit. You can pretend to be gracious all you want by showing a picture of you staff and saying “oh, this is my team, and I show them to let you know that it is a team effort. bla, bla, bla...” hogwash! If you are the head of he firm and you are clearly the leader and spokesman, it is you who gets the credit.

• You will get asked for your autograph. That alone is reason enough.

• People (esp. architectural critics) will stop really questioning you. They just assume that everything you do and say makes sense and is just wonderful.

• Even when the hair on top of your head have migrated down to your back, members of the opposite sex will still find you attractive.

• You may get to have a retrospective at a major museum before you die

• You don’t chase down magazine editors to get your work published, magazine editors chase you down to get your work published.

•  You and your image will be such a hot commodity journalists will want to feature you in their magazines, even if its is not an architecture journal. This one below of Zaha Hadid was found while browsing though an inflight magazine:

• You don’t need to wait till you have something important to say to get heard. What ever bull-shit you think of and say is listened to with the full attention of the architecture world.

• You get credit for things that lesser known architects have already invented long before you stole...ahem, I mean borrowed it from them.

• You get to meet other famous people. Why is this so great?  You can take pictures of yourself with them and put it on your facebook profile. You will be the envy of all your friends.

I am hanging with Tutu, top that suckers!!!

• Even better than just meeting other famous people you get to work with them. 

Me and Pharrell are buddies like that!

• You get to work for autocrats and dictators. Why is this an advantage? These are the types that have the good sense to put great architecture in its rightful place: above the concerns of uncultured people who have no taste what-so-ever in architecture. With a supreme leader behind you, your design visions can be realized unmitigated; without all the nonsensical layers of regulations and bureaucracy commonly found in democratic countries. 

• If you are a Caucasian or Japanese male living and working in a major first world country, you stand a pretty good chance of winning the Pritzker Prize: “The profession's highest honor” - that comes with $100,000 of pocket change by the way.

• You get invited to competitions that are closed off to regular architects.- imagine offered the opportunity to design some of the most exciting and important buildings of our times. There is real opportunity in that to flex your design muscles and show off your talents, but you don't even get considered if you are sitting in the economy section of the architectural class.

• Freebies. Oh my God! the freeking freebies. People will just give you stuff for nothing. You will get discounts at hotels, restaurants, get bumped up to first class, etc.

• After a certain stage people will just give you awards and accolades for things that you didn't even know there was an award for, just because you are famous.(look at all the awards and accolades that SANAA got after they made their break through)

• At some point you will be invited to become director of The Venice Architecture Biennale: the world’s most important celebration of contemporary architecture.

• You don’t need to prove your-self anymore. You can just sit back on your laurels and regurgitate your same old shtick and everyone will say “oh he is such a genius.” Just look at Zaha and Lebiskind.

• Like Norman Foster, when your name becomes so famous and valuable you can arrange it so that your own company basically pays you just to keep your name on their stationary. Then you can buy a ranch in the french countryside and come in to the office once or twice a month just to show your face and sign autographs for your star-stuck employees.

• Also from the Norman Foster play-book: When a financial crisis hits and most of your employees either have to take a pink-slip or a pay cut, you can have your-self a nice pay raise and a hefty bonus. You deserve it!

• The most talented people will want to come and work for you and what’s more they are willing to do it for free or very little. Even more, they will work much, much, harder for you than they would at an average office. I think Frank Lloyd Wright once had the children of his rich clients actually pay him money to work for him. Now that's what I call "Big Pimpin"

• You will get to travel the world over to promote your self and even get paid to do it,

• Contractors don’t argue with you, and clients?... well clients will be clients. Sorry!

• Just the thought of groupies. If you are famous you will no doubt have a bunch of superficial friends and loyal devotees that will follow you around like secret service agents just because you are famous.

• People will drop your name to make themselves look important; "Oh I was having dinner with Conrad Newel yesterday darling, who were you dining with again?"

• People will call you a genius - for most famous people i.e. movie stars, singers, etc, when they are famous people say oh they are fantastic, etc. but architects? when architects are famous people tend to say "well he is a genius!". Just think about that for a second: Conrad Newel a Genius! - I kind of like the sound of that. It has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

• You will be memorialized simulntaniously for about a week on facebook when you die. People will replace their profile picture with a flattering picture of you. All the vicious and tyrannical things that you have done throughout your career will be forgotten or forgiven. They will say nice things about you, write quotes of all the wonderful things that you said on their statuses, and every website and news articles will be all about you. Although you won’t be around to basque in all the adoration, I think that's much better than silently slipping off the planet with not a mention in the press.

 

• People will actually want to read your autobiography

Tribute to Oscar Niemeyer, after his death by Brazilian artist Kobra (Thanks Vinícius Vitoriano!)

Le Corbusier immortalized on Swiss currency

• You will have a place in History. People will write about you, and continue to be inspired by you long after you are dead. Just think about this. Hundreds of years after you are dead, architecture students will be visiting your grave with flowers.

Conrad Newel

NOTES ON BECOMING A FAMOUS ARCHITECT
Liberating Minds Since August 2007

79. Muses are overrated, Suzannas are underrated: Make a bad First Draft

muse  (mjuːz)
— n
	a goddess that inspires a creative artist, esp a poet
[C14: from Old French, from Latin Mūsa,  from Greek Mousa  aMuse]

You know the funny thing about the Ivy League schools is the huge difference between your inflated expectations of what an Ivy League class should be like and what they actually are. Take the kind of students for example. In my puny little brain, I imagined that there would be the most brilliant students there from all over the country and perhaps the world. I imagined them having encyclopedic knowledge and that they could recite Baudelaire or expound on Foucault’s philosophical theories on demand. And, indeed there were quite a few geniuses, and I am not exaggerating. They were some super smart people who seemed like they were hyper intelligent aliens from another planet, but they were the exceptions not the rule. Most of the students there were just plain old average Joes about to be indoctrinated into the cult of architecture. They were kind of the same people you went to high school with ,minus a few class clowns. I said a few not all. There were people from many different backgrounds of varying IQ levels with different ways of working,

One guy I remember quite well was Alec, he was what you call a classic talent. He was one of those people that was born with it; the gift. His visual skills were highly developed in comparison to the rest of us. Some of his close friends told me that when he was in high school he was close to a rock star. He was revered by his teachers and fellow students because of the things he could make and the way he could draw. When he got accepted to one of the top architecture schools in the country, everyone just kind of accepted it as a matter of inevitability. Alec was never the vocal type, he was a little reserved, and felt more comfortable expressing himself through his work.

When he got to college, things worked out a little different for him though. The problem with Alec was that he was so accustomed to being the best and the center of attention with his work that he just could not accept being an average guy when it came to design and creative work. He was certainly not the worst in his class but he was not exactly number one either. 

The way I saw it, there were two broad categories of people in our studio. There were the people who gave a damn and those who didn’t. 90% fell into the first category and Alec fitted squarely in it. They were the hard working types that worked and worked and worked and worked. They lived in the studio and if they weren’t limited to how long you could be in school, I figured they would probably die there too. They always set high standards for themselves in terms of design. It would behove them to create something that they considered banal, or unsatisfactory. Their modus operandi was “I have to make something interesting, something that is gong to blow everybody away”. They were so caught up in trying to make that one masterpiece, that one where people will be talking about it for years to come. They were going to make a memorable super fantastic project and they will do it at what ever cost it takes. 

They burnt the midnight oil, smoked pot, and drank themselves silly, whatever. Whatever helps them to come up with that great killer idea. 

Come presentation day, they would pin up and what they have up on that wall was indeed interesting. I remember when Alec used to pin up, everyone would huddle around his work to marvel at the fantastic image that he had up there before he cold finish pinning up. And while the professors were talking about the other folks work their eyes could not help but glance over at Alec’s drawings every now and then. The rest of the presentations was just a long annoying prelude to Alec’s presentation. I could guarantee that everyone in the room was thinking the same thing “I wonder what he is going to say about it?” And when it came time, it was almost always a little deflating. He would present and then once all the questions were asked then things would start to go down hill from there. 

It was always like:

“Yeah Alec, these images are really nice but I have yet to see a section through the project. These plans are great but I can imagine the actual elevations and sections in a hundred different ways. They are all fantastic. But what is your version?”

or my favorite:

“Yeah Alec, but what happens when it rains?”

His answer to all this was:

“Yeah but, this is just the general idea, I haven’t worked out all the details yet. Can’t you just critique the idea of the project?”

And so you get this constant back and forth. 

“No Alec, I can’t critique what is not there!!! you need to...”

My theory is that Alec could not figure out a very elegant way to solve the section so he just did not draw it or present it. He just needed to go back into his hallucinogenic state and wait for the muses to deliver him that perfect section. It was not because he was lazy or did not work hard. Although he did not produce a lot of physical drawings or models to demonstrate that he was indeed working, he was toiling with the project in his thoughts, visualizing it in many different ways, and was emotionally engaged. Perhaps too engaged. If that fucking muse would just deliver the Gaad damn section he would produce a million beautiful sections like you have never seen before. 

But the sad thing was, the fucking muse did not deliver in time and Alec, though a talented well meaning and quite a charming fellow, failed the course... and another... and another ...and was eventually thrown out of school.

I know a lot of Alecs out there in the world.

On the opposite side of the scale from Alec was Suzanna. Suzanna fits in that 10% of my class that did not give a damn about how it looked. She had no visual talent that I or anyone else could see.  Everyone wondered how she got into this school or any architecture school for that matter. Her work ethic was just abhorrently normal in relation to the rest of the schizophrenic and downright unhealthy work ethic of the rest of us. She was just like a regular normal human being and it bewildered everyone in the class. What the hell is she doing in architecture school? 

Suzanna would arrive in the studio sharply at 9:00 am and proceed to draw very diligently for about 2 to 3 hours. She would then take a 45 min lunch break come back to the studio and continue to work until about 5 and then she went home. 

When it was time for desk crit, Suzanna would calmly take her drawings to completion the day before and come to the studio at the appointed time. She would unroll her completed set of drawings: plans, sections, elevations, and details and lay them out on her desk. Then she would reach into her hand bag and pull out a pocket romance novel and begin to read patiently while waiting for a professor to come around to critique her work. 

Now, I don’t know about you, but seeing a fellow student sitting across from you reading a romance novel while you are in a state of complete and utter stress trying to come up with a building that is supposed to revolutionize architecture, save humanity, create world peace, and eradicate universal hunger is a little bit annoying. 

When Suzanna pinned up, her work always seems invisible. Everyone would just glance by it as if it was not there. It was just well...boring, bland, blaaaa. All the lines were light and roughly the same line weight. If you stopped to take a look at it, you would see that everything was done by the book. Everything that was required of her was done. She approached architecture with the same even handed logic that one would approach a high school algebra problem. 

step 1 - solve for all the Parentheses

step 2 - solve for all the Exponents

step 3 - solve for all the …

...and so on and so on...

When the professors commented on her work their body language would all express that something was missing. They would explain to her in diplomatic and undiplomatic archi-speak language:

“This is boring Suzanna you need to get inspired!” 

But in the end, that was just their opinion. The fact is, she did what was required of her and they could not fail her on the grounds that her work was boring.

Suzanna passed class after class after class and eventually graduated, became an architect and I presume, went on to add to the collection of grey boring buildings that dominate our skylines.

When I think back on Suzanna & Alec, I always thought, if they could figure out how to work together, those two would make a really kick ass team. No seriously. Here is how I imagine them approaching an architectural problem.

First, Alec would go into a spiritual trance and come down from mount euphoric with a remarkable and very inspiring plan that was sketchy, incomplete and unresolved. Then he would struggle to death to come up with a way to resolve it in a way that was up to his standards. After a fruitless and exhausting effort, he would just keel over with exhaustion. This would be where Suzanna come in. She would take up the hopelessly unresolved plan and sit there steadily, line after line and come up with a clean, comprehensive set of drawings that thoroughly solves Alec’s plan. Upon waking up and seeing what Suzanna have done with his plans, Alec would suffer a mental relapse and pass out again. When he recovers again he would begin to lecture Suzanna 

“Holy sweet Jesus, what have you done! 

You are killing me Suzanna, you are killing me! 

you don’t do it like that” 

then he would take out his pencil and begin critiquing and editing her solution. 

“It’s better if you do it like this”. 

Then he would sit there cutting and pasting and tweaking and polishing until it becomes a brilliant master piece he is satisfied with.

It would be an ugly process but I think it would have worked.

The key to this working relationship would be that they complement and compensate for each others strengths and weaknesses. 

For Alec, like most people, it is a lot much easier to criticize and edit what someone else have done than it is to create something from scratch. He is far too self critical to make something bad, so he just goes into a creative block and freeze up. He just cares way to much about how it looks.

Suzanna on the other hand doesn't give a damn about how it looks. She just wants to get it done so that she can get back to reading her romance novel. Alec’s unconventional ideas, and forms would challenge her to think outside the box and force her to be a lot more imaginative than she would normally allow herself to be.

But without Suzanna there to make a bad draft the first time around Alec would never be able to have something to criticize or edit, and thus would never be able to do anything.

Now I am talking about Alec & Suzanna, but this is also struggle that exist in the heads of most creative people. We all have both an Alex and a Suzanna, embedded into our creative dialogue. I believe however, the most effective creative professionals, (ie. Famous Architects) are the ones who have the courage to back the fuck off and allow their inner Suzannas to do what she does best: produce a boring functional first draft.

In fact, I think the Suzannas in our creative process have been underrated for far too long. She is always overshadowed by that fucking erratic muse (who comes and goes whenever it pleases her) with the beautiful inspiration that only lives in our heads. Our inner Suzanna is the dependable faithful midwife that allows the idea to come into the world that you and I live in.  There would be no 99% perspiration without our Suzannas my friends. 

I believe Alain de Botton, put it best when he said.

Those who go on to be proper writers are those who can forgive themselves the horrors of the first draft

This was what Alec could not allow himself to do. He could not make a terrible first draft. He could not forgive himself if he did while Suzanna just accepted it. 

We could have easily said

Those who go on to be great architects are those who can forgive themselves the horrors of the first draft.

By Conrad Newel,

NOTES ON BECOMING A FAMOUS ARCHITECT 
Liberaing Minds Since August 2007

What better way to celebrate Suzanna than by naming my first airplane after her.

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