Blog | Designers on Design

Make Room For The Diva

I love the Opera. The intensity, the grandeur, the music, the sets, the costumes, the drama; and the Diva, around which many a story line is centered. The adoring public awaits her entrance, yearning for the moment she transports us from heights of pleasure to the depths of despair. The Diva transfixes us and after that, nothing is ever the same; especially if she cracks on a high note.

Opera is often about pomp and circumstance and it’s no surprise that the spectacle offstage at the Opera House can be equally dramatic.

The Opéra Garnier in Paris; is the stair for the space or the space for the stair?

Are Windows In Search Of Treatment? Or Architecture?

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There’s and industry term I find both confusing and amusing at the same time: window treatments. What comes to mind is “are they ill?” I prefer to refer to them as “window coverings.” Used to enhance the aesthetics and architectural elements of the window and the room, they are very effective.

Just like any other component in a space, drapery serves a function. In this case, the primary function is privacy. The large expanse of doors is a great architectural feature until you realize the neighbors aren’t using their binoculars to look at wildlife. In this case, we specified a very simple, gossamer drape in the same color range of the wall. We chose to take them to the underside of the ceiling to emphasize the height of the room. Simple. Beautiful. Done.

Less Is More Again

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Housing size has ballooned in the last 60 years. The average size of a new American home in 1950 was 983 square feet; by 2011, the average new home was 2,480 square feet. In 1950, an average of 3.37 people lived in each American home; in 2011, that number had shrunk to 2.6 people. This means that in the US we take up more than three times the amount of space we did 60 years ago.

Furnishings, electronics, vehicles, clothes and kitchen gadgets fill these homes; all at the service of size, which has equated with prosperity in the American suburb. At least until recently when a change has been set in motion. The younger generations want to live in centers of activity, major cities, or the satellite cities surrounding them. Empty nesters and those of retirement age who may want to downsize find themselves unable to do so because the drop in the housing market left them with a home worth less than anticipated.

As urban centers become more desirable, the cost of living rises and many are priced out of the market. Short term solutions include rooming situations and living with parents after college. There is another option. Live in less space.

Good Design or Bad Design?

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Electronic check-in and boarding passes? Good design.

Not enough space on a form to enter an email address? Bad design.

Rubber shoe covers? Good design.

The Ford Pinto? Bad design.

Everything we use has been designed. Sometimes it’s effortless to the point we take it for granted and then there’s the day the release latch on the umbrella is stuck and it’s pouring rain. What is the criteria to distinguish a good design from bad design? First, it must provide a viable solution to a need or desire. Next, it must serve its intended purpose. And finally, it must withstand its usable life cycle.

When it comes to architectural design, the criteria is simultaneously easier and more complex because of all the possible permutations of a single idea. I’ll use some of Studio Santalla’s projects to discuss the concept.

This is a 5 ft x 7 ft bathroom. It’s used just about everywhere in the US; it’s the standard when planning a bathroom. Does it provide a viable solution? Yes; and it works for its intended purpose and with proper care it will last for years. It’s a space efficient design. But is the instance shown in the photo a good design? No.

Bases, Casings and Mouldings-Just Why?

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For years, applied trim was a given on all my interior projects. By trim, I am referring to base moulding, crown moulding, window and door casing, etc. It was was selected and specified from a catalogue, except in those projects where we created custom profiles. Trim is available in hundreds of shapes and sizes, which when combined or modified, expands the possibilities exponentially.

Trim serves an architectural purpose, with origins that trace back to Classic Greek Architecture. Used effectively, it gives a room scale, enhances doors and openings and reinforces the geometry of a room.

The interior of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice by Renaissance Master Andrea Palladio illustrates the perfect use of moulding in accordance with the Corinthian style of Architecture, executed in stone and plaster.

Good To Great

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When I was much younger I thought getting an “A” meant you were smart. This paradigm worked for me through most of high school until some of my classmates who for years were the “C” students realized they weren’t going to good schools without better grades and seemingly overnight got the best grades in the class. In college, while studying Architecture, I had to come to terms with doing a great job on one project and then sometimes hearing “this is a really good concept, but it is not well developed,” on another. As I struggled with it and vowed my revenge on receiving just a passing grade. With time, I’ve understood what my professors meant.

The architectural master and icon Mies van der Rohe said “God is in the details.” The finesse with which his projects are executed is testament to the credo, which I’ve come to understand and embrace.

Since it’s my work and I own the bragging rights, I’ll use a few of Studio Santalla’s work to illustrate the concept of taking an idea and developing its potential.

The Architectural Pantheon

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I am a one word professional: architect, so the inevitable cocktail party question has a simple answer. Over the years, my list of professional interests has expanded. I’ve done work in graphic design, photography, furniture design, exhibit and event design, product design and textile design. Add writing to this mix and now you know what I’ve been doing for almost thirty years.

That for all this time I’ve used the one word expletive is primarily because it’s accurate, mixed in with a healthy dose of snobbery. Architecture is one of the classical fine arts, an ancient and noble profession, which somehow confers the self-imparted right to turn one’s nose sharply up at other applied arts, the likes of those I also practice. I think the attitude starts with the educational process.

Research shows the nose will appear to curl up higher when the mouth is pulled back.

Objects of Our Desire

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When you need a check up, call a doctor, but when you have a toothache, call the dentist. When buying property or in need of a will, there will be a lawyer involved. When the plumbing malfunctions, call the plumber and when the car breaks, take it to the mechanic.

In a world of must haves, why doesn’t everyone have an architect? In fact, most of the built environment is not the work of architects. What’s interesting, in an article published by Metropolis in 2008 suggests it’s largely due to architect elitism. If 98% of architects are unwilling to design for the middle class income sector, the vast majority of the population is underserved. If that’s accurate, there’s a huge untapped market out there. Something here isn’t adding up, is it?

Fashionista Architecture

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I like fashion, for which I have officially joined the ranks of the frivolous as far as many serious professionals are concerned. That I like clothes is no secret to those who know me, but couture is not a subject frequently discussed by the intellectual elite. In my opinion, however, fashion has much in common with architecture and the fine arts.

Scientists estimate our ancestors started wearing clothes around 100,000 BC from the evidence of body lice on humans. The fur from hunted animals was used to cover the body and served as functional shelter from the elements.

Archaeological findings reveal that textiles and needles dating from prehistoric times, which were likely used to manufacture clothing. Depictions abound of uniformity in dress, which implies mass production, but clothing has and continues to be used as a sign of hierarchy, class and distinction and has a language of it’s own to the present day.

A reconstruction in the British Museum of headgear and necklaces worn by women in some Sumerian graves. Versions of both are worn to this day, sans daffodils.

Architectural Shopping Cart 2013

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Visualization is key. If you can see it, you can achieve it, self-empowerment gurus are quick to say. Well believe it, because I’ve been seeing it for a long time, insofar that I spend my days thinking about the visual world as I experience life in the city, buildings, interior spaces, and so on.

As I experience this visual world I love, there are projects that would become welcome additions to that cocktail book in progress on my work. I’ve added them to my “cart.” In no particular order…

This is a view of the renovated lobby at the Public House, an Ian Schrager hotel in Chicago, designed by Yabu Pushelberg. I saw it this past summer and was blown away. The renovation is done with artistry, restraint and exquisite taste. It epitomizes “cool” because it’s not trying, it just is.
http://www.yabupushelberg.com

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