Tuesday, April 17, 2007

My Blog-ject

Single family, detached houses, in suburban enclaves. I see this realm as the most potent for creating a body of work with a design (re)interpretation.

I walk along city streets, and realize more and more that one isolated incident has a limited impact...the sum of the parts of the city fabric contains and controls everything within it. Designers will always fail in grandiose urban planning simply from the resulting state of shock to the surrounding body. Beyond the city, there's more room to breathe, more indifference to change, and socio-economic structures to prey upon for a greater design payoff.

I'm posting these sketches I had done for Shang's prefab house some time ago. Just as a start point. They're raw, and not necessarily how I'm thinking now, but at least they'll push the cactus down.

3 comments:

Dimitri said...

to me it seems that a design incident that takes place in a suburban enclave is more isolated than the urban design happening. the public doesn't experience the cool architect's house in the wooded connecticut suburbs. It might be in a design mag and influence other designers. What about lots of small scale design or achitecture popping up on city streets? What if someone designed some awesome building entrances and cool entrances became a trend? I think that would impact a lot of average people.

Paul said...

in terms of physical exposure to the public, you're right. my thinking is such that if you're walking down broadway, you're bound to experience hundreds of interesting buildings or features of those buildings...that's the vitality of the city. the suburbs interest me because they are so sterile, in terms of design. people take their cookie cutter houses for granted...or simply view them as an expression of social stature. think back to the days of the palladian villa...the function of the house is still very similar (sans the carport), but the aesthetic intent/craft seems to have fallen off the drawing board. could a house on woodfield crossing have a roof deck? a courtyard? vertical siding? a glass chimney? sorry for the rambling thoughts...but with the wealth of construction techniques and building materials out there, i feel that this area of study is ripe for investigation...whereas anything seems possibly in the city, as it is constantly re-inventing itself.

David said...

I think that "different" often means "scary" to suburbanites. That's why they moved to the suburbs--to be with people like them in houses like theirs. There are zoning councils (I think) that prevent cool things from happening. I remember visiting Vancouver and I *did* see roof decks, weird ladders, and even "themed" houses in the suburbs.
In Manhattan, all of the interesting design is in a scale outside of the average non-designer's consciousness. I like Dimitri's entrance idea because it doesn't require a big jump away from the human scale that non-designers live in. To appreciate a large building's design (especially an interior) requires a lot of abstract thinking that most people aren't ready for.