ArchiTypes Winter 2009

“Not everyone can be famous, but everyone can be great by their service to others,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
 
Topics such as community leadership, mentorship, economic survival tactics, and the environment pulsed through all the presentations at the 2009 AIA Ohio Valley Regional Convention in Covington, Kentucky. The AIA Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana Convention consisted of three keynote speakers, tours, social events, a vendor’s fair, and many peer led educational/inspirational break-out sessions. Community leadership is the first addressed topic in a series of articles; please watch for additional coverage in the coming months.
 
Architects as Community Leaders
How can we, as architects, become better community leaders? The question is almost ironic because the profession was born out of service to the community. Each of the three keynote speakers provided inspirational advice about how our profession can even be redefined with more of a service outlook.
 
According to psychologist Richard Farson, President of Western Behavioral Sciences Institute of California, many of society’s problems may be solved by excellent design. Antoine Predock, FAIA, demonstrated how his designs have positively impacted the end-users and he proved it by showing the audience a series of successful and beautiful projects. Lastly, Edward Mazria, Founder of Architecture 2030, is likely believed to be one of the most positive architectural community leaders of our time.
 
Richard Farson on The Power of Design
Richard Farson believes first and foremost that architects are responsible for upholding excellent and thoughtful (thinking) design. He stretched so far as to suggest that good design saves marriages, protects children from abuse, reduces crime, reduces depression, augments physical/mental/emotional health, and the list goes on.
 
In particular, Farson researches how the human mind interacts with its environment. He provided a compelling example wherein he partnered with architects to redesign 7 Eleven gas stations. Their project objective was to reduce theft. Their solution involved moving the cash register to the front of the store, moving displays away from walls and replacing the solid front store walls with glass. Thefts were reduced by 40 percent.
 
Farson presented what he believes are a few obstacles to powerful design. First, he said that prizes sometimes offer a false-confidence to their recipient; they may also be given more as a popularity trophy rather than as a badge of merit. He continued, “awards and prizes breed competition often more so than collaboration.” Farson used the example of a group of scientists working together to make an important medical discovery. During one of their roundtable discussions, it became apparent that the one scientist who was withholding critical information from the group was the one scientist up for a Nobel Prize nomination. To which, the scientist reported that they would not tell of their portion of the discovery for fear that it would be stolen and the credit along with the Prize given to its thief. (Sadly, this happens in architecture as well.)
 
Another obstacle is the “sell-out” architect who sacrifices good design for money, relationships, and their reputation with clients. “It just isn’t worth it,” he says. Herein lies Farson’s greatest plea, “Stand up for good design for the sake of someone other than for yourself – for the good of your community.”
 
Predock on Museum Stories
Graced by Antoine Predock’s presentation, no doubt most were impressed by his inspirational collages and by the realized designs that are all example’s of Farson’s cry for powerful design. Overall, Predock reviewed many of his projects while occasionally offering tidbits of advice about the creative process and how to influence clients. For example, he starts the creative process with a collage and then works through many clay model renditions until the design is finished.  
 
Predock researches his clients carefully. He spoke of frequently “freaking out juries” with his designs. He didn’t mean that they were overwhelmed with beauty and therefore left in a state of ecstasy – though he said he wished that would happen more often. He meant, rather, that his architectural mission is to serve design first and the client second. Nonetheless, he is quite successful at winning over clients often by adding bits of their traditions, beliefs, and heritage into the fabric of the design.
 
Predock brought up a final good point that his personal reputation is more closely linked with his architectural designs rather than the size of his pocketbook. Simply for the love of design and to keep him creatively razor sharp, Predock shows his skills on residential design. Predock left a lasting encouragement for the crowd, “It is very important for us to keep doing houses.”
 
Mazria’s Architecture: On the Brink of Greatness
To top it off, Edward Mazria is no doubt a strong proponent for community leadership. Mazria created the Architecture 2030 Challenge, which is a powerful invitation for the world to become carbon neutral by the year 2030. Indeed, some architects and clients work more on meeting the goals of Architecture 2030 than on LEED. 
 
Mazria believes that architecture is the only profession that can make the noble 2030 goal a reality. In short, he recommends that we design our buildings first to use as little energy as is possible, second to add technologies that help us to further reduce energy, and finally to purchase renewable energy to meet our goals.
 
Mazria also hopes that these energy goals will move more fully into the housing industry. Last month, he presented a few ideas to the federal government about how economic recovery monies could be funneled into the private sector in order to bolster the economy. The crux of his argument was that if a household spends money to improve the energy efficiency of their home, the government would then reward them with a lower interest rate.
 
From psychology research, to design excellence, to stellar public reform efforts, the attendees of the 2009 AIA Ohio Valley Regional Convention heard many examples of how we can become more involved in our communities, how our designs are often more powerful than we realize, and how we have a key role in making the environment a better place for our children’s children.