Project dinila

To art or not to art

While most designers require a bare minimum knowledge of art form, art history , or a constant exposure to a form of art.  It’s not necessary to label everything that you’ve been working with as an art work or art related or god forbid artsy.

When I talk about designers, it’s an umbrella term that I used to describe any form of design discipline. I was and still trained in the design and build discipline of architecture. And I will be talking and discussing my trade in architecture

And we started when one man ruled the entire army of labourers from many trades of life to construct a beautiful basilica. And it was especially prevalent during the renaissance, where the names like Leonardo, Bramante, Michelangelo just to name a few, where they were responsible in a construction project and churning out wonderful pieces of art in their lifetime.

But, as time goes by especially in the late century, where some great masters like Le Corbusier were dabbing both mechanical pencil and brush at the same time, the separation of art and architecture were getting more pronounced. The construction site became more organized, there were more structured and order in the construction industry than ever before.

Is it the result of the great wars? Where most men returning from the war were trained in the military way? Is it because of the complexity of modern construction, where indoor plumbing,heating,and electricity required a specialist set of skills? Or is it the demands of the new world that require less beautification and a more egalitarian approach?

In our contemporary time, the construction industry is a multi billion dollar industry. From a small scale housing project, run by first time contractors or a brand new city of the future, built by an egomaniac leader. All of them share the common goals which are “To finish the job“

It’s easy to say that an architect needs to have a common style to have their brand out there. To be acknowledged by the masses, to make a statement on how spectacular their designs are, but I called bullshit on them.

You were tasked to come out from a set of restrictions and limitations in a certain set of time to deliver a result that is satisfactory to your client and you need to negotiate, bargain,begged, push, pull, delegate, facilitate, and die multiple times during the process. And there is no room for “oh it looks very good on Instagram if I do this”  and I say “Fuck your Instagram trend”

Personally,in my opinion the architect should and must solve their design brief, who will set the design brief? Themselves, from their interview with their client, site visit, scanning over the building codes, understanding the society, countless meetings with their contractors and sub.

After that,they must present this brief to their team, to their contractors and most importantly to their client. And most of the time you’ll fail to explain your design brief to one of them and you’ll face hell on earth where are the bad, the ugly and the shit coming in together like a big ass circus to ruin your days to come

Therefore an architect that still has the time to set a “style” on their next residential project, you guys should stick working paycheck to paycheck with developers or medium size contractors and close your shop, because “Your services are not required in the future of this industry”

I dream about the future where all designers work together with their respective clients and other traders to deliver a satisfactory result for the built environment. The result of their commitment to communicate will produce a wonderful design for one site after another.

There will be no more uniform housing estates

There will be no more badly constructed buildings

There will be no more Frankenstein buildings

To wrap up my rant, I say no to art not because architecture doesn’t have space for art, but

Architecture is a practice of solving problems, translating languages, and personally for me, to write a beautiful story.

Architecture is the room for Art. Art is the keystone of our arches of life. Architecture must be the foundation of art not becoming the art.

potramk

2024