FIVE CONDITIONS FOR THE MAKING OF ARCHITECTURE

The concept of sustainability is to us a core guiding principle of design rather than a specialization or appendage. We have developed the following FIVE CONDITIONS as a tool for discussing and engaging sustainable design within the context of the design process. They outline a holistic approach to the manipulation of site, program, materiality, form, and action in the design process.

CONDITION1 [Site is Memory] Every place collects and contains a broad logic mapped from the overlapping structures of geology, geography, memory, history, habitat, ecology, climate, and culture. Design begins with the understanding of place through all of these logics, and the (re)presentation of that place. We must understand that memory is imperfect and history interpretive. This means that virtually every attempt at analysis is somehow filtered by individual perspective. We must also understand that the attributes of place are the results of ongoing processes that are natural and organic, and happen at sometimes geologic scales of time, making design Interventions are mere points along that continuum.

CONDITION 2 [Design is Intention] Architecture is design applied as the mediator between “utility” and “place”. Design is the physical expression of an inherently political set of values, regardless of whether that expression is intentional (not choosing is still a choice.)

Architecture is fundamental to culture, heritage and education and should be accessible to everyone. Clients and users should be encouraged to cultivate mindfulness of social, political, economic, environmental and ethical issues, to take a responsibility for their actions and desires, and to explore ways in which we can help them to make a positive impression on a place.

CONDITION 3 [Material is Energy] Every material in a project has a place of origin, has been processed in some way, will be used for some purpose, and will eventually be (re)absorbed by the earth. The place of origin is affected by the making/extracting of a material; the place of process is affected by the byproducts and waste generated by, as well as by the energy used in, that process; the place of use is affected by how it is applied, and the strategies used in its deployment; and the place of re-absorption is affected by its eventual (and inevitable) disposal. Therefore, the palette choices we make in the assembly of Architecture, have a profound effect on a wide range of geographies.

CONDITION 4 [Building is Connection] As the mediator between utility (program) and place (site) building plots the relationships between geography and culture, climate and habitation, form and memory. The formal arrangement of systems and technology that we collectively call Architecture, then, serves simultaneously as utensil, signifier, and recorder.

CONDITION 5 [Architecture is Action] It is necessary to shift our cultural bias away from one of design as image and towards a tradition of design with purpose. Architecture is purposeful poetry. It is the music against which we write the lyrics of our lives, and is therefore deserving of intentions more profound than those of appearance. Architecture is active, and connects “thinking” with “making”. Architecture is an absolutely political act and it should at least occasionally be revolutionary.