I completely agree with Thomas! There have been a number of good "design" related documentaries that I have seen over the years. Remember the "Pride of Place" series? There have been others that celebrate an idividual architect or building. All quite worthy, but all focused on the "art" of architecture. More times than not, upon relfection, it seems that those films do more to separate architects from the rest of society rathar than show their connectiveness to it. They tend to do more to reinfoce the concept of the architect in his ivory tower.
A documentary more along the line that Thomas suggests would go a long way towards making architects seem more human. Showing the tials and tribulations, the victories and the frustartions, and just how hard it is sometimes to take all the different elements that have to go into a design (see the list that Thomas mentions in his message - plus more) and bring them together in a long process that ultimately comes together from a vitual fog to form a solution that meets all the disparate elements that are the constituent parts of a design. I believe most people would identify with the details of the process we go through as something that they could then relate to in their own lives, their own struggles.
Of course it would also go a long way towards developing an understanding of what they are paying for when they hire an architect. As it is now it is a big mystery, an unkown, and fear of the unkown in one of our most basic fears.
So the point is, educate the public about the techinical side of architecture at least as much, if not more, than the artistic side. Art, like beauty, is in the mind of the beholder. Most people realize this and therefore are not hesitant to share their version of "design" because all design is to them is "beauty" or art, and their "vision" of art is as valid as anyone elses, because it resides in the soul, not the mind.
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Wilburn Crater AIA
Project Architect
Bowers, Ellis & Watson Architects, PA
Asheville NC
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Original Message:
Sent: 08-10-2012 10:31
From: Thomas Streicher
Subject: You and Your Architect
In addition to depicting the basics of what an architect does, I think it would be good to include what activities happen in a typical project and how much time and effort an Architect spends doing those activities, perhaps a documentary that shows the activities of a typical project from start to finish. Maybe with a running clock on the bottom of the screen counting personnel hours spent on the project. Include everything like preparing a proposal, zoning analysis, programing, design, re-design, more design, design development, structural calculations, energy codes, green stuff, coordination, planning boards, zoning boards, environmental boards, contract docs, specifications, consultants, biding.....etc. I would watch something like that on PBS.
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Thomas Streicher AIA
Thomas Streicher, Architect
Monroe NY
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