PERSPECTIVE

After too many post-studio nights spent researching, carefully crafting emails and piecing material together for not one, but three individuals, I’ve finally gotten this monster off the ground. Now all that’s left is to hope that they attend and pray that I don’t goof up while hosting the lectures; I don’t particularly relish the thought of having to speak in front of a large audience for three consecutive Fridays and yet at the same time I’m praying for good up-take.

But beyond the numbers, I sincerely hope they walk away with a deeper appreciation for what it means to be an architect, and that modest projects done with a lot of care are just as valuable as those spawned by broad strokes and grand gestures, if not more so. Kerry Hill describes the former as schemes endowed with ‘exactitude’ and ‘authenticity’. Erik cleverly coined the latter as ‘stuff’, the explanation of which I share below in all its guile,

"The word “stuff”’ comes from the French word “estoffe” meaning quilted material or that which is within the quilt. Interestingly, “estoffe” is simply used to produce the appearance of volume – to make the quilt appear more luxurious. The stuff found not only in my office but also in each of our architectural libraries and within the cities we inhabit may appear more lavish and full, but it remains just as empty. The economy to produce the stuff leaves little room for significant and impactful thinking."

from “Sustain/ability”
Ong Siew May Distinguished Lecture Series 2008
on Rick Joy and “Suitability”

Angels or Fallen Angels?

Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels, Los Angeles, 2002
by Jose Rafael Moneo
photography by i,etc.

"Architects smile when they see their work completed. But given that architects have very little sense of humor, what is it that makes them smile?

Do they perhaps smile from a pleasant feeling of having synchronized their works with the rationality of the world, from the naturalness with which their small contributions fit into the framework created by the Constructor of the World?

Or on the contrary, do they laugh at the artificiality of their acts, at the absurdity of what surrounds us, at their small contributions to the existing chaos? Do they smile vainly at feeling themselves in possession of a truth which they think others are unaware of?

Or do they have the cynical laugh of those who know that all is useless, and that all the stones in the temple they have constructed will inexorably fall down?

Do architects smile like angels or like fallen angels?"

from The Builder of the World
by Luis Moreno Mansilla &
Emilio Tunon Alvarez

So, how do you smile?

Encounters

photo by Aaltra

I bit off more than I can chew this semester. My idealistic streak definitely got the better of me this time. Alas, I'm learning not to complain - we all have our own battles to fight and taking one step at a time does help to ease matters.

I had the privilege of encountering a legendary member of the old guard last Friday night. He had a strong sense of pride - much like TKS though maybe a notch or two less potent which puts him at 'arrogant bugger' rather than 'fu*king cocky bastard'.

For an eighty year old, he had an extremely keen presence of mind and an equally sharp tongue. I had merely planned on discussing what he might like to talk about during his guest lecture – instead, he turned the table around and I unexpectedly found myself being probed and prodded by this ancient giant.

I managed to bat away most of the questions he fielded me, but one particular topic struck home.

“You're in an extremely privileged position Darryl, upper-middle class background. So what do you plan to do after you graduate?”

“Why are you doing architecture?”

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

The salvo of questions before these touched on Capitalism and how Singapore and money-minded Singaporeans took notice of the World Economic Forum in Davos and were generally oblivious about the World Social Forum in Brazil.

“How exactly can architecture alleviate poverty then?” I disagreed, sensing where the conversation was headed. Beyond the likes of Rural Studio, Cameron Sinclair and Teddy Cruz I didn't see how much more you could do with architecture. “You're over-estimating our worth”, I thought to myself. “You'd probably stand a better chance at generating greater social impact through master planning than architecture.”

I didn't get a straight answer. And I'm still left guessing. “Go read Buckminster Fuller.” was all he said, having been a one-time student and friend of his.

But the damage had already been dealt and I reckon my dad felt the blow as well. He crossed the line when he started messing around with social-economic background. There's no way he would've accepted a reply along the lines of “Be the best architect I can be. Being honest and sincere. Living out God-given purpose till I'm spent.” As much as I disagreed with some of his opinions, I'm still hung over his point about poverty.

Jesus once said,

“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.” Luke 12:48

I never asked to be born into the family I'm in. Never have I taken the luxuries I enjoy for granted and I am ever truly grateful – they are perhaps one of the main reasons why I whip myself so hard at times - to be worthy, in some pseudo-psychological way. But maybe that's not enough, and that chance meeting will have me search for ways undiscovered as to how this craft might serve the masses, being fully aware of the failings of Modernism on the one hand, and the real danger of having to prostitute myself in the future to money-grubbing developers on the other.

Oh Father, show me the way I am to walk.

In the full sense of the word

"In traditional societies, the status of the builder varies widely. In most villages, buildings tend to be designed, built, decorated and maintained by ordinary people – men, women and children – not specialists. Construction is a skill everyone knows...

...but even where specially trained builders work, the entire family usually works too, often with relative and neighbours whose efforts form contributions to an informal, complex labour bank...in other cases, as in central Mali, masons who have undergone long apprenticeships belong to prestigious guilds with specialised, secret knowledge.

At the high end of the social scale are master masons, or architects in the full sense of the word. Highly esteemed, they plan and direct the construction of major structures such as mosques."

from the book,
Spectacular Vernacular
The Adobe Tradition

Text by Jean-Louis Bourgeois
Photographs by Carollee Pelos
Historical Essay by Basil Davidson