THE NEXT BIG THING As Philadelphia heads into the second quarter of the millennium, we asked three of the city’s most thoughtful people to make a pitch for what they thought should be our next BIG thing. We shouldn’t have been surprised when, rather than write about something to build, these visionaries recommended changing the relationship between the built environment and the way we live and work.
28 SPRING 2022 | context | AIA Philadelphia
ARCHITECTURE AS COLLECTIVE WORK BY TYA WINN, NOMA, LEED GREEN ASSOCIATE “The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody has decided not to see.” – Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (1943) The mythology of architecture has consistently starred the architect’s ego, making it central to the story line. The architect is always singular — and deified, and buildings are seen as the physical manifestation of the architect’s prowess and superiority over the basic laws of the earth. Our collective fable has created a Frankensteinian persona that has endured, from the master builder to the starchitect, to whom singular creative and technical responsibility are ascribed. The resulting power dynamics have divided the design field, aggrandizing those at the top with naming rights and equity in firms, while relegating those at the bottom to the role of invisible supporters. The last few years have seen a serious inward look at the practice and process of making buildings, and there have been calls for broad change. Politics, gender, and pay equity; community engagement; and office culture have all been questioned, and demands for reform have rung out. The next big shift in the field will undoubtedly be the return of collectivism as both a mode and standard for practice. The acknowledgment and celebration of building design as a collaborative process, conducted by team, will reinforce the positive synergies already present in the design process. Whether “design build” or “integrated design,” building coordination and production are more streamlined and efficient when trust and teamwork are centered. Philadelphia is a city that prides itself in hard work and grit, one that has a long history of celebrating the process of making buildings with outward expression. These are old lessons that we can now reinterpret to define how offices function. As the field has embraced new technologies and benchmarking systems, niche specialization has created industry striation and broadened career opportunities. This allows the field of design to stay
THE NEXT BIG SHIFT IN THE FIELD WILL UNDOUBTEDLY BE THE RETURN OF COLLECTIVISM AS BOTH A MODE AND STANDARD FOR PRACTICE.
