THE EFFICIENT ARCHITECT(S) Amber Joan Barton
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CONTENTS
Preface i Introduction 01 The Individuals (who not)
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The Individuals (who) 15 The Collective (who) 23 Tectonic System (how) 25 Dialectic (what) 27 Collaboration (what) 31 Technology (what) 35 Accountability (what) 39 Pedagogy (how) 45 Conclusion 47 List of Figures 49 References 51 Appendix 55
PREFACE who am I ?
Masa Nagouchi, ZEMCH Workshop 2017 Group 2, photo.
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I am an architect (in training) with no desire to ever lose the (in training), as to stop training, learning, collaborating, thinking, is to stop being an architect. - Amber Joan Barton
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INTRODUCTION why?
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Total Supply of Waste Generated, 2009-2010.
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Efficiency has been an idea floating around the periphery of architecture since the first cross-disciplinary interactions with industrial design. Recently efficiency has increased in popularity within architectural discourse, as the proposed answer to the wastefulness of the construction industry.
1. P Hawken, E Lovins, and H Lovins, Natural Capitalism - Creating the next Industrial Revolution (US :Little Brown and Co, 1999), 369. 2. Masa Noguchi, ZEMCH: Toward the delivery of zero energy mass custom homes (Switzerland: Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2016).
Approximately 50% of all non-renewable resources are being consumed by construction placing it as the least sustainable industry in the world1. In response a lifecycle approach to energy and material efficiency has entered mainstream discussion, alongside more traditional systems thinking concerning the environment, economy and society2. Sustainable design continues to grow in momentum; however, a deepening discrepancy is appearing as the traditional role of the individual architect is unable to fulfil the increasingly complex demands of the socio-environmental community. This manifesto is not an advocation for an ‘efficient’ style, such as that promoted by the Modernists; nor is it solely focused on ‘efficient’ technocratic solutions, even though sustainability is undeniably important to the Efficient Architect(s). Instead the following manifesto advocates for a transformed role of the architect, from a creator concerned with physicality and built solutions, towards a thinker ready to ask the important questions. The next generation of architects, proposed to be The Efficient Architect(s), are thinkers, collaborators, curators, and most of all navigators actively engaging with the problems facing contemporary society. Accessible dialectic, collaboration and technology form the tools of change for The Efficient Architect(s) while accountability is the unwavering crux, the value needed to infuse within architectural thinking, talking and designing to ensure the continued relivance of both process and product.
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EFFICIENT adjective
(of a system or machine) achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense; (of a person) working in a well-organized and competent way3.
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3. Oxford Living Dictionaries, s.v. “efficient,� accessed September 17, 2010, https:// en.oxforddictionaries.com/ definition/efficient.
ARCHITECT noun
4. Oxford Living Dictionaries, s.v. “architect,� accessed September 17, 2010, https:// en.oxforddictionaries.com/ definition/architect.
a person who is responsible for inventing or realizing a particular idea or project4.
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THE EFFICIENT ARCHITECT(S) noun
5. See below for clarification
a group of people designing in a well-organised and competent way to realize ideas and projects of maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense5.
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THE INDIVIDUALS who not?
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Architecture has established itself as a discipline of Masters. Driven by a system of top down control, The Architect has become isolated. The lone genius driven to establish their modus operandi at all costs. Towards fame and supreme authority but in doing so, moving even further away from addressing any real problems. If The Efficient Architect(s) are to join together towards a more competent system capable of addressing questions at the root of humanity, it seems necessary to first acknowledge the history of ego driven power abuse. Mostly the result of a few whose unwavering desire for authorial originality has been given the heighten position of supreme authority through worship within media, architecture schools, and among the architecture community at large.
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Promethean Figure of Moderism: Le Corbusier
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The advent of Modernism marks a definitive point in which discussions of efficiency entered mainstream architecture. Yet it is also here that efficiency became corrupted under the all controlling reinterpretation of the Master Architect.
1. Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel, Open Source Architecture (Thames & Hudson: London, 2015). 2. Le Corbusier, Towards a New Architecture, (The Architectural Press: London, 1927), 8 - 20.
The figure of Le Corbusier (1887 - 1965) emerged as the all controlling ‘Promethean Architect’1. The compilation of his early articles within Vers une architecture (1923) translated as Towards a New Architecture (1927), became the first of many influential written publications and built works which used efficiency as an excuse for the clean lines of the Machine Aesthetic2. The authorial hand of Le Corbusier demanded an absolute control of society placing the will of the individual architect before that of the collective. The Promethean architect of Le Corbusier and his subsequent Modernist Masters established a top down dialogue within architecture which we still feel the suffocating grasp of over 80 years later.
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The Post Modern ‘starchitects’ Frank Gehry
The Post Modern ‘starchitects’ Zaha Hadid
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If Modernism is considered a misguided use of efficiency as a means to justify an aesthetic style, then Post Modernism offers a consciously self-indulgent rejection of any interest in efficient design. The architectural avant-garde, inspired by the fame secured by the Modernist Masters and further enabled by the media machine, were transformed into celebrities in their own right. The likes of Frank Gehry (1929 - ) and Zaha Hadid (1950 - 2016) spear headed this new breed of ‘starchitects’3. The starchitects were a collection of individuals whose large scale works aimed to reaffirm their own image through iconic gestures of architectural statement.
3. Susan Roaf and Andrew Bairstow, The Oxford Conference: A Re-evaluation of Education in Architecture (WIT Press: Ashurst UK, 2008), 149-155 . 4. Mildred Friedman, Gehry talks: architecture + process (Universe Publishing: New York, 2002), 8-9.
Celebrated for nothing else than an ability to stand out, the concerns of the ‘Famous Few’ have rendered within architecture a dangerous obsession with image. A need for status of the lone genius and visionary has created an illusion of innovation which is nothing more than a skin deep formal gesture. Frank Gehry, an architect who barely needs an introduction, epitomises this skin deep innovation, or perhaps more accurately the corrupting desire to transplant a signature architecture across the world. Within the opening pages of Gehry Talks (2002) perhaps we find the most troubling of misguided desires: “to create ever more inventive ways to enclose space”4. To create enclosure which uses its impressive form to seal itself against the social, cultural and environmental outside. Frank Gehry’s Walt Disney Concert Hall, Los Angeles California, 2003, is undeniably aesthetically complicated and opened up a realm of possibilities for digital design, yet there is a gapping lack of accountability. Accountability in the sense that this overgrown sculpture and its Pritzker Prize winning architect hasn’t even attempted to engage with the larger socio-environmental issues facing the global community. 12
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While Post Modernism may be considered to have gone and passed it seems architectural thinking cannot shake the desire for aggressive individualism at any stake.
5. Irenee Scalbert, “The Architect as Bricoleur,” Candide: Journal for Architectural Knowledge 4 (2011): 69-88.
Recent portrayals of the figure of the architect, such as Irenee Scalbert’s The Architect as Bricoleur (2011) still emphasises the lone genius relying on aesthetic judgement, flair and spontaneity5. Occupier of the metaphorical ‘deserted island’ alone to pick and choose from what is at hand; his ‘toolbox’ of knowledge his, and his alone. But is this analogy at all relevant today? In a time of increasing connection from the rise of technologies such as the social media, instant message and the internet of things, a portrayal of the singular seems rather outdated. An acknowledgement of the ‘toolbox’ of knowledge resonates within The Efficient Architect(s). However, this specific knowledge of the individual must find greater worth within a larger organised system of active engagement in collaboration. Discourse of form, aesthetics and originality continues to proliferate while ideas of sustainability remain largely as an undesirable secondary necessity within the design process. As Efficient Architect(s) we can no longer be caught in a face value adoration of exquisite forms. Instead we need to ask of these buildings and their ‘starchitects’ how innovative design can be used for the benefit of the collective towards solutions to the staggering socioenvironmental problems of contemporary society.
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THE INDIVIDUALS who?
“We would like to… understand what design tools are needed to subvert the forces that privilege the individual gain over the collective benefit” Alejandro Aravena, “Reporting from the Front,” 7.
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While much of architectural discussion is still playing within the carefree security of form and idealisation of the ‘starchitects’, tentatively rising from within are some individuals capable being part of the new generation of The Efficient Architect(s). These designers are not creating grand visual gestures as much as engaging in design thinking and discussions with and about the larger problems facing the collective whole. The first inaugural member of The Efficient Architect(s) architects is the non-architect, Richard Buckminster Fuller, whose prolific prototyping and cross-disciplinary engagement provokes an interest in sustainability long before it was fashionable. Fast forwarding past the Modernist style and Post Modernist imagery, those topics addressed by Bucky during the 1920s have finally re-emerged with the discourse of the architectural elite. Seen within the speech of Pritzker Prize winner Alejandro Aravena and his curatorial role for the 2016 Venice Biennale: Reporting from the Front. Also within V&A curator and architect Rory Hyde within his first book, Future Practice.
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Bettmann/Corbis, Buckminster Fuller in front of his geodesic dome, for the American pavilion at the 1967 World’s Fair in Montreal, Canada, 1967.
David Szondy, The Dymaxion House, photo.
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At the risk of naming an individual (and not even an officially recognised architect at that) it seems necessary to give credit to one of the inaugural members of The Efficient Architect(s): Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895 1983).
1. G.K. Ananthasuresh, “Buckminster Fuller and his Fabulous Designs,” Resonance 2 (2015): 98 - 122. 2. Ananthasuresh, “Buckminster Fuller and his Fabulous Designs,” 98 - 122.
While pre-dating all of the aforementioned figures, Bucky’s design thinking engages with ideas far beyond his time. Described as a “comprehensive anticipatory design scientist,1” Bucky’s design for the Dymaxion House and Geodesic Dome structures reveal an inherent concern for accountability through material efficiency, collaborative, cross disciplinary engagement, performative dialectic, and technological innovation. Long before sustainability became fashionable Bucky was already pushing the limits towards designs which aimed to better the collective. The Dymaxion House was a prototype designed in collaboration with Beech Aircraft in Wichita, Kansas, USA to be an autonomous family dwelling using prefabrication and sustainable design techniques to be self-sufficient and transportable2. Concerns still being explored by 21st century architects, Bucky was already thinking about in 1920.
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ELEMENTAL, Quinta Monroy incremental housing, 2004.
ELEMENTAL, Quinta Monroy incremental housing participatory growth, 2006.
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Fast forwarding to contemporary practice we find firms beginning to re-open discussions of efficiency in terms of process and product towards an architecture which actively engages with accountability.
3.“ELEMENTAL: About,” ELEMENTAL, Accessed November 9, 2017, http:// www.elementalchile.cl/en/ about/ 4. Alejandro Aravena and Andres Iacobelli, Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual (Hatje Cantz: 2013), 1-20. 5. Alejandro Aravena, “Reporting from the Front,” AV Monographs: ELEMENTAL 185 (2016), 7. 6. Luis Fernandez-Galiano, “Quinta Monroy Housing,” AV Monographs: ELEMENTAL 185 (2016), 16.
One such firm is the ‘do tank’ ELEMENTAL and its executive director Alejandro Aravena. Founded in 2001, ELEMENTAL is based on a participatory design process, which has architects working closely with the public and potential users to explore projects which may have a positive longterm social impact3. Of greatest interest is the focus of Aravena on implementing action from within a theoretic analysis of the possibly for architecture to bring improvement to the city and lives of people4. As curator of the XV Venice Architecture Biennial title: Reporting From the Front, Aravena opened discussions towards the new roles that the architect must adopt as a conscious listener “to those that were able to gain some perspective and consequently are in the position to share some knowledge and experiences with those of us standing on the grand.5” The pilot project of do tank ELEMENTAL, Quinta Monroy Housing (2001 - 2004), set the basis for much of the firms participatory design strategy which employs incremental housing as a product as process. Situated within Iquique, Chile the 93 units of social housing were designed as a ‘half a good house’ so as to meet competing demands for efficient land use, low upfront property costs, and a demand for self-bettering of residences overtime through controlled extensions6. What this project imagines is not a finished entity but a process through which the collaboration is placed at the heart of both process and product to enable a socially reactive architecture. It is this focus on design thinking actively within and for the collective that The Efficient Architect(s) is built upon.
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Dewi Cooke, Rory Hyde and the Bin Dome, 2013.
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The third inaugural member of The Efficient Architect(s) represents the far reaching diversity of applications for the architectural thinker.
7. Rory Hyde, Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture ( Didcot, UK: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2012), 1-15.
Rory Hyde is an author, advocate, designer and self proclaimed thinker, who has taken on the task of gathering and exposing the vibrant edges of alternative architectural practice. Hyde’s novel, Future Practice (2012), offers an optimistic critic of architects’ value in society suggesting new diverse forms of practice are needed to address the major challenges of our times7. Presented as 17 conversations between Hyde and practitioners from the edges of architecture this book explores the possibilities of new roles for which The Efficient Architect(s) may meet. It is along similar lines of thinking towards ‘next principles’, rather than regressing into the tradition of building, that this manifesto draws similarities and ultimately proposes the new foci for re-imagining an architecture capable of sustaining a beneficial relevance within the increasingly complex demands of contemporary society.
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THE COLLECTIVE who?
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It feels necessary here to clarify who the collective is that The Efficient Architect(s) are to think and design as part of, and for. The Efficient Architect is an individual who undertakes thinking and design towards a goal of bettering society as a whole. The resource consumption of the construction industry places sustainable practices at the heart of thinking as an Efficient Architect. It is proposed that architecture can no longer be exclusively connected to the built but is instead a way of thinking that manifests in diverse outcomes. This diversity is not an excuse for shallow knowledge but instead a reason for the Efficient Architect to enter a greater specificity and strive for an increased depth of knowledge. The Efficient Architect(s) is the resulting system of individuals whose individually fragmented but collectively far extensive knowledge may be utilised to tackle the real world socio-envrionmental problems. With the who (and who not) established, the question seems to now be of how, what, and where. How does The Efficient Architect(s) become a strategy of design concerned with beneficial change? What does it mean for the future of the individual architect? What of the aspiring starchitects? Where are The Efficient Architect(s) found? The following sections attempt to provide a framework for the thinking and design approach of The Efficient Architect(s).
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TECTONIC SYSTEM how?
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Hyde suggests that the establishment of ‘next principles’ is necessary to set new trajectories for design thinking. He perceives the power of architecture as within the tradition of robust academic and intellectual landscapes1. Consequently, in stepping into a new age of architectural thinking it is necessary to maximise upon this foundation of academia and intellectual drive by pairing the tools of change, in the form of dialectic, collaboration and technology, with an overarching compositional value of accountability. The metaphor of a tectonic system seems a useful comparison for The Efficient Architect(s) as it implies a dependance on composition in which each part establishes an important relationship within and to the functioning whole2. 1. Jonathan Molloy and Sam Zeif, eds, “Process / Product: Rory Hyde,” Paprika! 3, 2 (September 2017). http://yalepaprika.com/ processproduct/ 2. Wes Jones, “Can Tectonics Grasp Smoothness?,” Log 30 (2014), 37. 3. Hyde, Future Practice, 1-15.
At the micro-scale The Efficient Architect(s) demand a reconfiguration of dialectic, collaboration and technology towards an impulse of accountability. At this scale there is an inherent need for the intelligible individual to strive towards an increased depth of knowledge. Fragmentation is mostly likely the result. However, this is not an excuse for negligence but an acknowledgment that the egotistic master architect lacks the capacity allowed by an individual functioning as part of a larger system. At the macro-scale The Efficient Architect(s) can be understood as a flexible, interconnected network of individuals united under the necessity to meet the complex concerns of contemporary society. Lending again from the emerging alternative practices explored within Future Practice, this potentially global community can be understood as a ‘Networked Practice’. Essentially, an infinite number of specific teams to be bolted together for particular projects3. Again the tools of change, dialectic, collaboration and technology, become essential to establishing beneficial outcomes. The Efficient Architect(s) makes no presumptions about the actual form of these outcomes, instead focusing on the process of how something is thought about, talked about and put together. 26
DIALECTIC what?
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The Efficient Architect(s) can no longer be stuck within insular discussions of form, aesthetics and beauty.Instead there is a need to use communication which engages with the interdisciplinary nature of architecture. This is reflected upon by Dan Hill within the introduction to Future Practice. Hill expressed concern over the perplexing ‘archibabble’ for which the aforementioned starchitects and other international architects, use as a means to bolster their otherwise shallow designs1. 1. Hyde, Future Practice, 1-15. 2. Ike Ijeh and Lee Monks , “How to speak like an architect,” Building Design, (December 18, 2013). https:// www.bdonline.co.uk/howto-speak-architect/5066245. article
An essay titled “How to speak like an architect” by Ike Ijeh and Lee Monks, makes a humorous attempt to dissect the gibberish descriptions of projects by the architectural elite; including Zaha Hadid’s “quasi-urban field” of the MAXXI, Rome2. While a lighthearted article, it begs the question: if architects cant even understand other architects how can we expect to open up genuine discussions of the worth of designs to those who they are meant to be for? Consequently, The Efficient Architect(s) must strive towards a new dialectic which brings formalist discussion and performative considerations into a harmonious relationship understandable to architects and nonarchitects a-like.
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The Age, An early Age column written by Robin Boyd for the Small Homes Section of the paper featuring House T289, newspaper column.
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Increased transparency of dialectic has been used as a tool to initiate beneficial change many times over the course of history. One such example is the collaboration of Robin Boyd and the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects with The Age newspaper, during the 1950s to create the Small Homes Service.
3. Lawrence Money, “A grand plan for small homes,” The Sydney Morning Herald, Decmeber 7, 2011. http:// www.smh.com.au/national/ melbourne-life/a-grand-planfor-small-homes-201112061oh1j.html 4. Money, “A grand plan for small homes.” 5. Money, “A grand plan for small homes.” 6. Money, “A grand plan for small homes.” 7. Phillip Goad, in conversation with Rory Hyde, for MTalks What Would Boyd Do? Small Homes Service For Today, Melbourne, October 15, 2017. http://library.mpavilion.org/ mtalks-what-would-boyd-dosmall-homes-service-for-today/ * MTALK is a free program of events held at MPavilion, Melbourne, which puts leading minds from Melbourne and around the world behind the mic and invites them to investigate new ideas in architecture, design and more. Link: http://library.mpavilion. org/mtalks-what-would-boyddo-small-homes-service-fortoday/
Driven by a desire to provide Victorians with housing which was affordable, well designed and distinctive to meet the post war housing shortage3. Plans and specifications could be bought for 5 pounds, exponentially cheaper than a typical architecturally designed home at the time4. Each design was sold 50 times, 25 metropolitan Melbourne and 25 regional Victoria, ensuring both a distinctiveness and that the portion of payment received by the architect was equal to that of a one-off domestic project5. What was quite revolutionary about this initiative was the gathering of public interest around good design through the platform of weekly articles within The Age. An unprecedented collaboration between architects, news media, and the public which not only provided over 15% of all housing built in Victoria at the time, but managed to make good design a everyday topic6. Such was the success of this project in engaging a dialogue between the public and architects towards a mutually beneficial process, that discussions have returned to the possibilities for a similar solution to address the crisis of urban sprawl. At MTalk*: What Would Boyd Do? Small Homes Service For Today, in October this year, Phillip Goad and Rory Hyde engaged in a public discussion of what current tools may be available to undertake a housing initiative along similar socially and economically (and perhaps environmentally) aware thinking as the Small Homes Service over 50 years ago7. This historic example and recent public discussion particularly resonates with the dialectic demands of The Efficient Architect(s) as reveals the correlation between a transparent and understandable performative based dialogue and the ability to conceive of solutions which address actual contemporary problems.
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COLLABORATION what?
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Collaboration is the crux of The Efficient Architect(s). As a new way of thinking, talking and designing, it relies upon an adoption of openness and desire for participatory process previously held at bay by the ego driven need for authorial control. Within practice collaboration has become a necessary means for architects within the construction process, leading to enormous leaps in building capability. What this manifesto questions is the possibility for collaboration to enter within the very means of operating as a networked practice, even when a built outcome is not (necessarily) the goal.
1. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture. 2. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture. 3. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture.
Open Source Architecture by Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel offers some suggestions of the necessary framework for the proliferation of a collaborative environment for The Efficient Architect(s). Initially undertaken as an experiment into open source discussion through the platform of Wikipedia and then later published as a book, Open Source Architecture itself holds as a testament to the power of collaborative thinking1. Built upon the success of open source software, such as Linux, Aibnb and Mozilla, Open Source Architecture advocates for similar networks of sharing within the design process. Within Open Source Architecture, it is suggested that architecture as a whole remains tied to the past while shared design continues to grow in momentum across the world through the digital sphere2. This claim is held alongside the proposals that open source collaboration is not to be thought of as a global free for all but is local design fuelled by the global community3. Consequently, The Efficient Architect(s) do not need to invent new means of collaboration, but instead must consciously engage with and adapt the already successful open source softwares.
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“The architect will not be anonymous, but plural and compositional.� - Carlo Ratti and Matthew Claudel, Open Source Architecture, 292.
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A recent example of open source architecture, which is very much aligned with the design philosophy of The Efficient Architect(s), was the announcement at the 2016 Pritzker Prize award ceremony, by aforementioned Alejandro Aravena, that ELEMENTAL would be releasing 4 of their social housing designs on their website4. Completely open to the public to download, adapt, and use. This already successfull example of participatory process at the micro-scale, now has the means to become a potential globally reaching solution to be adapted to any multitude of budget housing solutions. The plans can be found here: http://www.elementalchile. cl/en/projects/abc-of-incremental-housing/ 4. Rory Stott, “5 Initiatives That Show the Rise of Open Source Architecture,” Archdaily, September 24, 2016. 5. Jonathan Russell, Ariani Anwar and William Cassell, “Architecture and pedagogy: The Melbourne School of Design,” Inflection Journal 1 (2014), 76-87. 6. Russell, Anwar, and Cassell, “Architecture and pedagogy,” 76-87.
Even the quite traditional building which the writing of this manifesto has occurred within, that of the Melbourne School of Design at The University of Melbourne, was a tentative use of collaborative design. Featuring a back and forth process between Melbourne based John Wardel Architects and Boston based NADAAA5. Unique to this professional collaboration was the active engagement from both firms throughout the design which saw the creation of an educational building which is designed along similar lines of facilitating open dialogue6. While the product itself may leave some wanting it is undeniable that collaboration is a powerful resource for The Efficient Architect(s) and will only continue to allow for solutions which benefit from unique combinations of knowledge sets. The Efficient Architect(s) will strive towards an unprecedented openness and cross-disciplinary collaboration which stretches the realms of outcomes towards the unknown. This is not to be confused with infiltration into other fields but a deepened appreciation of the possible overlaps and ability from unique design solutions which arise from specific teams of diverse individuals united towards real, meaningful problems. 34
TECHNOLOGY what?
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If collaboration is to flourish, there is an undeniable need to maximise upon the beneficial relationship of The Efficient Architect(s) to current and emerging technologies within all aspects of thinking, talking, and designing. The kernel of architecture can no longer be limited to that of physical mass but is equally found within code.
1. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture. 2. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture.
At the macro scale The Efficient Architect(s) are offered almost limitless opportunity for external collaboration through the world wide web. From the more mainstream instantaneous connection enabled by email, messaging services and video calls and beyond into the information and file sharing within Building Information Modelling tools1. The Efficient Architect(s) must stop attempting to force these collaborative technologies within traditional practice and instead explore the potential for the authorial architect to transform into a participatory system. Offered protection by the ownership rights of digital commons, such as Creative Commons, and the scrutiny of peer review towards an adaptive growth and development2. The Efficient Architect(s) rely on the genius of the mass as much as the individual towards participatory processes capable of accessing higher order solutions which may address the complex socioeconomic solutions.
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Margaux Carron, Two Story WikiHouse, 2014.
Carlo Ratti Associates, Swish, 2016.
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At the micro scale The Efficient Architect(s) acknowledge the power of the tools of technology to act as an extension of the individual. Digital Fabrication Laboratories or FabLab’s offer The Efficient Architect(s) a unique platform through which to explore the possibilities which arise at the intersection of innovative equipment, new modes of learning, personal empowerment, and bottom-up communities of like minded designers3. WikiHouse is a project by Alistair Parvin towards a blueprint house which requires only a CNC machine to be produced and much like ikea furniture, can be put together by anyone. Available here: https://wikihouse.cc/library 3. Ratti and Claudel, Open Source Architecture. 4. “Swish,” Carlo Ratti, Giovanni de Niederhausern, Andrea Cassi, Sammy Zarka, Carlo Ratti Associati, Accessed November 13, 2017. http://www.carloratti. com/project/swish/
Author of Open Source Architecture, Carlo Ratti and his firm Carlo Ratti Associates, are at the forefront of explorations into the ability of technology to form a beneficial part of both the design process and product. Along similar open source investigations as Wiki House is their furniture project Swish. Swish is a very simple plywood prototype which may be cut using CNC technology and assembled without any additional hardwares4. Not only is the product an exploration into the capabilities of new construction technologies but this award winning design is available for anyone to download. Available here: http://www.carloratti.com/project/swish/ Innovation as reliant on originality lacks the capacity to meet current needs. Instead there is a need to maximise interactions across social spheres and technological developments such that innovation is synonymous with adaptation and improvement upon previous solutions.
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ACCOUNTABILITY what?
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As Jones warns the risk of digital design is a lack of engagement with the outputs, placing the designer even further away from any meaningful solution, and potentially right back into the formal manipulations of the aforementioned Post Modern starchitects1. To ensure this is not the undoing of The Efficient Architect(s) the driving logic must remain as a desire to address the larger the socio-envirnmental problems.
1. Jones, “Can Tectonics Grasp Smoothness?”, 29. 2. Aravena, “Reporting from the Front,” 7. 3. “Zero Waste Table,” Andrew Maynard, Austin Maynard Architects. Accessed November 5, 2017. https:// maynardarchitects.com/zwt/
The Efficient Architect(s) at their core are prepared to ask questions of what if? According to Aravena most architects are trained with a sense of selective listening towards what they want to hear2. These questions do not necessarily amount to grand projects to ‘save’ or ‘solve’ the worlds problems as this holds tones of dictatorship. Instead accountability is to be understood as a democratisation within the design process in which the individual needs and wants of both architect and stakeholders are held alongside those of the collective. The Zero Waste Table by Austin Maynard Architects represents a shockingly simple yet well directed exploration that uses digital design techniques to reengage in conversations of material logic and efficiency3. Form is placed as a secondary concern to that of performative measures. Of interest is the engagement with technology and material efficiency. However, previous examples of open source projects does seem to leave one wanting more collaborative exploration within this prototype.
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Austin Maynard Architects, Zero Waste Table, drawing. 41
4. Noguchi, ZEMCH, 53.
At a larger scale accountability can be seen within the sustainable community of BedZed Eco-Village in England designed by Bioregional in collaboration with ZEDFactory Architects4. BedZED is at the forefront of architectural, engineering, and urban planning collaboration uniting around ideas of efficiency. It engages with the design philosophy of The Efficient Architect(s) as a collaborative solution which actively gives back to the community. Accountability is not to be understood as limitation to the ‘fashionable’ news stories but an inherent need for the next generation of architects seek out a sense of meaningful engagement. As a discipline at the intersection of so much we can no longer shy away into formalist pursuits but instead must unit towards the creation of a better future through a process of thinking, talking, and designing which questions our socioenvironmental condition.
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“real creativity thrives within the context of challenging constraints� - Roaf and Bairstow, The Oxford Conference, 151.
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ZED Factory, BedZED community, 2002.
ZED Factory, BedZED sustainability diagram, 2002.
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PEDAGOGY where?
“There is a difference in the way that medicine is taught, which is that you at some point specialise. In architecture, there is no granularity there. You don’t get to a certain point and say, “OK, I’m going to be the neighbourhood architect,” or, “I’m going to be Frank Gehry.” We train everybody to be Frank Gehry, but there is only one Frank Gehry.” - Rory Hyde, “Process / Product”.
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The birth place of The Efficient Architect(s) is within architectural education (or re-education) as it is here that we find the means to challenge the aesthetic adoration of resource consuming buildings, and instead pose questions of accountability, technological innovation, and collaborative processes.
1. Roaf and Bairstow, The Oxford Conference, 151. 2. Roaf and Bairstow, The Oxford Conference, 5. 3. Aravena, “Reporting from the Front,� 7.
This view of revolutionising architectural pedagogy towards concerns of the collective socio-envirnmental community was shared by those gathered at The Oxford Conference: A Re-evaluation of Education in Architecture in 20081. Within the opening statements of the conference it is claimed that currently architecture has lost sight of the whole, with education encouraging a dealing with parts without understanding the way things intertwine, interlock, and fuse2. Discussion like these, seem an optimistic step, yet there remains a gapping lack of action as architectural education remains largely fixated inwards, still gathering around the fame of the starchitects3. Consequently, this manifesto is as much a call to order for those studying, and teaching, or practicing as an architect (in training), as it is an establishment of the fundamentals towards a new generation of thinking, talking and designing of and for the collective.
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CONCLUSION when?
a group of people designing in a wellorganised and competent way to realize ideas and projects of maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense.
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The Efficient Architect(s) is the next generation of designer. A system of individuals acting towards a better future as and for the collective. Likeable in composition to a tectonic system in which accountability becomes the compositional value, acting upon new treatment of dialectic, collaboration and technology. Tapping in to the growing field of open source architecture, The Efficient Architect(s) are willing and able participants in furthering both the depth of knowledge within architecture and the freedom for which this knowledge may be shared, used, and adapted. The Efficient Architect(s) are constantly learning, talking and designing towards a diverse range of soltuions to the complex demands of contemporary society.
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LIST OF FIGURES PREFACE Masa Nagouchi, ZEMCH Workshop 2017 Group 2, photo. ZEMCH Workshop 2017 Personal Communication. Accessed November 7, 2017. https://www.facebook.com/groups/272363153203845/ INTRODUCTION Amber Barton, Total Supply of Waste Generated, 2009-2010, graph. From “Towards the Australian Environmental-Economic Accounts, 2013” Australian Bureau of Statistics. Last modified March 27, 2013. http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@. nsf/Products/4655.0.55.002~2013~Main+Features~Chapter+4+Waste?OpenDocument INDIVIDUALS Bettmann/Corbis, Buckminster Fuller poses in front of his geodesic dome, 1967, photo. Wired. Accessed November 7, 2017, https://www.wired.com/2016/03/buckminster-fuller-brilliant-crank-lot-teach-silicon-valley/#slide-1 David Szondy, The Dymaxion House, photo. Archdaily. Accessed October 5, 2017. http://www.archdaily.com/401528/ad-classics-the-dymaxion-house-buckminster-fuller ELEMENTAL, Quinta Monroy incremental housing, 2004, photo. ELEMENTAL. Accessed November 9, 2017. http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/projects/quinta-monroy/ ELEMENTAL, Quinta Monroy incremental housing participatory growth, 2006, photo. ELEMENTAL. Accessed November 9, 2017. http://www.elementalchile.cl/en/projects/quinta-monroy/ Cooke, Dewi. Rory Hyde and the Bin Dome, 2013, photo. The Age: Melbourne Now. Accessed November 10, 2017. http://www. theage.com.au/interactive/2013/melbournenow/roryHyde.html 49
DIALECTIC The Age, An early Age column written by Robin Boyd for the Small Homes Section of the paper featuring House T289, 19471953, newspaper column. Domain. Accessed November 12, 2017. https://www.domain.com.au/news/robin-boyd-was-an-architect-of-the-ages-and-is-still-relevant-today-20160429-go4lxh/ TECHNOLOGY Margaux Carron, Two Story WikiHouse, 2014, photo, Archdaily. Accessed October 5, 2017. http://www.archdaily.com/795959/5initiatives-that-show-the-rise-of-open-source-architecture Carlo Ratti Associati , Swish, 2016, photo. Carlo Ratti Associati, Accessed November 13, 2017. http://www.carloratti.com/project/ swish/ ACCOUNTABILITY Austin Maynard Architects, Zero Waste Table, drawing, Austin Maynard Architects, September 7 2017, https://maynardarchitects.com/zwt/ ZED Factory, BedZED community, 2002, photo. ZED Factory. Accessed October 5, 2017. https://www.zedfactory.com/bedzed ZED Factory, BedZED sustainability diagram, 2002, drawing. ZED Factory. Accessed October 5, 2017. https://www.zedfactory.com/ bedzed
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REFERENCES Ananthasuresh, GK. “Buckminster Fuller and his Fabulous Designs.” Resonance February (2015) : 98 - 123. * Aravena, Alejandro. “Reporting from the Front.” AV Monographs: ELEMENTAL 185 (2016): 7. * Aravena, Alejandro and Andres Iacobelli. Elemental: Incremental Housing and Participatory Design Manual. Hatje Cantz, 2013.* Fernandez-Galiano, Luis (ed.). “Participatory Design.” AV Monographs: ELEMENTAL 185 (2016): 16-47. * Friedman, Mildred. Gehry talks: architecture + process. Universe Publishing: New York, 2002. * Hawken, P, E. Lovins, and H. Lovins. Natural Capitalism - Creating the next Industrial Revolution. US : Little Brown and Co, 1999. * Hyde, Rory. Future Practice: Conversations from the Edge of Architecture. Didcot, UK: Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2012. * Ijeh, Ike and Lee Monks. “How to speak like an architect.” Building Design. December 18, 2013. https://www.bdonline.co.uk/howto-speak-architect/5066245.article * Jones, Wes. “Can Tectonics Grasp Smoothness?” Log 30 (2014), 29-42. * Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture. The Architectural Press: London, 1927. *
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Molloy, Jonathan and Sam Zeif. eds. “Process / Product: Rory Hyde.” Paprika! 3, 2 (September 2017). http:// yalepaprika.com/processproduct/ * Money, Lawrence. “A grand plan for small homes.” The Sydney Morning Herald. Decmeber 7, 2011. http://www. smh.com.au/national/melbourne-life/a-grand-plan-forsmall-homes-20111206-1oh1j.html * Noguchi, Masa. ZEMCH: Toward the delivery of zero energy mass custom homes. Switzerland: Springer Tracts in Civil Engineering, 2016. * Ratti, Carlo and Matthew Claudel. Open Source Architecture. Thames & Hudson: London, 2015. * Roaf, Susan, and Andrew Bairstow, The Oxford Conference: A Re-evaluation of Education in Architecture. WIT Press: Ashurst UK, 2008. * Russell, Jonathan, Ariani Anwar and William Cassell. “Architecture and pedagogy: The Melbourne School of Design.” Inflection Journal 1 (2014) 76-87. * Scalbert, Irenne. “The Architect as Bricoleur.” Candide: Journal for Architectural Knowledge 04 (2011): 69 - 88. * Stott, Rory. “5 Initiatives That Show the Rise of Open Source Architecture.” Archdaily. September 24, 2016. https://www.archdaily.com/795959/5-initiatives-thatshow-the-rise-of-open-source-architecture *
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Frontispiece: Connected Thinking. ŠAmber Joan Barton Author: Amber Joan Barton Student Number: 699287 First published in Melbourne, Australia in 2017 for: The University of Melbourne ABPL90117 Semester 2, 2017 21st Century Architecture
Tutorial 11 Caleb Wei-Ren Choo
Title: The Efficient Architect(s) Assessment: Manifesto Final Assignment
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APPENDIX
Open Source Resources
THE EFFICIENT ARCHITECT(S) Download, Share, Collaborate
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