Are we too Emotionally Invested in our work?

By Issy Spence

We can’t help but form a relationship with our work simply because we pour so much time, energy and money into it. (Foamboard prices have definitely risen) But are we too emotionally attached to a bunch of lineweights and a concept? Or do we lack any connection at all because we feel architecture has become too commercial? Does the harsh, cold reality that your design may not actually get built, cost too much, or doesn’t make the developers happy, leave you cold and emotionless? To explore this, I introduce to you, The Emotion-O-Meter, to gauge the emotional level you have poured into your work.

At first glance, we have the CAD monkey clan. I remember the early studio days, where Sketchup just hit The Mainstream and the fabulously original box design swooped a majority, leaving the minority (1 studio seat) of Team Curve & Crazy Parabola rather lonely. Zaha would have felt rather out of place, weeping as her studio minions were enslaved by their inability on CAD, to produce anything other than the same orthogonal box building...

CAD is a brilliant tool and a truly cracking piece of technology. But beware: do not fall due to the chronic illness of what I like to call OCD, Obsessive CAD Disorder. Symptoms include obsessing over details on initial stages of your design project because you feel they need to be ‘correct’ from Day 1, you are unable to hold a pen and you have dreams about the Follow Me tool on Sketchup. (I have suffered all of the above) Unfortunately, there is no immediate cure for said OCD (Obsessive CAD Disorder) but a dose of marker pens and a roll of tracing paper should ease symptoms. Don’t be restricted in your design by what you can and can’t do on your computer.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, we have the Wistful Nostalgics. You look back and reminisce over how you did more hand drawing in your infant school years than you do now. What’s even worse is that the nostalgia you feel, may be for something you never experienced. (There is probably a more technical term for this, but if I looked it up, I would look back with sadness, at the naive time when I didn’t know overly pretentious lexical choices to convey my sentiment...) It’s great to look back, take influence from what’s gone on before you arrived on this planet but don’t be a slave for life to The Grid of Mies or think that everything you design needs to be as monumental as a Kahn Building.

And that lands us nicely in the middle. The middle is a great place. In the middle, you inject your projects with love and enthusiasm. But not so much you are wrung of all energy. In the middle, you strike up a balance between working on CAD and stepping away from your trusty computer. In the middle, you look at historic case studies, but balance it with forward thinking.

So in summary, don’t be a monkey, a robot, stuck in the past, or over obsessed with all the detail, it is about The Balance. Be in touch with your emotions but not dictated and distracted by them.