Figure 1.1

Figure 1.1

Cover; ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’ by Dale Carnegie.

CHAPTER 1 THE EXTROVERT ARCHITECTURE EQUATION

“Do we not sometimes design for the pages of the Architectural Forum…” “do we not design too deliberately for an Ezra Stoller color shot?” - Philip Johnson

Mankind’s Extrovert Ideal

Ignited by the industrial revolution, landscapes of the global west transitioned from the house on the Prairies, to the urbanized powerhouses that stand today.4 Susan Cain states that prior to the 1910’s, the value of one’s identity was associated with their character, as defined by their actions, the work they produced, and the time they devoted to even the smallest accomplishments. However, as urban spaces grew, challenging the way people were expected to live, man began to fixate on appearance. No longer did character or one’s own work define who they were, but rather one’s ability to stand out amongst his own competition determined his success. The world transitioned from the ‘culture of character’ to the ‘culture of personality,’ from the ‘man of contemplation’ to the ‘man of action.’ The key to success in this world of capital was your ability to sell yourself.5 This desire for success forcibly divided people by one’s ability to stand out through attention, the extroverts, and others who did not desire attention, the introverts. As success became increasingly associated with extroversion, man developed an extrovert ideal. This ideal would not only control the desires of one’s own behaviour, appearance, and social abilities, but would subsequently influence the way public spaces were designed and utilized. These spaces became tools for capital to produce a world for and of extroverts.

Architecture for Extroverts

To evaluate the extrovert ideal and how it translates to an architectural context, the direct relationship between social psychology and the design of buildings must be considered. This relationship exposes an architecture that is created to inspire extroversion, and subsequently, introversion. To develop this concept of an architecture for extroverts and introverts, a series of case studies were conducted on various projects beginning in the industrial revolution. This point in history marked the acceleration of urbanization, capitalism, the salesman, and also, the extrovert ideal.6 These projects focus specifically on architecture’s desire to create an environment that forces its occupants to behave in a particular manner. The analysis of these buildings seeks to justify how extroverted architecture aggressively engages as an architecture in the production of capital. Using architecture as a tool to create workspaces and idealized planning arrangements for companies, that will directly profit from the atmosphere they have created for their employees.7 Such ideas are explored through a selection of openplan offices and workplaces from the 1900’s, continuing with an exploration of a contemporary example to demonstrate architecture’s persistence in creating spaces for certain behaviour types. In contrast, another case study is selected that begins to demonstrate how introverted personalities become activated through planning and design.

Many notable projects throughout the past century demonstrate architecture’s influence on human behaviour. Notably, as the extrovert ideal has pushed the idea of ‘Group-Think,’ modern architecture began to produce offices and universities that adopted open-plan layouts to force employees and students to interact with one another, as if they were on an equal playing field.8 As criticized by Cain, in this environment, only the extrovert would succeed.

Though the projects were built nearly 40 years apart, the SC Johnson Headquarters by Frank Lloyd Wright (1936-1939) and the Lloyds building by Richard Rogers (1978-1986) have been examined together, as they share similar properties that radically exemplify the office model of the early twentieth century. During this time, the open-office plan became understood as the best work structure and to easily survey their staff. Like a factory floor, the open office allowed employers to organize their staff in a strict order. This organization was considered rational and functional, and therefore