Reading Response: How Buildings Learn

I found this reading both enlightening and highly beneficial to my approach to Design. The breaking down of built form and its relationship to Time, into the categories listed below, allows for a simple yet cohesive process to generating resilient architecture:

• Shell (structure - lasts the lifetime of building) - Architect, Engineer, Designer
• Services (cabling etc - replaceable) - Professional, Tradesman
• Scenery (layout and features - 5 years) - re-designable
• Set (furniture etc - months or weeks) - Occupant

I also found the time-lapse of images of the building on the cliff in San Francisco to convey so eloquently the underlying ideology of built form as proposed by Frank Duffy. The following extract from the text encapsulates this 'light-bulb' / enlightening moment I had with regard to a way to go about design with the underlying theme of resilience and longevity. A starting point or criteria if you will.

" Thinking about buildings in this time-laden way is very practical. As a designer you avoid such classic mistakes as solving a five-minute problem with a fifty-year solution, or vice-versa. It legitimises the existence of different design skills - architects, service engineers, space planners, interior designers - all with their different agendas defined by this time-scale. It means you invent building forms which are very adaptive."

A scale relationship was also outlined that aids in defining who we design for in each particular component of the overall built form ie.

• Stuff -> Individual
• Space -> Tenants
• Services -> Landlord
• Skin -> Public
• Structure and Site -> Community

With regard to my own theme group and research pertaining to Suburban based issues, the following quote supports an idea that Urban Sprawl (identified now as a 'bad thing') might not be such a negative occurrence if we, as designers, can accommodate and design for it right now. Issues around food shortage, decreases in greenspace and agricultural land, and connectivity would be just a few of the areas designers would need to apply their expertise in order to change the way we see Urban Sprawl. I'll let you make up your own mind about what this extract means for you.

"Small lots will support resilience because they allow many people to attend directly to their needs by designing, building, and maintaining their own environments. By ensuring that property remains in many hands, small lots bring important results: many people make many different decisions, thereby ensuring variety in the resulting environment."