The Character of the Architect

Should architecture theory be studied in architecture school? We seem driven to find the right theory to make the right kinds of buildings rather than focusing on how to create better people and then igniting their sensitivity to better understand the needs of the people around them.

Simply put, maybe we should be more focused on what the proper character of an architect should be and then give them a general direction to head in rather than focusing solely on theory.

Rather than pushing comprehensive theories based on communication theory or patterns, we should help students and ourselves grow in two directions: character and knowledge.

I think we need to start driving towards curriculum that says having character that is compassionate, emotionally intelligent, and intellectually able is where we start our teaching.

And then for theory we give guidelines that reflect this character: we feel in our hearts that buildings should meet people's needs as well as visually communicate ideas so we find ways to design for these needs.

We should evolve our character to where we value the idea that buildings should serve people and create spaces that serve all the different ways they may want to live their lives.
We should have enough soul to know buildings should support all the stages in life that make it meaningful.

I find the more prescriptive approach to theory that we are now caught up in to be insufficient and in it's over wrought definitions and thinking, I find we are saying that we doesn't trust the architect to have enough character to be able to figure out things on their own.

Whether Christopher Alexander's over noodled tomes or through the ground fog of critical theory that rises up from most universities, they all fall equally short. They lack a discussion on first making ourselves better people and then the idea that better people who know how to use their minds and their hearts can then find a way to make better buildings.

" I thought, maybe I should go with the whole idea of it being boring. What’s the most boring thing I could do just to annoy everybody?

"And the most boring thing that I could think of to do, which would really go against the grain for the MTV generation … was a talking head: a middle-class white male in a suit, talking to them in a really boring way about music videos.

And I thought, 'Oh yeah, I’m on to something here. This is really dull and uninteresting.' "

-Rocky Morton, Co-Creator and Director of Max Headroom

Taking an Array Approach to the Design of Mobile Tools

You could say there are two types of design projects in digital design - Tools and Marcom. 

Supporting the multiplicity of goals that a user may want to accomplish with an interactive tool is such a different problem to address than creating a page that whose end goal is to create product or brand awareness - whose point is to support and argument and take a user to a single conclusion (buy this product). I saw this recently as I sat and listened to East Coast UX designers trained under the ad agency model critique the interfaces for mobile tools. 

Something was wrong about their comments. Here's what I figured out.

Gestural interfaces for digital tools require the design of an array. When traditional print designer or agency trained UX designers try to arrange CTAs and text either from the top down or from left to right these tools break.

What has to be understood is that the person using these tools may have both hands on them and, depending on the target of the tool (e.g. a camera's region of interest or a music player), CTAs are best arranged around this target based on eyelines and physical placement of the hands rather than the principals that govern print design or digital marcom layout.

Design for mobile tools is probably more like laying out a cockpit for the SR 71 (below) than laying out a page in a magazine. The elements aren't laid out in lines. They are gathered and then as groups associated with other groups in ways that serve the highest number of scenarios. And they all defer to the physical requirements of the pilot and that pilot's main focus, what is dead ahead.

Brad Katsuyama

Brad Katsuyama sounds like an amazing guy - clear headed - and he identified an immense problem with electronic trading through careful analysis and team building.  I also admire that he didn't question his initial sense that something was wrong.

Here are two good articles:
Is the US Stock Market Rigged
Flash Boys Fame Sells Upstart Exchange IEX to Big Investors

Morris Arboretum Tree House

One of the nicest places to be in Philadelphia is the Morris Arboretum Tree House. Someday I'm going to take a thermos of coffee and a book up there and stay for a few hours surrounded by the trees.

Pocoyo City Scape

I watch Pocoyo for many reasons; the stories are good ones for my kids, I like the sound design, the visual design is stunning.

Most recently, in the "Poczilla" episode, I saw the nicest design of a city I have ever seen. 

Pocoyo's Art Director is designer Pedro Bascon, I was floored by the colors and the graphic layout of the skyscraper facades. Bascon's illustration and design work is amazing. He's a super talented designer and his work is not only on his blog about his design for animation, his larger porfolio is on Behance and there is a personal site that is more geared towards illustrating children's books.

 It's a simple thing and maybe something most don't really care about, but I have had to design cityscapes and have sketched out a few on my own and Bascon's is incredibly original.

 I love it.

The Beauty of a Sycamore

What a line this Sycamore branch makes against the late Winter sky.