Speaking Architecture
Imagine that
every house is a poem, and every skyscraper is a novel. Imagine that each component
of a building is a word: beams and columns are nouns; kitchens, stairs and
showers are verbs while the windows and furnishings are adverbs; the flooring
materials and light fixtures are adjectives.
It’s helpful
for me to think of architecture as language, and of each style as a dialect. An
architect can be fluent in Colorado Mountain Contemporary. A client likes to
speak Bauhaus Modernism. A student learns the grammar of Spanish Mission and
French Country. It’s not surprising that designers refer to the stylistic
elements of a building (trim details, window types, finish materials, ceiling
treatment, etc.) as the “vocabulary” of the architecture.
Christopher
Alexander (Emeritus Professor of Architecture at the University of California,
Berkeley)
suggests the idea of “pattern languages” by which we “speak” our built
environments into existence.
Many architectural creeds constrain design by rejecting such-and-such
traditions or prescribing this-and-only-this strategy regardless of context.
Alexander’s idea of pattern language hinges on the freedom of being able to
create an infinite variety of solutions to design problems, responding specifically
to each unique situation. A design strategy that might be unacceptable in one
context might be the perfect solution in another.
But this
doesn’t mean that anything goes. Bad writing is still bad writing, and the
rules of grammar exist for a reason. Most likely everyone can relate to the
experience of being in a house and thinking “I would not have designed it this
way.”
Over time,
I’ve begun to suspect that what makes a design successful is the way that its
composition responds to the needs and desires of its owners and users. I think
about how I feel in a space. That porch
makes me feel peaceful. This entryway feels grand and impressive. In the nook I
feel secure and snug. I think simple intuition can be a useful judge of the
quality of a design.
I think that learning
how to “speak architecture” (how to design well) is an ongoing process that I’ll
never be truly finished with. I’m slowly but steadily gaining insight and
inspiration; I love every minute of it. Working at TKP Architects I get to collaborate
with people who have “written” countless beautiful houses, whose experience has
taught them what it is to speak architecture that is meaningful, appropriate,
and satisfying to those who inhabit it.
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