Form Follows Performance - Part 2

World will have to be re-designed in coming times.

Lets do it properly this time.

What is performance in architecture? For me, it was always about finding the balance between various efficiencies and flexibility in uses:

• Efficiency and flexibility in use of resources like

  • Space

  • Volume

  • Materials

  • Energy

  • Information

  • Knowledge

  • Time

• Efficiency and flexibility in communication

  • With Clients

  • With membranes of project team

  • With contractors/builders

  • With employees/colleagues

  • With authorities

• Efficiency in amenity and affordability

  • optimizing amenity to budget

  • optimizing performance to budget

  • taking in account whole of the lifetime of the project

  • providing flexibility for the change of use through time

  • optimizing performance and minimizing environmental impact

• Efficiency and flexibility in planing, anticipation, contemplation

  • Efficient and flexible use of space in our cities (and other places humans inhabit)

  • Efficient use of infrastructure and investment

  • Efficiencies and flexibility in communication with stakeholders

  • Optimizing benefits while minimizing impact on environment

In few weeks, May 18th, will be 30 years since my graduation. Being involved in profession even before that through my father’s practice and high school study for architectural technician, and practicing on three continents, I could say that I have pretty good idea of where architectural profession is. And I can vouch that it has lost its way since the time when architects were head/chief (arkhi) builders (tekton).

Nowadays, our “designs” are meant for being presented, shown off, through various mediums and being awarded by peers, but not necessarily being built and used buy our clients and communities.

One aspect where I couldn’t master efficiency is Care. Care for Client. Care for Community. Care for Climate and Nature.

Better prevention than tretment

Bolje spreciti nego leciti. – Serbian proverb

Rough translation of above proverb is the title of this article. The system that our construction industry is based on relies on insurances and legal remedies – the cure for whatever mistakes happen during design and construction.

Latest resulting debacle is another residential block which residents had to be evacuated in the rush and appartment’s owners will suffer plummeting value of their properties – Mascot Towers:

https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/mascot-towers-peak-industry-bodies-call-for-building-sector-crackdown-20190616-p51y9f.html

It is not difficult to understand that the cost of treatment is far higher than the cost of prevention – doing the job properly in the first place.

What would prevent these outcomes? Buildings must be designed properly, constructed properly and certified properly.

Simple!

Or is it?

What is the Australian experience with residential flat buildings? Until the end of last century apartments were built for people who had no other choice but to live in them – social housing and low-end investment stock. Relatively simple designs, mostly walk-ups, with minimum amenity standards prescribed by Building Code, simple structures and basic building services. Built, equally simply, with basic construction methods.

About two decades ago things started changing, lead by new wave of immigrants from Europe and Asia who have apartment living as a their choice. They brought a different culture of living and different requirements for standards of amenities, appearance and location of apartment developments.

Demand for apartments skyrocketed in short period of time. However, industry didn’t have the expertise nor capacity to satisfy such demand. It takes time to educate architects, engineers, project managers, certifiers, foremen, plumbers, electricians, aircon specialist, and such … about finer points and challenges of solving increasingly sophisticated problems in apartment living. But there was no time. The pressure was on for grabbing as big a share of the market as quickly as possible.

High demand dictates speed of design and delivery. This, combined with lack of expertise, usually equals lower quality. With a poor prevention system we now must rely on the insurance and legal system to deliver remedies.

Exception might be those few with the longer history in the apartment market and with integrated design and delivery procedures. Their expertise might prove very valuable for implementing preventative methods in our construction industry - good design, solid documentation, experienced builders.

And care. Beyond duty.

Kingsbridge Story

Your memories don't come from books. Your stories aren't just stories. - George R.R. MArtin in Game of Thrones

This (printed book) will kill that (architecture) - Victor Hugo in Huncback of Notre Dame

Kingsbridge is a fictional town in Ken Follett’s book “Pillars of the Earth” (later expanded into “The Kingsbridge Series”). Amazing book tells the story about building a cathedral in Kingsbridge town at the time of England’s War of Roses.
Kingsbridge Estate is gated community in Bryanston, suburb of Greater Johannesburg, South Africa that I had privilege of working on early in my career.

Name of development was inspired by the book and in return my career is inspired in many ways by my work, interaction with clients on almost 50 individual houses in the development, as well as story of builders of Kingsbridge cathedral.

Question(s) remain - what is the story behind our everyday architecture? What message are we leaving for future generations, those who would not be able to read our outdated electronic files? What is architecture of today telling about us, our lives, our values? Does today’s architecture reflect diversity of our cultures like architecture of the past did?

Botswana Savings Bank

Post under construction …