PREDICT THE FUTURE

Are our design predictions accurate? How complete is our design understanding? Are we completely unsurprised when we walk into a building that we designed for the first time? Can we say we accurately predicted the feeling and experience of our enclosures that we live and work in?

No. Minimal. Somewhat. No.

I have yet to hear any type of study which correlates the architect’s intention with the result. In the act of design, we make design moves and we select materials. Yet none of us can say that we foresaw with 100% certainty all of the aspects of walking thru or around our creations. And I really hope that we can avoid saying that because we saw it on a digital display, that we predicted the outcome.

Humans are much better explaining the past as we are predicting the future. Think of reading the newspaper, and comparing future predictions with the conviction of our explanation of what just happened. There is no comparison. As humans, we are excellent in putting together a rationale to explain the past. And we continue to believe in the fallacy that because we can rationalize the past, that we will be more accurate when we predict the future.

So it really should be no surprise that we are surprised by the buildings we design to a large degree. Yet this disconnect should not minimize the importance of what we do. For there is a large skill set required to make basic solid design decisions. It takes great skill to maintain a concept thru the wild process of building an enclosure. It takes great skill to sculpt an enclosure that meets your client’s needs while also meeting your needs. And all of these skills are what make good architecture.

Note that we are not talking about what has been called traditional architectural myopia: the act of producing buildings that are distinct objects within their surroundings. Instead we are talking about what some would call the cognitive dissonance, or cognitive myopia, that takes place within an architect’s brain.

Just because we cannot predict the experience of our buildings with total clarity does not mean that we should not try to get a little bit better at it. Just because perfection is not attainable does not mean that we should stop trying to get better. Finding a way to get a little bit better is one of the missions of Transparent Drawing. By stepping outside of our culturally enforced way of thinking, by using a concept that is slightly outside of our normal frame of reference, we might find the means to get better at what we do.

And like it or not, what we do to a great degree is predict the future.