What is architectural design? What does design mean in a profession where the authorship of buildings has been, to a great degree, expropriated by developers and estate agents? As hitherto argued, when manufacturing in property was outsourced to contractors over the last few decades, architects stubbornly hung on to production and turned their backs on services. Over the years, the profession has become largely comprised of a class of bureaucrats aspiring to be contractors and almost ashamed of belonging to an erstwhile creative profession. They have, of their own accord, delegated design authorship to others. So many decisions are taken by developers, agents and increasingly over the last decade, planners. In other words, almost everyone else has a say in what spaces and buildings look like more than the architect does. The architect has been rendered as a vessel to implement a template rather than interpret a brief.
This argument pertains to most large-scale, speculative schemes. I reiterate that many exceptions still hold out and even prosper. I exclude, for example but not exclusively, boutique practices working on one-off projects and bespoke commissions as they still lead and inspire.
With the bureaucratisation of the architectural profession over the last few years, the term design has been gutted of its essence, simplified and misused. We talk of ‘design’ rather than design: ‘Design’ is a marauder. ‘Design’ is an impostor. ‘Design’ is the murderer of innovation and creativity, the aspects the architectural profession once possessed, and in which lies its redemption. ‘Design’ is vulgar. It is loud. It confuses ubiquity with creativity. It is passive aggressive, desperately trying to make a statement as means of gaining a seat at the table it once willingly walked away from. ‘Design’ is the vapid acrobatic geometry. ‘Design’ is the convoluted shape. ‘Design’ is the Rhino model du jour. ‘Design’ is the railway accident where ‘technical’ picks up the pieces. ‘Design’ is the arrogance of not being curious yet thinking a funky colour cuts the mustard. ‘Design’ is the statement-making funky colour. ‘Design’ is the quirky form for the sake of it. ‘Design’ is the perpetual first-year architecture student that fears an orthogonal plan looking boring and slaps a curve on it to convey originality. ‘Design’ is the passive aggressive riposte at agents, developers and planners to tell them that the architect is still here. ‘Design’ is a puerile teenager asserting its individuality. ‘Design’ is the coloured post-its, bookmarking pages from the catalogue meted out by planners and agents for architects to implement a template from. ‘Design’ is controversy as means of soliciting attention.
Design, on the other hand, is predicated on curiosity. Design is a craft that forever questions and refines. Design doesn’t implement the brief but rewrites it. Design is detail-obsessed and multidisciplinary. Design is structure as much as it is finishes. Design is an experience. Design is a lifestyle. Design does not fear simplicity yet can be bold. Design can flirt with kitsch and come out unscathed. Design doesn’t get old after a week of the wow factor. Design is ‘technical’. Design is fervour. Design is passion. Design is controversy as a by-product of genuine conviction.
A designer is not only one who conjures shapes and colours but someone who creates. A designer is not someone who has no technical grounding. Far from it. A designer is the engineer as much as it is the architect. Both design together. They bring each other out of their comfort zones. They challenge each other and excel at working through constraints. A designer is one who understands how market forces shape architecture and how engineering sculpts spaces. A designer is obsessive yet pragmatic. A designer is one who can see the big picture. A designer under-promises and over-delivers. A designer has imagination. A designer shows clients what clients themselves did not know they even wanted. A designer relishes challenges and is enamoured of constraints. A designer recognises talent in others and promotes it. Others are not competition but powerful allies with complementary skills.
Design is taking back control of the profession. ‘Design’ is succumbing to the profession’s demise.