The Place of Process in making Architecture.

I recently went to watch “The Edge of Possible” which documents the building of the Sydney Opera House by Jorn Utzon. Starting as sketch to win an international competition, this highlights the process of most designers and architects. Buildings start as an idea, develop into a design solution, form as a result of a construction process and then continue as a result of people’s habitation. There was angst that the Opera house took too long to design and construct. An Architect walked away from his creation mid construction and some fundamental changes were made to those spaces during construction, but the result is an iconic building that is rooted into the identity and culture of Sydney. Part of the problems encountered in construction was that the design process was short cut and therefor compromised. You cannot build what you haven’t completely considered. That is a key part of the design process. The result should be a set of instructions for the builders to follow and it needs to document a solution that works. The Opera House opened in 1973, took 16 years to construct, and is only 44 years old.

Buildings in New Zealand have to by law have a life span of not less than 50 years unless otherwise justified. So, when considering, designing and constructing a building, isn’t it worth getting the fundamentals right. Of course, most say, but, it takes thought and consideration, which takes time to get right. Right?  

Every situation where we create buildings is different, the site, the climate, the earthquake zone, the clients, the brief, the budget, the aesthetic preference, the solar orientation and of course the urban context. So, when we pick up a standard plan off the shelf (because a custom design takes time), wriggle it to fit on our site, adjust the walls to suit our spatial relationships (usually in plan only), run off to the bank to get our loans and then count the days until we move in, put the time frame of this process into perspective of a minimum of 50 years.

One year of our time equates to only 2% of the minimum time that buildings are legally required to exist for. At least 98% of that the time lives with the result of our decisions during that design process. So, isn’t it worth making that 2% count? Maybe we need to think beyond getting our front door key, maybe we need to think beyond that front door and what its like to live in those spaces, throughout the seasons for a minimum of 50 years, Maybe we need to think beyond selling up and start thinking about the people that will live in this house decades from now. Spatial consciousness and spatial consequence, not something we often think of as quantifiable. Decisions takes time to be well made, they create better spaces which becomes something worth keeping.