Structures and Things

Making it work, making it right

When something needs to be done, or even if it just wants to be done, there are two ways, technically three, to get it done. You have the wrong way, the right way and the no way. The way something gets done is often not practiced or even eloquent in its execution. We stumble our way through the various demands placed upon us each day achieving results for other people. Sometimes we do this to ourselves.

Working with other people to get things done often produces the most stumbling blocks. We don’t know each other or the varied methods that are used to achieve results. These may be good or bad results. The expectation is that everyone is attempting to provide good results and that is what professional behavior and respect are about. There is not an expectation that someone is trying to get away with anything that lacks true effort.

Reality and expectations are quite different. Putting forth the minimal effort to satisfy someone’s demands seems to be the new paradigm as people resent their positions and pay. As the economy is almost entirely shifted to a service base, there is very little pride in achieving the transitory successes available. There is joy in a well crafted object. The time provided to produce results is shortened and the robustness required of the results is minimized to achieve a ‘cost-effective’ solution that provides maximum yield in the marketplace. This provides us with manufactured goods whose life cycle is intentionally short. Corollary to this is the statement “You get what you pay for”, and the fact that a bargain will make you pay over and over again until the perceived value is gone. The cost is much higher than you were led to believe and you continue to pay in the performance quality of the object. This is fundamental to the cheap (poorly manufactured) goods, inflated costs and marketed perceptions that separate our earnings from our possession. This applies to most things that people contract to buy. This applies to your house, car, food, appliances, and supplies. Buying something for the short-term only provides it as a source of waste in to the landfills for the long-term much sooner. Most products cannot be re-worked, repaired, or otherwise re-purposed. Recycling cans, bottles and paper is flawed logic. It only supports the same system of short-term consumables.

The approach for the future is not about making it work, it is about making it right. We will bear the burden of our decisions. No one can escape this. Really they can, and people’s memories tend to be short, so they are abused and taken advantage of time and again. Some people pursue this path, they create havoc, reap the rewards and then move on to the next opportunity. The reality of this situation, is that eventually, there will be no more undiscovered country. By then, they will have made their money, in reality public debt, and have achieved the comfortable life they have sought. They didn’t directly kill or harm people, so there cannot possibly be anything to regret. They were just “doing business”, “following orders”, “working for a living”, “feeding their family”, or “doing what everyone else was doing”. Acting through paper, rather than getting your hands dirty, does not avail you to a clear conscious. Guilt is not inherent in people, it is learned, and if there is no other mechanism to guide your decisions (morals, etc.) then the only recourse is physical action against you to cease your activity. Civilization has recently, and most often historically, been about providing an opportunity for a few to leverage the work of many for their own benefit. Deception, lies, and violence have been used to achieve these ends. The use of force disguised as a “force of protection” for the community is in reality a force for regulating the community through the enforcement of administrative regulation. Law stands above these and requires justice. Justice is not fines, fees, incarceration, or the relinquishment of freedom.

Look at your actions and try to make it right by taking the time when you are working to achieve.

Public spaces

We all know what spaces are. We all have personal space. If someone gets in to our personal space, they had better be invited or suffer the consequences of someone who feels trapped in a small space who will strike out at a threatening presence. When we are out and about we operate in the public space, and everyone agrees to play nice and not get into someone’s personal space. The boundaries of somone’s personal space vary slightly depending on where they are. The boundary moves from when we are at work, on the train/subway, and when we are among friends. Public spaces are an artificial creation designed to bring people to a single area for purposes of public entertainment, announcements, and common access to natural resources. Sample platforms include sidewalks, plazas, terraces, theaters, sports venues, retail establishments, markets, and parks. Places that push the interaction from a public to private realm mostly include transportation.

When we are in our car (with our personal attachments), it has its own space requirements, we have boundaries that mimic our own bodily boundaries. Scratches, dings, and fender benders offend our person as if we had received a personal affront into our personal space. However, when we ride the bus or subway and it gets crowded, we make some effort to establish our boundary by physical posturing and positioning. If the subway gets too crowded, we adjust until finally people are in our personal space and every effort is made not to engage people’s private spaces. These spaces that are intimate even to our friends.

So what does this all have to do with structures and buildings? I don’t know. No, I’m just getting there. The point is to create public spaces that address people’s personal spaces. Strategies exist for minimizing the impact of crowding in public spaces. So depending upon the space, you can also make an effort to keep someone from stepping on someone else’s toes.

Exits, entrances, and flow patterns for traffic generated by people are important elements in designing a proper public space. Let us begin with looking at what public spaces we have control over. We have the entrance, lobby, hallways, elevator, parking lots/structures, restrooms, break rooms, emergency exits, patio areas, walkways, mechanical equipment (because a good environment makes a difference), transportation access, traffic control studies for special conditions, and maintenance of the space to minimize the impact during service. (As an aside, did you ever wonder what the people in traffic control were thinking when they schedule work on a major highway in the middle of rush hour traffic?) We have the power to consider something besides occupancy. Providing for flexible and robust public spaces and accessways is the best effort you can put forward in to making sure people enjoy your building or public space.

You define the boundary of these spaces. You define the walls, shape of the building, location of the access points, vehicle access, pedestrian access, elevator location, daylighting, public furniture (for parks, plazas, transportation) and where the emphasis of the building is going to be from an architectural standpoint. People who face these challenges daily are designing hospitals, museums, universities, arenas, stadiums, transportation hubs, churches, apartment complexes, barracks, corporate campuses, oil platforms, submarines, cruise ships, senior care centers, casinos, airports, roadways, retail centers and parks (public/amusement). These are the public spaces of the city and sub-urban neighborhoods.

We find that public spaces used just for leisure and gathering are few and far in-between. Most of our public spaces are mixed-use commercial centers that accomodate housing, retail and professional offices. It seems that they are parking lots with places to spend our money attached. We do not gather at these places to engage in public discourse, cultural enrichments, social engagements, family activities, or as part of our path when we travel by foot. People are best able to appreciate their environment when they are not bombarded by advertising, work reminders and vendors asking them to part with their money.

It is the job of the designer to provide a public space that can be enjoyed by many people in a personal way. Give a path to the public to enjoy your achitecture and not rush them past so that they can avoid being trampled upon. This is not how I would want my building or structure remembered, as a inconvenience that had no place for me. Define spaces for the public with the public in mind.