Having just recently begun my first class in the series required for my Building Construction minor, I have already been confronted with many new ideas that I would not have considered otherwise. Most importantly I have learned that architecture is more than the pretty drawings we make in studio. Architecture is BUILT. In the real world, my plans, sections, and elevations need to be comprehensible by people who have not studied the *poetry* of architecture. While it is important to create a beautiful spatial experience, I would argue that first and foremost you need to comprehend the process of how that space will be constructed.

(Below is a small case study of what I believe to be a successful process of drawings to construction, but I believe that the initial steps could be improved. I think the architect should be more knowledgeable in the beginning steps rather than coming up with a “dream” and handing it off to others to figure out and then taking credit for the project, as Frank Ghery did in this case.)

Sketch of the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Ghery

This drawing describes the atmosphere that the architect envisions for the project but would be incomprehensible to the builder as far as how to construct the museum. This would be the conceptual stage of the project, the napkin sketch.

Multiview Drawings of Guggenheim

At this stage of design development the architect has somewhat finished the drawings. However, due to lapses in the construction education of an architect these drawings can sometimes have significant errors, which are then compounded later in the process.

Structural Model of Guggenheim

As part of the detailed working drawings and design stage of the project, multi view drawings will be translated into detailed BIM models which are then provided to the owner and made available to contractors so that they can bid the project.

Construction and Craft

Much thought goes into the architecture along the path from designer to engineer to builder, but in the end one must keep in mind that PEOPLE build buildings and that fact should control designs in order to control cost.

I have suddenly become frustrated by my architectural education in the sense that we are not learning HOW TO BUILD. Granted, that’s not perhaps what we should be learning, but we should be starting to comprehend how other people build things. On another side note to that point architecture students should begin to understand that there are two levels to what we consider “construction workers". On one level you have construction management and on the other, tradespeople or craftsmen, and both probably know more than we do about construction methods and respect should be shown accordingly.

Since I said I wanted to be an architect, my dad, who worked in construction for many years, has complained to me constantly of all of the “stupid” architect’s he had to work with who designed things that simply COULD NOT BE BUILT. I have tried not to become “one of those” but I think in modern architectural education it is extremely difficult not to fall into the trap of philosophy and theory of architecture rather than the practicality of building. But I digress…

As part of this class I will be writing blog posts centered around a theme related to construction. So, throughout the remainder of this semester, I will be writing weekly blog posts discussing the nuances of the intersection between the fields of architecture and building construction and different ways of approaching the designer/builder relationship. Specifically, I would like to investigate an idea I have been toying with this past summer which is the concept of Architect-Led-Design-Build (ALDB). As you can see from my previous post I developed a formal interest in this concept last semester when I attended a lecture on the topic. However, this idea of an architect being a sort of modern day “Master Builder” has been something I have thought about long before I knew the term to describe it.

My interest in this topic stems from the fact that, from what I have seen in my preliminary research, very few firms engage in this method of project delivery. It seems very logical to me that this would be the relationship between design and construction, so I am wondering why it doesn’t seem to be very popular. One of the first thoughts I had is that it isn’t cost effective. I also thought that it might put too heavy a burden of risk on the architect’s shoulders.

I am determined to answer some of these questions for myself, especially in my first few posts in this series. I plan to write on the following topics:

Project Delivery Systems and How the Influence the Relationship Between Architecture and Construction and How to Fix some of the Problems they Cause
What is Design-Build? Can It Produce Higher Quality Architecture?
Architect Led Design-Build (ALDB): The Argument Against the Traditional Design-Bid-Build Method of Construction
How Can Architect’s Make Better, More Instructive Drawings?
At What Point in the Design Process Should Contractors Have Input? Building as Noun and Verb
Why Every Architecture Student Should Visit Construction Sites

Over time, I would also like to dedicate one or two posts to the topic of women in the construction industry and the challenges they are faced with. Following that I would like to discuss possible ways of overcoming those challenges.