Image from QuaDror
This a question that Design Intelligence- and Greenway Consulting asked in their 2003 report “The Scientific Revolution Has Just Begun: What’s next in Architecture. A survey during the summer and early fall of 2003 of 45 leading design, construction, and real estate organizations to explore the changing directions in professional and business models, had this to say: “The culture in the A/E/C industry has for a long time been fragmented and inefficient. This industry has lacked trust and has been short on strategic collaborative thinking. We believe that this culture must become a remnant of the past. We see smart firms creating new value propositions that connect together and make sense of the pieces of the puzzle.”
It is 2014 today and we are in the 21st century and this question: What’s next in Architecture is still relevant. Guy Horton a writer based in Los Angeles in his column The Indicator: The Next Architecture on ArchDaily magazine while reviewing a book title Aftershock: The Next Economy and America’s Future, by Robert B. Reich, former Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton – refers to a premise in the book that indicates that: “The culture of architecture, for its own internal logic, unwittingly exemplifies the economic and social divides that made our economy vulnerable to recession in the first place.”
He further goes on to say that: “Architecture needs a re-boot and perhaps the recession is a good opportunity for that. Architecture must move beyond the project-shop mentality and evolve using viable, practical business knowledge. He further states” ‘…..high design can thrive only when protected by an economics of value and fiscal sustainability.” “Without developing new approaches to architecture as a business, architecture as a profession will continue to erode. It will reach a point where younger generations will not be able to sustain themselves in the profession. The sacrifices will simply be too daunting and unreasonable—if they aren’t already.”
It is a reality that architecture as a profession has to progress leaving behind the vestiges of the industrial economy model. Dr. Alan Beyerchen –Ohio State University has this to say: “We construct buildings, erect institutions, and develop organizations to yield linear responses and predictable behavior, and ultimately to achieve the social goal of control.” In this digital globalized economy where every industry is being disrupted through Disruptive Selection, it is not strange to consider that architecture has to change to be relevant.
The industry in which Architecture is nestled in is in for a change: AEC industry is A recent study carried out by A Weippert & S. L. Kajewski at the Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia titled: AEC Industry Culture: a need for change highlights some of the issues in the industry. "Four decades of international Architectural, Engineering, and Contractor (AEC) industry publications reinforce poor communication and information transmission; coordination; and teamwork issues, are the cause of countless performance problems on numerous AEC projects.”
Even within the profession there is a call to redefine the role of architecture: Some in the profession like architect: Rem Koolhaas in Architectural Review interview titled Batik, Biennale and the Death of the Skyscraper has this to say: “For architecture the conditions have changed more in the last 30 years than they changed in the previous two centuries, yet we still act as if it’s the same profession. There have been radical changes to so many things, such as computing power, engineering and the relationship between architect and client, yet we persist as if we are still old pipe-smoking gentlemen.”
Architect Clive Wilkinson told Dezeen in an interview for their article: Google was cubicle land when we started designing offices for them says: "One of the reasons I really like workplaces and interiors is that the impact on humanity is much more powerful than dealing with inert architectural shells, or the decorative outside dress of a building - which frankly is what most architects do." There's a notion that you can't build big buildings for owners who have highly specific needs because needs change and therefore that building will be compromised by its specificity," he added. "So architects are placed in a market of building shells."
So what’s next for Architecture?
· Architecture in this digital economy is going to be defined by how infrastructure is going to be built for the next 1 Billion. Architecture and its practice will be made relevant and turned on its head in developing economics with large population base under pressure to improve their infrastructure and societies with local solutions and many cases creating crucibles for reverse innovation.
Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble in their book Reverse Innovation write about “reverse innovation,” in which firms create products for and in emerging economies that lead to innovative goods for the developed world. Consider the following example given in the HBR article by Vijay Govindarajan : Reverse Innovation Starts with Education – “The U.S.-based Harman International Industries, known for ultra-sophisticated dashboard audiovisual systems for high-end automobiles, engineered a radically simpler and cheaper auto infotainment system for mid-price and entry-level cars in emerging markets. The company subsequently migrated the low-cost platform to serve the needs of luxury cars as well. General Electric engineered an $800 portable, battery-operated, easy-to-use electro-cardiogram (ECG) machine for rural India at a time when they were selling very powerful $10,000 ECG machines in the U.S. The $800 ECG platform is now sold in wealthy countries as well, creating new applications and additional growth for the company.”
· Architecture in this digital economy is going to be defined by the future designers of the cities of the future. In 1900, only 13% of people lived in urban areas. Today, cities account for more than half the global population and this figure is expected to increase to 70% by 2050. With the advent of Bid Data and Internet of Things, the cities of the future are going to be designed based on the information from its users, driving the feel, makeup and the building blocks of the city. The future designers of the cities of the 21st century
On November 20th, representatives of those fields gathered onstage for Chicago: City of Big Data, an UChicago Discovery Series panel discussion of research and educational efforts focused on transforming cities through data and computation - Data: A Foundation for Tomorrow's Cities. Computation Institute Director Ian Foster pointed out that half of the Earth’s population currently lives in cities—a portion that will rise to 70 percent by the year 2050. He further goes on to say ” “I think it’s no exaggeration to say that the health and prosperity of humanity during this next century will depend very much on how effectively we are able to run, design and hopefully improve the cities in which we live,”
· Architecture in this digital economy - the modern age - the Anthropocene where evidence and extent of human activities have had a significant global impact on the Earth's ecosystems - is going to be defined by industrial design turning it into a product that will be manufactured offsite as components (Lego system approach) and assembled at site, where structures do not quickly become waste, but are reused to extract their maximum value before safely and productively returning to the biosphere.
A combination of Modularization, Robotics, 3D Printing, automated manufacturing, with technologies of the future will change the architectural profession for good. QuaDror is an example of a system that lends itself to many different uses and scales. “The QuaDror system incites innovative thinking. Its structural versatility and efficiency enables design solutions for various industries and for projects of various scales. Each benefits from its economical and environmental performance. QuaDror is led by Dror Benshetrit, who invented the geometric designed figures, which can be used for construction, habitat, urban design, and more. Another noteworthy example is D*Haus Dynamic a house that can respond dynamically to its environment by controlled adaptation to seasonal, meteorological and astronomical conditions.
The future thinkers are at work to map out the future of architecture and to answer the question “What next for Architecture” It is going to be an interesting journey for the profession, the jury is still out, what do you think? I will love to hear from you?