How Buildings Learn

The above is a quotation from How Buildings Learn by Stewart Brand, he goes on to speak about art more in depth and how it’s an experimental process and that most experiments fail and have more cost to them than expected. Both of these fields are vital to life and they are both forms of expression to which everyone is entitled to but they differ tremendously. Architecture houses art, good design is a skill while art is a talent, art is limited while architecture gives people opportunities. These are just my personal opinions but I believe that design is embedded within everything and has to be conservative in certain aspects to abide by all of the codes and laws established. Artists have unlimited options but architects and designers have so many fundamental and philosophical challenges. Form follows function, less is more, more is more, good design is unobtrusive, many of these deep questions are things we as designers ask ourselves and must confront but may never resolve. Artists have to deal with composition and medium where architects have to deal with people as well as designers and our intent as thinkers is to move these people in ways in which they haven’t been moved before. Sure artists think about people as well, but we have to think about humans in the full spectrum of events from arrival to departure, making a building or product last and making that experience as enjoyable as possible while personally trying to use as little design as possible.