Design is a thought process that leads to an inspired solution to a practical problem. Whether or not we are aware of it, design is one of the most powerful forces in our lives. Good design inspires, empowers and enlightens us. We consume design solutions everyday, it has made our lives more productive and interesting.
As active citizens of a modern society we should strive to engage with our surroundings and explore solutions that can help us leap across existing barriers and achieve higher levels of thought and technology. Robert Recorde, a 16th-century Welsh mathematician, “invented” the common equals sign when he was tired of writing the words “is equal to”. He sought a less onerous way of conveying the same meaning by using a pair of short parallel lines of equal length. Similarly, innovative thought applied to the built environment can significantly improve the way our life is conducted and businesses are operated. In a world full of things, good design helps us see through the clutter and embrace what we really need.
Humans are the only animals that depend totally on their brains for their survival. It wouldn’t be far from the truth if we assume humans to be just brains with a body to nurture and carry it around. Until technological advancements take us to a point where our minds can be copied on to hard drives and we start existing in data centers, we will need our biological bodies, and a physical enclosure to protect it from the elements. Architecture is the art and science of designing such enclosures or buildings that provides us with fulfilling physical environments to conduct our lives.
Most of us spend more than a third of our lives in buildings of some kind, it could be our homes, office, the gym or our favorite restaurant. This underscores the importance of thoughtful architectural solutions, making it just as important as structural integrity. Depending on our personality we may have a preference for the way we need our spaces to be. It has to fulfill certain functions but also provide a sense of belonging and well being.
“We shape our buildings and thereafter they shape us”
– Winston Churchill
At a basic level architecture design is often a reflection of individual preferences and needs of the environment. At a higher level it is a reflection of our civilization and its culture in a particular time. It is the physical embodiment of our lives and the values we hold dear to, that will endure and outlive us through our buildings that future generations will use, experience, and strive to understand. As well designed spaces can have a profound positive impact on our selves, poorly designed spaces can have the opposite effect on not just us, but everyone who comes in contact with it. Just like listening to a rendition of beautiful poem can affect your mood, the architectural design of a building should evoke the same emotions in our mind.
In commercial real estate terms, a building is a product that offers a spatial solution to life’s needs. A creative approach to that spatial solutions helps to enhance the usage and experience of that product. Think about how the New York City’s Guggenheim Museum, starts apart in its monotonous neighbourhood of many identical buildings. Real estate developers have not, traditionally, enjoyed a very good reputation within either the architectural community or the general public, for that matter. They are often seen as modern day pirates, grabbing prime urban land, bulldozing centuries-old residential or commercial buildings to replace them with buildings that are often a result of spread driven shallow design philosophy detached from their surroundings, with no driving objective other than maximising their money before they chase their next target.
But times have changed. Whether it’s Apple Inc. and their marketing of “design thinking”, or that the general public is a aware of the quality of space they deserve, good design has become an economic necessity. Also, the great recession helped; driven by the lack of buyers for bad products – poorly designed housing or office space, there is a growing number of developers, often new companies run by younger staff, that appear to be on a mission to transform the industry. They have acquired many urban wastelands and unloved spaces have transformed them into liveable neighbourhoods with great architecture. This new breed of developers understand the value of architecture and design thinking, and for the same reason they consider architects their obvious natural partners, the way the developer-architect relationship should always have been.