CREJ

16 / BUILDING DIALOGUE / December 2020 Design is Ever Present – Motivational & Aspirational W e all engage the world from varying perspectives, and as such our world takes shape. These thoughts are shared – in no particular order, yet in tandem – to provoke an ongoing conversation, and open-mindedness, toward the notion of design: • It is an elusive concept, particularly when you recognize it involves more than yourself; this is whatmakes it a difficult task, and it should be. • We as “designers” tend to make it personal, which can distract one from addressing relevant cir- cumstances; we need to be very careful about this. • It is both process and product: Developing a well-organized and rigorous method that focuses on problems, conditions, circumstances and opportuni- ties is prerequisite to delivering quality product; spe- cific to the arbiters of the built-environment, we are not selling commodity. • It ismost understood as a visual phenomenon, but it is perceptually all-encompassing – the grip of a door lever, the in- cline of a floor surface, the ca- dence of sound and silence, the inhale of a moment of brisk air: One should nev- er forget this. • The patterns of our worldandof ourhistories teach us much, and pro- vide an underpinning for our efforts; let’s be careful about too much ‘future-forward’ inclina- tions – Louis Kahn re- minds us that “whatwill be has always been”; and Alvaro Siza declares, “Ar- chitectsdon’t invent anything; they transformreality.” • Design is about articulating strategy to reveal pur- pose. • There is a silver lining for every circumstance pre- sented to us; we need to look harder and deeper some- times. • “By design” is not always true; we are fortunate that society has a heavy hand in finding the merits of our work to yield something more powerful than what was envisioned; we need to be more embracing when this happens. • Engaging the world is an act of design; it serves as a construct – in how we learn, work and live; we are constantly articulating and re-arranging our interface with our community. • An open-ended journey, we address circumstances while sowing seeds for newconditions to arise. • It mimics the world in which we live – that is to say that it is inherently complex, despite our efforts to seek simple; whenwe “design” wemakemore than things –we are forging systems, strategies and stories. Without question there aremore points to bemade; design is ever present in shaping our daily deliber- ations. It is motivator, enabler and aspiration all at once. \\ Joey Carrasquillo, AIA, LEED AP Principal, Anderson Mason Dale Architects Design Always

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