RE-CONTEXTUALIZING THE DESIGN STUDIO: THE WORKS OF BEPPU STUDIO IN JAPAN
Lecture at Leeds College of Art. 2010.
In the course of my career as a professor of architecture and design, I am constantly mindful of how can I teach architecture and design in the academy that are both meaningful and relevant to society. Increasingly, I have come to realize that architecture and design as taught in the academy has to change to accommodate the flowering of social consciousness among the younger generation, and if architects and designers aspire to be of service to society. I use the word service at the highest level; the humble and selfless spirit of assisting and giving voice to others who may not possess one. This mode of working and living is vital in our contemporary world damaged by neo-liberal economic policies, of rampant individualism, greed and continuing ecological devastation. Architecture and design serving only a limited group with the means to build and consume are no longer suffice if we are to be part of this larger global movement of social and economic repair and recovery.
Architects and designers have an enormous role to play and more so for those of us who teach. Louis Kahn once said that the street is a space of human agreement. However, as we know, it is not a one-sided agreement but arose out of a continuing process of contestation, negotiation, adjustment and agreement. Architecture and design educations in the re-contextualized studio is therefore not the same in the academy, where students are married to their laptops and professors comfortably buffered and secured against the messiness and tension of the everyday; where theoretical and design jargons preserve the status quo.
By re-contextualizing the design studio, it opens up the process of making and design to the contingency and unpredictability of life. It accepts the inquisitive eyes, nose, ears, mouth and touch of the Other. It is messy, noisy and non-linear. It recognizes that un-building and not designing carry equal importance. It can take on a different form of engagement with society beyond designing, and can appear as the naïve and populist smile t-shirt movement. It takes on the mass media of comics and the Ipad as the new platform to proclaim new urban systems and solicit participation. It harnesses and re-directs industrial waste and products in our consumption lifestyle into fleeting moments of community engagement. It improvises and performs as a live demonstration. It is concrete, and accepts participatory actions.To teach in this re-contextualized design studio requires one (both student and professor) to tear down the walls and emerge from our secluded space of the studio. It demands that we overcome and confront our own sense of stability, security, and prejudices. The challenges are enormous but necessary if one is to break free from the narrow and entrenched form of architecture and design in the academy.
Before John Cage begins composing, he would open the windows in his apartment to let the sounds of the everyday into his room and be part of the music he is composing. For Cage, these sounds are as important as his thoughtful compositions. They are not a distraction but add to the richness. The works we witness today not only defy accepted modes of production and communication but are also testaments to the struggle and re-conciliation of the authors own way of life as each has to make peace with a new culture, new social practices and their own vulnerabilities. Some are more successful than others. However, this struggle made public, rather than within the security of a design studio is a crucial one.
Lecture at Leeds College of Art. 2010.
In the course of my career as a professor of architecture and design, I am constantly mindful of how can I teach architecture and design in the academy that are both meaningful and relevant to society. Increasingly, I have come to realize that architecture and design as taught in the academy has to change to accommodate the flowering of social consciousness among the younger generation, and if architects and designers aspire to be of service to society. I use the word service at the highest level; the humble and selfless spirit of assisting and giving voice to others who may not possess one. This mode of working and living is vital in our contemporary world damaged by neo-liberal economic policies, of rampant individualism, greed and continuing ecological devastation. Architecture and design serving only a limited group with the means to build and consume are no longer suffice if we are to be part of this larger global movement of social and economic repair and recovery.
Architects and designers have an enormous role to play and more so for those of us who teach. Louis Kahn once said that the street is a space of human agreement. However, as we know, it is not a one-sided agreement but arose out of a continuing process of contestation, negotiation, adjustment and agreement. Architecture and design educations in the re-contextualized studio is therefore not the same in the academy, where students are married to their laptops and professors comfortably buffered and secured against the messiness and tension of the everyday; where theoretical and design jargons preserve the status quo.
By re-contextualizing the design studio, it opens up the process of making and design to the contingency and unpredictability of life. It accepts the inquisitive eyes, nose, ears, mouth and touch of the Other. It is messy, noisy and non-linear. It recognizes that un-building and not designing carry equal importance. It can take on a different form of engagement with society beyond designing, and can appear as the naïve and populist smile t-shirt movement. It takes on the mass media of comics and the Ipad as the new platform to proclaim new urban systems and solicit participation. It harnesses and re-directs industrial waste and products in our consumption lifestyle into fleeting moments of community engagement. It improvises and performs as a live demonstration. It is concrete, and accepts participatory actions.To teach in this re-contextualized design studio requires one (both student and professor) to tear down the walls and emerge from our secluded space of the studio. It demands that we overcome and confront our own sense of stability, security, and prejudices. The challenges are enormous but necessary if one is to break free from the narrow and entrenched form of architecture and design in the academy.
Before John Cage begins composing, he would open the windows in his apartment to let the sounds of the everyday into his room and be part of the music he is composing. For Cage, these sounds are as important as his thoughtful compositions. They are not a distraction but add to the richness. The works we witness today not only defy accepted modes of production and communication but are also testaments to the struggle and re-conciliation of the authors own way of life as each has to make peace with a new culture, new social practices and their own vulnerabilities. Some are more successful than others. However, this struggle made public, rather than within the security of a design studio is a crucial one.