Young Architects Forum

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts! 

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts! 

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts! 

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts! 

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts! 

I have spent a good portion of my career designing homes for the Middle Class, that is, "production housing".  I have also been a member of the AIA since 2003.  These two sectors of the world of architecture have never really met.  In fact, AIA members have informally shared with me that production housing is considered a kind of "evil" in architecture, that is, that it isn't actually architecture, and that it's just another widget for people to consume and throw away in 20 years or less.  I spent most of my childhood living in badly maintained apartments in an inflated housing market in the San Francisco Bay Area, where, although my family was considered part of the Middle Class, could not afford a house near my parents' jobs.  We finally found a home, built by the famous homebuilder Kaufman & Broad, aka KB Home, about 50 miles from where we were living.  As a child, I had already become enamored with architecture: sweeping skyscrapers, bridges, and beautiful things.  But to me, nothing was more beautiful than a place to call Home.  Through KB's brochure home plans, I learned about architecture - the correct placement of doors and windows, architectural styles, privacy for bedrooms and publicly allocating family and kitchen spaces.  I decided that I wanted to design and build homes for people like me: those who weren't rich, and didn't want to live poor.

My question to you is this: how do we as architects reconcile the market-driven architectural style seen in production housing (and elsewhere) with what we consider to be "true" architecture?  How do we engage our communities to see things the way we "see" them?  Are there other ways in which architects are detached from the community, or reality, for that matter?

A penny for your thoughts!