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The Committee on Design (COD) was founded to promote design excellence among members of the AIA, the broader design community, and the public at large, both nationally and internationally.

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2023 COD Conferences

Last year, COD held two domestic design conferences investigating The Authenticity of Place.  The first conference was held in New Orleans, LA.  View the short video of the venue tours and download the conference program book. The second conference was held in Minneapolis/St. Paul, MN, September 21-24, 2023. Download the Minneapolis guidebook and view the conference video

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Brave New World

  • 1.  Brave New World

    Posted 01-05-2021 07:40 PM

    We at the Committee on Design have attempted to "keep it real", that is, we are generally devoted to the importance experiencing architecture  in situ, as an old fashioned three dimensional object. That said, we do also celebrate architecture as photograph, though I think almost all of us do not think of it as the real thing.  The attached link seems to revel in the reality of architecture as movie.  

    "TikTok-itecture": Is This the New Digital Media for Architecture and Design?

    ArchDaily remove preview
    "TikTok-itecture": Is This the New Digital Media for Architecture and Design?
    In a world that was once so obsessed with architecture that was "for the 'gram", the rise of TikTok is creating a shift in how we experience and consume architecture. It's no small trend either, nearly 950 million TiKTok videos utilize the hashtag #architecture, frequently to describe buildings in various cities or a specific architectural style that the video creator is familiar with.
    View this on ArchDaily >

    Mike Mense FAIA

    Hamilton Heights NYC



    ------------------------------
    Mike Mense FAIA
    New York NY
    ------------------------------
    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 2.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-06-2021 05:39 PM

    Tik Tok - I attached my blog post from this morning to illustrate the power of Architecture as a crown. See below for today's excerpt from theDailyTrotter.com/wordpress :

    Deca: Italy, French.

    Diagramming the flow of style through Europe has a unique dynamic of Italian and French confluence. The most direct flow of style came from the Roman conquest across Europe, however, the French developed a new language of Architecture that influenced Italian regions in the second millennium. Further confluence can be observed through the Italian Renaissance, a foundational shift of rediscovery that eventually started Neoclassicism through Baroque. The work of Michelangelo and Bernini was sought by the French for iconic masterworks, both indirectly and directly; as an example, the work of Michelangelo can be observed in the French Baroque design for Louis XIV's military invalid home by Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the relative of Francois Mansart (1, p. 143); directly, Bernini was invited to Paris to design an expansion of the Louvre Palace for Louis XIV (2, p. 130). The source of style, as observed in French Baroque Architecture, established hope and value for people (1, p. 143).

    Reference: (1) Ayers, A. (2004). The Architecture of Paris. London: Edition Axel Menges. (2) Pevsner, N. (2009). An Outline of European Architecture. Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith.



    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 3.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-07-2021 05:26 PM

    Excellent summation of the Deca: Italy, French.

    Lest we not forget Borromini as well ! 

     

    Travis  Price,  FAIA

    Travis  Price  Architects

    2805 Chesterfield Place NW

    Washington, DC 20008  

    202 . 965 . 7000

    www.TravisPriceArchitects.com

    www.SpiritofPlace-Design.com

     

                email red on white

     

    BEST MODERN AMERICA 2020

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 4.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-08-2021 07:06 PM
    Thank you. The original Baroque, with Borromini, is a counter reformation movement (1, p. 63); while English Baroque, like Hawksmoor's work, is not counter reformation (1, p. 63). My past point about modernism ending in 2014 is substantiated by the New Urbanist movement cradling the success of the Decon and Emergent movements claiming industrial sectors. Classical language is valuable again, especially as an abstract source of value, if not even a crowned beacon like the San Diego Public Library's refuge of books cascading through a Deconstructivist atria.  

    Reference: (1) Curl, J. S., & Wilson, S. (2016). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 5.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-11-2021 05:31 PM

    How would you classify the new Cathedral, Christ of the Light by SOM in Oakland, CA? 

     

    Travis  Price,  FAIA

    Travis  Price  Architects

    2805 Chesterfield Place NW

    Washington, DC 20008  

    202 . 965 . 7000

    www.TravisPriceArchitects.com

    www.SpiritofPlace-Design.com

     

                email red on white

     

    BEST MODERN AMERICA 2020

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 6.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-11-2021 05:52 PM
    Per SOM's website, they state that they utilize a sustainable tectonic of concrete mass to thermally stabilize the structure (1); their ultimate goal is a sustainable contemporary expression. The recent work of SOM is slightly latent of style with the primary goal being a Modernist comprehension; however, their past work at the Air Force Academy's chapel abstracts a Romanesque roof in a visually striking Modernist expression.

    The coursed base and biomimic'ed natural expression of their design work expresses a Greek influence and study on massing. The enclosure system features a greenhouse look, which slightly holds to an engineers proposal, yet remains in the vein of Classically infused design. My general understanding of their work is that it is Contemporary Regional Modern with Biomimicry screens.

    Reference: (1) SOM (2021). SOM | Cathedral Of Christ The Light - Structural Engineering. Retrieved on January 11th, 2021 from https://www.som.com/projects/cathedral_of_christ_the_light__structural_engineering

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 7.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-12-2021 05:39 PM
    I don't know how new it is. I think it was built in 2008. 

    David J. Brotman, FAIA

    Sunset Consultants
    24350 North Whispering Ridge Way, #38
    Scottsdale, AZ 85255
    C:  310-409-7111
    T:  480-247-2218




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 8.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-15-2021 02:09 PM
    As an Associate of the American Institute of Architects, who has an exact and definitive critique of the AIA, please see the Oxford Dictionary of Architecture quote below for why Architecture needs to shift back to Classically understood Architectural language.

    • Historicism "2. Term used to describe a tendency among some architects to insist their work was part of a continuous process of cultural evolution that was capable of historical analysis..." (1, p. 362)

    Reference: (1) Curl, J. S., & Wilson, S. (2016). Oxford Dictionary of Architecture. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    theDailyTrotter and tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 9.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-15-2021 02:46 PM

    Seth, I am sorry but I understand very little of what you write. 

     

    Nonetheless, I think I recognize that you are one who considers architecture primarily a form of art.  As such, you can apply art history logic to your contributions.  I, on the other hand, think architecture is the practice of creating built environments that work for people.  The products of that practice can also be called architecture.  I understand "working for people" in its widest sense, which is to say that both practical and emotional aspects matter entirely.  Some of the principles of classical architecture of course continue to work.  Most of the details of classical architecture do not work and are thus inappropriate.  Classical details arose from various specific taste, skill and material cultures.  As we would not demand that a writer use cuneiform, so we will not ask architects to speak in Greek or Roman.

    Meanwhile, have fun with the distinctions of art history (as I do).

    Mike Mense FAIA

    Hamilton Heights NYC

     

    ps, There are those who think I am hijacking the term "architecture", that what I am talking about is something else, something we might call the art and science of building.  OK, but if we are going to license professionals like me, we can only justify licensing those who practice under my definition.  The public has no interest in licensing artists.

     

    Or maybe you are just trying to pull our leg?

     

    Sent from Mail for Windows 10

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 10.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-15-2021 03:15 PM
    Mister M.A. Mense, FAIA,

    You are generally correct about me. I attended a college that is geared as a vessel to culture; the context of greater Los Angeles, to the majority of my life, gives rise to the power of abstract existential governance over value, primarily through the respect of Art to my family. Through study, and generally the sight to understand, art has given rise to the cultural sensibilities that define your Practice, generally correctly. The ligature of form and space need to heed the wise curves of antiquity and revival to understand the correct value for the future; I choose Classical knowledge to inform correct design decisions. It is nearly too exhaustive, however, correctly pertinent, to the line of ownership that hires architects and historicist Architects, like Gehry, to define style in regard to contextual historical precedence.

    Sincerely,

    Seth Trotter

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 11.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-15-2021 03:57 PM

             Good try Seth, however I concur with where Mike is heeding. You can't easily lock the definitions of architecture up in those of the other arts.

    ""Music is liquid architecture; Architecture is frozen music"― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. This well-known phrase is just the beginning of the joy the arts can share. Indeed there is no end to such allegories in poetry, philosophy, dance, and all the arts that we could line up.  Thus the merry go round goes round....However,         

     As Mother of the Arts, Architecture like all the arts has its similarities  but most importantly to me, it has its very distinct differences, it's essences, its own language. The  Socratic question is always more exciting when I find out what I didn't know that I didn't know. To discover new languages in the history of architecture is the eureka moment as well as in the other arts. Thus moments of real change are glorious. The expansion/rebellion of the new languages of Architecture  need not depend on being  subjugated to one period of time, say Classicism.

    However, Architecture does and always will  take a  bow to its history, the same as Copernicus did to Ptolemy.  As we stare up to the ceiling of the Pantheon, are we seeing the universe through an opening or rather the universe as the sphere itself and infinity of light beyond?  We might find out when we land on Mars.  

     

    Travis  Price,  FAIA

    Travis  Price  Architects

    2805 Chesterfield Place NW

    Washington, DC 20008  

    202 . 965 . 7000

    www.TravisPriceArchitects.com

    www.SpiritofPlace-Design.com

     

                email red on white

     

    BEST MODERN AMERICA 2020

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 12.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-15-2021 08:00 PM
    Mister Travis Price III,

    I can start to understand Mister Mense's desire to experience Architecture in a new position, understand his point regarding licensure, and express it as your "Mother of Arts." However, the exacting value of the current system has cradled a systematic crime against upstanding professionals; the current morality required by law is to abide within the objective morality of law, something the Modernist school failed at. A clear consequence to the abdicated value of Architectural style through less considered Modernism serves an indirect purpose of infesting cities with criminal offense and general distaste. As a LEED AP BD+C, it is a clear imperative to establish correct value, and, Historicism is the forgotten pages of value that esoterically guides dollar signs through an embodied serif of style.

    Sincerely,
    Seth Trotter

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter
    Sole Proprietor
    theDailyTrotter and tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 13.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-16-2021 02:34 PM

    I have no idea why you mention LEED, it's the 3rd waive of green it seems. I started the first wave in 1973. Ed Mazria's drawings are actually sketches of my earliest works as the trailblazer for passive solar design.  To be sure however, LEED, is simply one of hundreds of functional checklist items these days that codify us away from beauty. Counting BTU's on the head of a pin is almost as important as a weld joint.

    As to your last sentences, I'm completely lost on what island you are on Seth. I'm signing out, thank you. Travis Price FAIA

     

    Travis  Price,  FAIA

    Travis  Price  Architects

    2805 Chesterfield Place NW

    Washington, DC 20008  

    202 . 965 . 7000

    www.TravisPriceArchitects.com

    www.SpiritofPlace-Design.com

     

                email red on white

     

    BEST MODERN AMERICA 2020

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 14.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-16-2021 03:54 PM
    Mister Price III, FAIA
    Thank you for your banter. LEED has improved the quality of fenestration systems in the world, which is the process of creating value for the edifice's owner, and, commonly more beautiful; the derived value of Architecture isn't generally limited by LEED.

    I am a California born designer stranded in Prescott, Arizona because of the poor choices of an AIA Chapter. My most recent work on executive design rights will prove justly in the next decade because of Washington, D.C. needing so much repair. I have requested that the AIA be a leader in Professional fairness, which includes preventing corporate fraud and theft. Architectural style is just my favorite narrative for moral practice, coming from an elite Historicism tradition from California.

    King Regards
    Seth Trotter

    ------------------------------
    Seth Trotter Assoc. AIA
    Sole Proprietor
    tdtCREATIVE
    Prescott AZ
    ------------------------------

    2024 HRC Taliesin West


  • 15.  RE: Brave New World

    Posted 01-12-2021 07:07 PM

    Excellent critique, thanks.  I particularly admire and love the large translucent Christ that shifts between real and spiritual as the daylight shimmers.  It gives that sacred shiver similar to Dali's painting of the Christ on the cross in the heavens.  There were some superb moves in their project with simple form, yet luminous messages and vast sound-full and soundless infinites. 

     

    Travis  Price,  FAIA

    Travis  Price  Architects

    2805 Chesterfield Place NW

    Washington, DC 20008  

    202 . 965 . 7000

    www.TravisPriceArchitects.com

    www.SpiritofPlace-Design.com

     

                email red on white

     

    BEST MODERN AMERICA 2020

     




    2024 HRC Taliesin West