Knowledge + Action: Design is action defined

I had a great conversation with an old friend. He is working on a project and I have kept in touch with the progress. I enjoy hearing about the progress of others as it can assist your own mindset during a design or build.

I am in the waiting stage for my newest work as the plans go through the review process. It’s a strange bubble to be in and most small architecture firms deal with it. I use that time to read. I’m reading a lot these days and it’s a superpower.

During our conversation he suggested that I need to stop reading and focus on building. I had to think about it for a moment and our phone conversation ended before I could process the advice.

I’d have to say that I disagree with it. I’ll use this blog to challenge it and see where it goes.

First, reading is building; it’s building knowledge and strategies and preparations for situations now and in the future. Reading is the absorption of information that will strengthen work. Reading fiction can inspire work and create foundations of meaning. All-City says “Build Big, Build Small; Build Everyday.” Reading is building.

Design and building is not just an exploration of “seeing what works” through a feeling or a review of time and space, design is the incorporation of many aspects. One aspect is the application of knowledge into the work. Doing this adds another layer to the process. That knowledge is stored away in books and media. It flows freely into the world for all those that go to get it. Going through design without at least going out there and obtaining the minimum amount of knowledge would be like stepping onto the football field without a helmet unprepared.

Design is truly freeform as everyone, amateur or professional, have their own notions of what works. Some define and redefine, others refine or realign. Some say it’s a form of language, others don’t. Some say style doesn’t exist, others scoff at the notion of the uncategorized as chaotic.

Design is really what one makes of it. What it is to me, is not what it is to you. Like social situations, design has cultural norms or a loose set of unwritten rules that some choose to abide by, but even that can be twisted away or reworded.

Design is action defined. Chaos is disordered and random; design can be all things; it is not the same or opposite. I’ve always thought of there being a willingness associated with design, a type of boundary stretching. That is the sport - the variety through which accumulation of those actions is chaotic, structured and therefore crashes into itself in a strange way, remains in place, or performs in some other fashion.

Design is perpendicular to nature. Humans give life sets of anthropomorphic qualities and label it design, but it’s not, it’s nature. Design insinuates an origin. Nature as we know it has an origin that is unknown. When we understand where life came from, we can then begin to understand the true depths of design. Until then, design is always limited and there are opportunities that reside there.

I’ve always had a level of rejection associated toward design; what it is, what it can be, its association with the individual human mind. I always felt there was a layer that was so much more. On Earth there is more than design. It is that layer which positions itself in a space where nature embraces its hidden and unknown origins.

Most design we see in the world is exhaustive, lacks value, and is analogous to a fission type of nuclear reaction which creates a toxic waste byproduct at the source. A design process with a fusion type process functions like an ecosystem. There is a reason why our great sun is such a successful and powerful source.

Design is everywhere. You can see it at various levels, but for me most design is exhaustive and inefficient. I’d like to tap in and access something at another level of meaning beyond the strict human focus as we define it.

Design, mysticism, and what I like to call “human magic” are very different entities with a variety of qualities. If design is everything and everywhere, they are similar, however, design can also be a brand, folks have to buy it first.

The snake oil salesman, vigorously selling the latest and greatest cure to your ails has a ‘design’ but it is only effective is another party purchases the product. The objective is to achieve the exchange of capital from person to person. What about an alternate strategy? What about the guy that just walks up to you, calmly hits you in the face with an aluminum baseball bat and gently extricates the belongings from your pockets. That sounds like excellent design to me.

The action of design is simple; think, place, feel, remain or replace, repeat. When you add a layer of knowledge to the process, it is like forging Tamahagane Steel. When produced properly Tamahagane Steel can exhibit properties that are simultaneously strong and flexible. The result is direct, contrasting, pragmatic yet flexible, artistic and beautiful.

To conclude, I do not agree that it is a good idea to give up reading books to focus strictly on building. Reading the right books is building. To leave that out would entail performing at a suboptimal level.