Clarifying the Stats

The editors of DesignIntelligence received an e-mail this week that illuminates a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency statistic reported in our article “Design Leadership and the Environment.”

Edward Mazria, founder and chief executive officer of Architecture 2030, notes:

“I wanted to clarify a statistic you cite in the article: ‘Our buildings account for 39 percent of the country’s total energy use.’ This percentage is for residential and commercial building operations only. It does not include industrial building operations, i.e. HVAC and lighting (about 2 percent), and the annual embodied energy of building materials and building construction (about 8 percent). The total U.S. energy consumption attributed to the building sector is currently at 51 percent. I say this because the design of industrial buildings, building systems and the specification of materials is also our responsibility. Understanding the entire magnitude of our designs and decisions makes the ‘call to faster and wiser actions on the part of the design and construction community’ that much more urgent.

“And I am only talking here about architecture and buildings. If we add in the other design disciplines — planning, landscape architecture, interior design, industrial design, textile, communication, and fashion design — the call is not only urgent, it becomes critical.”

Let’s hope designers of all variety take note.

Is the Profession of Architecture Corrupt?

The following guest blog is from Victoria Beach, an independent architect and former lecturer in architecture at the Harvard School of Design.

Is the profession of architecture corrupt? According to the definition of “institutional corruption” currently in use at the Center for Ethics at Harvard University, yes.

The Center’s new director, renowned attorney Lawrence Lessig, has defined as “corrupt” organizations that have tragic structural flaws that undermine their own purposes for being. He has recently re-focused the Center’s resources on studying these ineffectual institutions and their corrosive effects.

Now, apply this descriptive framework to the architectural profession. Its purpose for being is to create architecture — that is, to make art out of the science of building. The purpose of this art, if there is one, is often debated but most agree it should engage, if not uplift, the individual mind and body as well as human culture as a whole. What kinds of structural features might be holding back the profession from consistently achieving these results?

Here are some possibilities.

• Though the situation varies from school to school, the design academy tends to attract narrowly educated technicians, often without college degrees or any experience in the humanities, and proceeds to advance that narrow focus. This may be a distant residue of an ancient need for draftsmen and laborers, which is rapidly being made obsolete by computer technology. This vestigial practice can prevent  architects from understanding and engaging their work in the larger social questions and from collaborating with their broadly educated peers in law, medicine, and the like.

• The internship that the architectural profession requires for licensure takes place in un-accredited, un-monitored, private offices across the country. Because this three-year period is mandatory, offices have an incentive to exploit intern labor, using it for self-serving rather than educational ends. Interns have no leverage to change these conditions and thereby further their training. Often they work for little or no pay, in violation of national labor laws, which virtually ensures their permanent economic dependency on this flawed system.

• The examination for architectural licensure does not test for architectural acumen. It is primarily an engineering exam that does not capture qualitative aspects of humane design. The legal title “architect,” on which laypeople rely to find qualified assistance, therefore does not actually ensure any architectural ability.

• The ethical codes that the profession enforces have been diluted over the years to minimal standards of basic citizenship. They no longer require, and often don’t even describe, the actions that would produce architecture. Neither laypeople nor architects could easily discern from these codes what distinct values architects are meant to uphold and what purposes they are meant to serve.

• The primary professional society for architecture, the American Institute of Architects, mainly promotes, as its name suggests, architects rather than architecture. It is organized under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, which means it is a “business league,” “promoting the common economic interests of … a trade.” The general public can therefore be excused for interpreting this technicality exactly the way the government does: Architects are businesspeople first and professionals or artists second, if at all.

• The building industry has detected, enhanced, and leveraged the public’s confusion over what architects do. As architects surrender their leadership positions, the odds that buildings might serve interests beyond those of their developers worsen. Many architects now sit in the back offices of these developers and are economically dependent upon them – a circumstance that was ethically prohibited a century ago.

• But even without the influences of the building industry, architects are faced with the same ethical conundrums of “agency” that all professionals are. When lawyers are put in the compromising position of knowing information that might clarify the truth of a matter but condemn their own clients, they struggle (one hopes). But at least with the legal system, the zealous advocacy model was designed to provide representatives on more than one side of an issue. Architects, on the other hand, are charged with representing the needs of their paying clients as well as the often contradictory needs of the non-paying users and the non-paying public. There is no other designated agent for these unorganized interest groups.

These seven structural features may indeed be corrupting in Lessig’s sense of undermining the profession’s ability to serve its defining ethical goals. Furthermore, many even stickier ethical conundrums are posed by the very existence of an artistic pursuit structured as a professional and commercial enterprise.

These issues, among many others, have been under intense scrutiny through the ethical research and teaching of professor Carl Sapers and others at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. On April 26, the Carl M. Sapers Ethics in Practice Fund, was established at Harvard to continue and enhance this work. This presents a unique opportunity to raise the discourse of architectural ethics and to address these many challenges.

Supreme Makeover

We’re really excited about the January/February issue of DesignIntelligence, which debuts the new four-color cover design. What do you think?

Calculate Your Building’s Carbon Footprint

The Green Footstep tool allows you to learn how much your commercial or residential building will contribute to global warming. It’s the brainchild of Architecture 2030 founder Edward Mazria and the Rocky Mountain Institute.

The tool can be used on residential and commercial new and retrofit building construction projects, from pre-design through occupancy.  It assesses a design’s total carbon footprint due to site development, construction, and operation and suggests the most effective levers to meet the Architecture 2030 Challenge.

An Exceptional Book

We were delighted to read the December issue of IOMA’s Principal’s Report, which contains the first published review of our new book Change Design: Conversations About Architecture as the Ultimate Business Tool (2nd Ed.).

“Every so often a publication comes along that completely transforms your idea of what a book could be. Change Design: Conversations About Architecture as the Ultimate business Tool (2nd Ed.) is just such a book on several levels,” writes editor Ernie Burden.

He goes on to praise it as “an exceptional example of graphics and photography” but notes that it “transcends being simply an exercise in design and photography.”

The book highlights the role of design and innovation in transforming businesses and organizations. We couldn’t agree more with Burden’s assessment that it makes a great addition to your library.

A Peek at Richard Saul Wurman’s “33″

Months ago I blogged about a work session we had here with Richard Saul Wurman as he launched into the creation of his newest book. 33: Understanding Change & the Change in Understanding is now almost complete.

How do I even begin to describe it? It’s a fable. It’s a fable wrapped around a 33-year-old illustrated keynote address Wurman delivered at the 1976 AIA convention. It’s a 33-part television script. It’s a fantastical allegory. It’s thought-provoking and charming.

Here’s a look at one of the spreads.

Sample spread from Richard Saul Wurman's "33"

Hoping to go to the printer with this any day now. Look for it in September. Here’s a bit more about it from our press release.

Ralph Hawkins Interview

Heads-up on what sounds to be an interesting television interview next week.

As Chairman and CEO of HKS Inc., Ralph Hawkins leads one of the top three architectural firms in the country. The Dallas-based company boasts a diverse portfolio, and its brightest star right now is the new billion dollar-plus Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.

Next week, KERA, the public radio and television station for north Texas, features an conversation with Ralph Hawkins, CEO of HKS. The interview, which will air on the station’s monthly half-hour business program “CEO,” will include a tour of the new stadium. Hawkins will also discuss how HKS is confronting the troubled U.S. economy by expanding globally and working on projects funded by the government.

Hawkins is a Senior Fellow of the Design Futures Council and a member of its executive board. Needless to say, this should be an illuminating and fascinating conversation.

“CEO” airs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, July 31 on KERA-TV and at 5 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2 on KERA-FM. Those of us outside the reach of north Texas signals can find it streamed online after the broadcast at www.kera.org/ceo.

DI Hits the Streets of SF

Last week, bus stops all over San Francisco carried the word from DesignIntelligence as Mortenson touted its Most Admired Contractor status.

Opportunity to Lead

Kawneer Co. President Glen Morrison (from left), Leo A Daly Executive Vice President Charles Dalluge, Communication Arts Co-chairman Richard Foy, Greenway Group Chairman Jim Cramer, and DuPont Building Innovations Commercial Business Manager Casey Robb

Most striking about last week’s meeting of the Design Futures Council Executive Board was extensive talk about opportunity. What’s the best use of this recession? was the prominent topic of debate and brainstorming among members of this prestigious group of architecture, engineering, construction, and construction product leaders.

There was no denying that times are tough and getting tougher. “This recession is reaching around the globe and we’re not seeing many hiding places,” noted one firm’s managing partner. Another individual relayed his expectation that by the end of the year, the firm he oversees will be 50 percent as large as it was a year prior.

Yet almost without exception, participants outlined opportunities they are either currently pursuing or that they’re keeping an eye on:

• “There’s an opportunity do a lot better work in this economic environment.”
• “There are more high-profile, quality assignments now than during the building boom.”
• “There is pent up demand for our services.”
• “There is still demand for replacement hospitals.”
• “We’re putting a lot of focus on imbuing other project types with the hospitality experience, for example, health care and senior living.”
• “Crisis gives us a chance to change faster.”
• “Now is the time to be bold. It’s less expensive to be innovative than it used to be.”
• “We have more time now to get close to clients and understand their needs.”

While mainstream media continues to push messages that focus on the gloom of the current economic situation, leaders with foresight see opportunity and are willing to take strategic risks to turn those opportunities into advantages.

New Book by Richard Saul Wurman

Wow — what a day yesterday! Richard Saul Wurman was in the office for a work session on his newest book. Tentatively titled “33: Understanding Change by Changing & the Change in Our Understanding,” it’s a dynamic, multilayered presentation of conundrums and opportunities we face in the modern world. Architecture, design, science, health care, technology, and connectedness are themes that weave throughout.

The inner core of the book is Wurman’s “What-If, Could-Be: An Historical Fable of the Future,” a charming and challenging self-published fable that was distributed at the 1976 AIA Convention, which he chaired (and which is still discussed in many circles for its game-changing formula and out-of-the-box format).

Working with Wurman is an exercise in flexibility. He’s off and running the minute he enters the room, and you just have to try to keep up. It’s an energizing, elevating, creative, and confusing experience. Can’t wait for more.