Comments on: Who knew NESEA needed an architect? http://www.nesea.org/uncategorized/who-knew-nesea-needed-an-architect/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=who-knew-nesea-needed-an-architect We Connect Sustainability Professionals to Ideas and Each Other. Tue, 05 Feb 2013 21:06:59 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.4.1 By: Robert Riversong http://www.nesea.org/uncategorized/who-knew-nesea-needed-an-architect/#comment-295 Robert Riversong Sun, 14 Nov 2010 02:24:07 +0000 http://www.nesea.org/blog/?p=659#comment-295 Perhaps it's true that an "organization" (social unit of people, systematically arranged and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis) requires an architect (or more accurately, a manager or administrator) to organize the disparate parts, roles, skills and visions into a coherent whole. But the small entrepreneurial enterprises which built this nation and which are still the foundation for economic creativity and satisfying work, are more akin to that restaurant started by a chef with skill, hope and tenacity that Seth denigrates. Impressarios, as Seth correctly points out, are about management and marketing, or putting together a package of other people's art "that consumers want to buy". And architects, as Seth also correctly asserts, do not make anything themselves, unless you consider design something tangible (when, too often, it is an imposition of ego onto the artifice of others). "Mechanics along are insufficient", Seth claims. Yet mechanics (those skilled in shaping and uniting materials, as wood, metal, etc., into any kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools) in the broader sense of day's gone by are those whose skill - and, yes, artistic vision - created the built environment that met basic human needs. Seth tells us "you can’t build a class A office building with nothing but a skilled carpenter". That may be true, if by "class A office building" you mean something grand in scale that has a commensurate impact on the cultural and ecological environment, or "a business that scales". But, if we hadn't narrowed our vocations into specializations which can function only within a very limited domain and hence require an organizational overseer (general contractor), we would still be seeing finely functional buildings created by skilled artisans (mechanics). I think it's time we stop thinking in terms of "scale" and return to human scale and well-tuned artisanship. What our world needs now is more master builders and fewer architects, more good chefs and fewer impressarios, more true mechanics and fewer general contractors, administrators, executive directors and CEOs - all of whom are compensated according to the value of, and by a surcharge on, other people's work. We have become a top-heavy society and it's time we get back to basics, where real value lies. Perhaps it’s true that an “organization” (social unit of people, systematically arranged and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis) requires an architect (or more accurately, a manager or administrator) to organize the disparate parts, roles, skills and visions into a coherent whole.

But the small entrepreneurial enterprises which built this nation and which are still the foundation for economic creativity and satisfying work, are more akin to that restaurant started by a chef with skill, hope and tenacity that Seth denigrates.

Impressarios, as Seth correctly points out, are about management and marketing, or putting together a package of other people’s art “that consumers want to buy”. And architects, as Seth also correctly asserts, do not make anything themselves, unless you consider design something tangible (when, too often, it is an imposition of ego onto the artifice of others).

“Mechanics along are insufficient”, Seth claims. Yet mechanics (those skilled in shaping and uniting materials, as wood, metal, etc., into any kind of structure, machine, or other object, requiring the use of tools) in the broader sense of day’s gone by are those whose skill – and, yes, artistic vision – created the built environment that met basic human needs.

Seth tells us “you can’t build a class A office building with nothing but a skilled carpenter”. That may be true, if by “class A office building” you mean something grand in scale that has a commensurate impact on the cultural and ecological environment, or “a business that scales”.

But, if we hadn’t narrowed our vocations into specializations which can function only within a very limited domain and hence require an organizational overseer (general contractor), we would still be seeing finely functional buildings created by skilled artisans (mechanics).

I think it’s time we stop thinking in terms of “scale” and return to human scale and well-tuned artisanship. What our world needs now is more master builders and fewer architects, more good chefs and fewer impressarios, more true mechanics and fewer general contractors, administrators, executive directors and CEOs – all of whom are compensated according to the value of, and by a surcharge on, other people’s work.

We have become a top-heavy society and it’s time we get back to basics, where real value lies.

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