Author: Duo Dickinson | ArchDaily

Buildings Are Not Sacred, but We Can Find Beauty Through Them

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Why So Many Banal Boxes? Because Architecture Reflects the Ethos of Its Time

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 12 Jul 2024 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

When Is Architectural Symbolism Hypocrisy?

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 03 May 2024 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Why Time Is a Problem for Architects

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Money and the Conundrum of Architects Who Don’t Build

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 22 Sep 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

If you’ve been in the profession of architecture long enough, you come to know a certain rarified subset of fellow professionals: Those who call themselves “architects,” who have a degree, and who may even be licensed and members of the AIA, but who do not practice architecture. They simply like being an “architect.”

Architecture Always Reflects the Values of Its Current Culture

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 18 Aug 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Architecture and the God Problem

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 14 Jul 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

The 2022 Pivots in Architecture

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 04 Jan 2023 03:30:00 +0000

Every “Year In Review” assessment of anything is both myopic and timely. That being said, 2022 was a "Boom" time for architects (and the building industry in general). This snapshot will change in 2023 when this year’s manufactured interest rate jumps will crib death this short and intense boom.

"New Practices" in Architecture are Just an Evolution

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 23 Nov 2022 03:30:00 +0000

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” Despite Winston Churchill’s words, architects are shaped by our culture, and our work reacts to it. Because our culture evolves, the practice of architecture evolves. What is “New” in architectural practice has had accelerating change, exploding in the 21st century because new technologies have changed everything on a level of the Industrial Revolution, 200 years ago.

Nameless Buildings Affect Us

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Architecture is human. So when I entered Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 1973 and the entire faculty were as white and male as I was, it made no sense to me but reflected the end times of the full-on male dominance in my chosen profession. In that world, a few professors would often comment on how female students looked at juries, and some sexually victimized some students (none of whom were male).

Is Good Architecture Synonymous with Beauty?

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Architecture is not simply building. Over 2,000 years ago, Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio defined two base realities in building: “Firmness” (Safety) and “Commodity” (Use) and then offered what turns building into architecture: “Delight” (Beauty).

Technology Isn't Trend, It's Timeless

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 31 Aug 2022 03:30:00 +0000

“Hope for Architecture” is the calling of Clay Chapman and described by him as “a building initiative to address the challenges of an uncertain future.” In truth, “Hope for Architecture” is a masonry and timber technology, reinvented and adapted from antiquity for this moment. Clay and his young family moved to Carleton Landing, Oklahoma fifteen years ago to fulfill a mission: creating a community and explore that technology.

New York’s Towers of Babel

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 27 Jul 2022 03:30:00 +0000

The world is facing an Urban Century. The world’s population is collapsing into city centers as manufacturing and agriculture need fewer humans because technology replaces the human hand with machines. The world's urban population has grown from 751 million in 1950 to 4.46 billion in 2021 and will grow to 6.68 billion by 2050.

Democratizing Architecture vs. Aesthetic Apartheid Architecture

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 22 Jun 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Architecture has long been a profession in aesthetic apartheid. The profession’s favored aesthetic, Modernism, has relegated all other “styles” to marginalized insignificance in laud, teaching and publication. The last generation has seen those following an aesthetic deemed “traditional” create an entirely separate system of schools, awards and publication.

Creating Architectural Value through Aesthetics

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 18 May 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Humans try very hard to make the inexplicable understood. Our spirituality becomes religion. Fairness becomes law. And what delights us becomes aesthetics, and aesthetics are dumbed down to “style” in fine arts and architecture. The description, then definition, of aesthetics enables us to judge, and hopefully, control what thrills us: "Styles may change, details may come and go, but the broad demands of aesthetic judgement are permanent". -- Roger Scruton

The Future of Visualization May Be The Past

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 03:30:00 +0000

We deal with buildings every day. We sleep in them, work in them, live our lives using their accommodation. But like a song or a painting, a person usually helps create them, with those who use and build them, then the world receives that work. But before they are built, buildings are just ideas.

“Net Zero” Homes: Marketing Morality

Duo Dickinson — Wed, 16 Mar 2022 03:30:00 +0000

Almost no one buys an automobile for its stated price with cash on hand, so those looking to buy a car look to what the cost will be each month to own their automobile. Homes are our deepest investment, and most homeowners are equally as proud of their home as they are of their car and are terrified of its cost. So it is not surprising that “Net Zero” homes use the same sales tactic, proving their value by promising no monthly energy bills.

The Architectural Pandemic of the “Stick Frame Over Podium” Building

Duo Dickinson — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.