Wow! You captured a very difficult concept which is a brilliant framing: the idea that the best design is the kind you don’t notice. This article feels like a piece of philosophy as much as a commentary on architecture.
Thanks for this. As an urban planner, this tracks with my thinking on city building. It would also track with Gall's Law: "A complex system that works has evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system built from scratch won’t work." Strictly speaking, this is for software, but I think speaks to a broader truth.
Unfortunately, the broad structures of financing, property ownership, and efficient development are not aligned at all with emergent or gradual city building. Most projects are big and built to a finished state. Add in the fallout from modern city planning (focused on ahistorical, rational planning) and a very complex land use bureaucracy and you get, well, a lot of projects that are really big, really square, really bland and not well aligned with the deep needs of people and communities. Le sigh.
Wow! You captured a very difficult concept which is a brilliant framing: the idea that the best design is the kind you don’t notice. This article feels like a piece of philosophy as much as a commentary on architecture.
❤️Thank you so much for this kind comment. Trying to communicate these concepts I think is important.
Thanks for this. As an urban planner, this tracks with my thinking on city building. It would also track with Gall's Law: "A complex system that works has evolved from a simple system that worked. A complex system built from scratch won’t work." Strictly speaking, this is for software, but I think speaks to a broader truth.
Unfortunately, the broad structures of financing, property ownership, and efficient development are not aligned at all with emergent or gradual city building. Most projects are big and built to a finished state. Add in the fallout from modern city planning (focused on ahistorical, rational planning) and a very complex land use bureaucracy and you get, well, a lot of projects that are really big, really square, really bland and not well aligned with the deep needs of people and communities. Le sigh.
I agree with that. I can instantly tell when a city/town/neighborhood wasn’t well thought out and I think it’s a missed opportunity.