What is it to make Architecture?
We’ll use this example as a way of introducing you to the World of Architecture, the one where we can take your budget, tastes, way of living and desires and make Architecture out of them.
There are two basic species of projects: technical and design.
The first is about solving a problem of building code or defying gravity. Architects are masters of defying gravity. It’s in our DNA. For instance, how to keep the parapet wall of the building on Briar from further leaning and moving? This concrete-frame building’s parapet wall is a three-wythe thick, solid masonry without any reinforcing steel. What does that mean? It has three layers of brick. The face brick is brown and was cut with a wire giving it a rough texture. Behind it lie two courses of common brick. The wall is tied together by a header face brick which is a brick turned 180 degrees so that it passes from the face of the facade and plugs into the unseen course of common brick behind it. This gives the wall strength.
While mortar bonding the bricks together does have some tensile strength, it is brittle and will fail without much notice. The wall has begun to lean though. Under observation, a judgment call needs to be made as to when it goes too far. The wall needs to be taken down – being very careful to save the face brick – and rebuilt with the original brick but a much different construction. This is technical work as there was no building code in 1923 when the building was built. The current code is consulted and today’s standards are followed. A new wall profile is built that from the front looks just like the old one but is very different behind the face brick.
The other endeavor is called design and it begins with a very simple question: How do you want to live or inhabit your space? This is where the counselor part comes in…
