Wouldn't it be great to slow down a bit? It would be refreshing to do only those things that I can do really well or just not do them at all. Dashing things off is great in some ways - Schindler's ability to build so much helped him to get really good at it. But that was a different time and it is more difficult to build so quickly now. I can't imagine anyone doing a 4-page set of drawings and having a halfway decent building come out of it these days.
Is there a slow building movement akin to the slow food movement?
I've been thinking a lot about the Eames House lately, since it came up in a conversation with clients. I found some nice photos on flickr.
I recall that I once had a SCI-Arc student ask me why all architects are so in love with the Eames House. I didn't know what to say at the time, but now I think that when you look at the house, it feels so carefully lived in. Maybe 'Slow Inhabitation' would be more to the point. The Eames House was carefully designed, quickly built, and seems as if the life within the house were crafted over a long period of time, highly personalized to the inhabitants. If this is what so many architects are drawn to, it may explain why we are often turned off by the idea of hiring an interior designer to deliver it all at once. We want our clients to live like this, designing the life of their houses along with their own experiences.
