Welcome to this blog . . . a series of musings about the practice of Architecture, by myself Andrew E. Mitchell, Architect. Over thirty years of combined education and broad ranging experience provides much to draw from and reflect on. It is certainly a challenging field, bust and boom cycles with the attendant hire and fire, long hours working to meet demanding deadlines, extreme competition, relatively low paying field for a professional, managing expectations, dealing with massive egos/difficult people and seemingly little recognition for achievements.
I would suppose one could say something similar about one’s own profession. Each field of endeavors has is own challenges and aggravations. If you know an architect personally, you might understand what makes this field different. If you went to school on a campus where there was a school of architecture, you may have an inkling . . . a foreshadowing of the professional life to come. . . long after the rest of the college has gone to sleep lights are still on late at night at the school of architecture. Architecture has one of the longest and most challenging professional licensing exams. If you had good architect go to bat for oneself, you may have found out firsthand what an architect must do to offer a top-notch service.
Merging of the artistic and the scientific is definitive of architecture and a concurrent source of tension. Ofttimes this tension finds its resolution in one of these attributes wining over the other. The inevitable result is either a building that works very well from a technical standpoint, but has no real panache or one that aspires to a high creative vision but simply fails to perform. As one who is every bit technical as artistic I perceive no tension but see art as handmaiden to science and science as handmaiden to art. For myself applying this partnership in such a way as to aspire towards a truly organic architecture is a joy and aspiration.
This blog will reflect Studio 285 Architecture’s current emphasis on residential design. Topics will include issues such as
- Energy-efficient design
- Construction technology
- Design concepts, ideas, images and methods.
- Working with and selecting and working with a contractor.
- Site selection.
- Codes as related to building a house.
- Working with an Architect.
- What has found to work and what has not . . .
- A few stories and pictures.
- Pet Peeves.
- And whatever else may come to mind. If a question is posed by a reader, I may certainly give it my best shot.
This blog certainly is not limited to residential design, however. . . whatever has anything to do with architecture is fair game . . . check in on a regular basis . . .
Regards:
Andrew E. Mitchell, Architect.
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