Architecture is not made entirely of design. There is, also, a copious volume of writing to be done as a student and later on as a professional architect:
thesis and dissertation
reports
essays
articles
papers
research
grant and scholarship applications
job applications at graduation
urban design
construction technology
environmental studies
If you deepen your awareness of the written and spoken word and sharpen these skills to your advantage, you may obtain more attractive job offers.
There are seven main purposes for writing and speaking:
to interact
to inform
to find out
to influence
to regulate
to entertain
to record
People write or speak to each other to communicate. Communication involves conveying information, feelings, and ideas from one person or group to another. The more precisely and clearly we do this the more effectively we are communicating.
Your first consideration in developing a clear style is to stop thinking that writing prose is an awe-inspiring venture. A lot of your writing will be for your studio critics. These individuals are people first; therefore, don’t throw a lot of convoluted text at them. Make sure your writing doesn’t suffer from an excess of formality and difficult construction. Writing style and talking style should not be that far apart.
Poor wording:
The new business school campus is characterized by a monumental scale incompatible with the context of the surrounding built volumes.
Better wording:
The new business school is out of scale with its neighbouring buildings.
Another aid to clear writing is to keep your sentences short. Writing long sentences that make sense takes a writing talent well beyond yours or mine. It is hard to balance several ideas in a single long sentence and still make sense. You will do far better to limit your sentences to writing a single point. This may give you a string of shorter sentences, but you will have no problem with stating your message clearly. A good rule of thumb is to limit sentences to twenty words or less. This doesn’t mean that sentences longer than this don’t communicate; it is just much more difficult to be effective. If you find a sentence getting out of hand because it is too long it is all right to use a semicolon to divide it.
Poor wording :
For my thesis I elected to investigate the science of acoustics and to explore its role as a determinant of architectural form, knowing that spatial acoustics are influenced by the shape of the room, the volume of the space, and the absorption of the room's surfaces across a range of frequencies, and that the construction of the edge walls, floors, and ceilings have an impact on acoustical comfort.
Better wording:
For my thesis I decided to investigate the impact of acoustics on architectural form. The acoustics of a space are influenced by its shape, the volume of the space, and surface absorption across a range of frequencies. Key factors in acoustic comfort include the materials and construction of edge walls, floors, and ceilings.
Another tip for getting your message across clearly is to choose words that have specific meanings. English, like most other languages, has words that range from the specific to the vague and indefinite. The vaguer the term, the greater the chance of misunderstanding. It is true that a hammer is a pounding device; a chicken is a mobile egg-producing grain-consuming unit; a door is an interspatial transition element. But you’ll make more sense as you write class assignments to use words on the lines of hammer, chicken, and door.
Two ways to achieve writing with impact and excitement are:
1. use the active sentence form
2. include deliberate references to people in your text.
Be sure to apply both these guidelines and you will note in a flash a higher level of appeal shining through your writing. See the effect of the following sentence, which uses the passive form. It is taken from a student’s report on landscaping design for arid zones.
Before :
It was decided that plant types requiring a high year-round level of rainfall would not be selected. Instead,
planting would be kept to a minimum; various methods of finishing the landscape through special ground colours
and textures were chosen by the designers.
Why not write:
The designers decided to avoid rain-thirsty plant species. Instead, they put in very few plants, and embellished
the landscape by means of special ground colour and textures.
Be sure to insert people into your writing. Nothing captures a reader’s interest more than an infusion of individuals in your report. People are more likely to identify with your message if couched as though people were involved, rather than as a dry-as-dust event carried out by anonymous participants. So avoid the “before” examples here and turn to the solutions for a better way. (In these examples, the “after” versions are somewhat longer, but much more direct and appealing.)
Before:
Community elements took exception to the methods used by the city in securing their input into the planning and
design process. (from a half-page handout to the judges at the review of a problem for a new community centre)
After:
Several mothers of young children, headed by Mrs. Bess Wright, complained to John Olsen, a member of the
city department of housing and community affairs, that his department was making decisions without checking
with families in the community.
Before:
The community will benefit by converting the old warehouse into a library, day-care centre, and neighbourhood
meeting place. (from a student presentation)
After:
The converted warehouse will benefit everyone in the community. Parents can drop children off in the day-care
centres. Students and their parents, as well as visitors, can use the library, and young and old can meet and
socialize in the warmly appointed ground-floor spaces planned for this purpose.
Making Your Point
Above all, your writing will flow more clearly when you are clear in your own mind as to the points or argument you want to make. Whether you are presenting a project or writing an essay or some other written assignment, begin by asking yourself, "What is my message?" The simplest words assembled in the most elegant composition will not help you communicate if your reasoning is muddy and your basic logic flawed. Before you even hit the keyboard, list on a pad the points you want to make, arrange them in a sensible progression, eliminate-if you can-all but the critical ones, then start to write. A useful tip is to try to express your message in a single sentence, then keep that sentence in front of you as you write. If you are able to write such a sentence without trouble, chances are that your writing will flow clearly and easily. lf not, go back and rethink your argument or approach.
Read these two excellent student papers
MANTYNIEMI
Raili and Reima Pietila Design
Official Residence for the Presidents of Finland
by Patrick Brown
[Patrick Brown wrote this piece as a student at the School of Architecture, Washington University, St. Louis.]
The President's new residence in Finland was a ten-year project for the husband-and-wife team of Raili and Reima Pietila. They won the national competition for the building in 1983. The house was completed shortly before Mr. Pietila's death in 1993. The building is the first to be designed specifically as the president's residence. The president has lived in various existing manor houses since Finland became independent in 1918. The house obviously has tremendous symbolic importance for the people of Finland.
Nature was the source of inspiration; the house is very well integrated into the landscape. Finnish artists from a variety of disciplines collaborated on the project. The result is a complex, unique, and highly articulated building. Mantyniemi is an important expression of Finland's national character The name Mantyniemi means "pine tree cape." The building sits on a sprawling, wooded site that juts out into the Baltic Sea. Though the setting is rural, the house is actually in Helsinki, a 20-minute drive from the city centre. The vegetation on the site is typical of a Finnish forest-mostly pine and birch trees, with ferns, astilbes, and moss covering the ground. The trees on the site were meticulously preserved during construction. The landscape designer supplemented these trees with other native vegetation to create a garden that does not rely on bloom for beauty.
Mantyniemi consists of three buildings-a gatehouse, a servants' building, and the main house. The main house is approximately 25,000 square feet, and contains the reception rooms, the private quarters, and the office wing. The building stretches out along the contours of the site. The entrance façade- faces the sea and is almost entirely of glass. The office and staterooms are to the east, at a higher elevation, whereas the private living area is to the west, at a lower elevation, The reception rooms-including the dining room, two drawing rooms, and an office-spread out in a fan-shaped pattern. A corridor to the north links these rooms to the flanking office and private wings.
The architects integrated the house into the Finnish landscape. They considered both the specific conditions of the site, and the geological and climatic conditions of the country. Finland has been emerging from the sea aver the past 15,000 years. Helsinki is rising at the rate of sixteen inches per century. The house responds metaphorically to this fact. Mantyniemi seems to be rising from the glacial deposits of the site. At the same time, from the south, the building has a crystalline form, like an ice formation that is draped across the rocky site.
The architectural expression of the interior is complex and sculptural
Folded white planes form the ceiling and walls. These surfaces capture and reflect the white sunlight of Finland. Because of its northern location, the sun angles in Finland vary greatly from winter to summer, creating a variety of effects. Concealed spaces between the ceiling and roof are filled with warm air in winter, to provide insulation in the frigid climate. The lower ceiling rises two feet just inside of the southern windows, giving the impression that the glass extends beyond the roof. The south-facing windows are very tall and narrow, because the architects thought that a short window was not appropriate far viewing the tall, slender pine trees that surround the house. These windows were originally designed with small, branch-like mullions. This idea was abandoned, however, because very heavy window frames were required for security reasons.
One of the most striking things about the house is its complexity. I had the opportunity to visit with Raili Pietila at her home in Helsinki [in the summer of 1997], after I visited the house. She showed me the huge volumes of technical specifications that were required to build Mantyniemi. There are, for instance, over 150 doors in the house, and only a few are the same. The form of the air ducts and the slats that cover the openings are not recognizable as HVAC elements. Elements such as lighting and fences even the long stainless steel poker that hangs next to one of the main fireplaces were specially designed.
Artistic collaboration played a key role in creating Mantyniemi. Finnish artists designed the landscape, furnishings, tapestries, artwork, and even the table settings in the house.
A staircase links the public and private portions of the house. Along the wall of this stair is a huge ceramic relief work by the artist Rut Bryk. The quality of the welds in the staircase does not equal the craftsmanship of the adjacent artwork. Still, the design quality of the house and its furnishings seem to complement each other. There is a uniform softness of tone to all the fixtures within the house. What one notices most of all is the variety and intricacy of the reflections of sunlight in the house.
Mantyniemi stands as a testimony to the creativeness of the Finnish people. As a national symbol, this building sends an invaluable message as Finland steps up its industrial production. Perhaps the quest for gold will not inflict upon Finland the mediocrity so characteristic of development here in the United States. Instead, Finland has in its geography, climate, and people the means to achieve a unique national expression.
Curiously, not all Finns like Mantyniemi as strongly as I do. I talked to a number of people in Finland, and they are not as proud of their president's residence as I think they should be. Apparently, the current president has made some unkind statements about the house. He likens the experience of living in this house to “ living in an Alvar Aalto vase." My friends tell me that he thinks the house is cold, impersonal, and museum-like. The current president is also apparently too overweight to move through some of the house’s narrow passageways. This commentary seems to have harmed the Finnish people's opinion of their “first" house.
I'm not sure what this portends for the future of Finland. Emerging nations tend to want to avoid being different, and prefer to imitate their wealthier neighbours. Mantyniemi is a masterpiece. Will the people of Finland fulfil the promise of Mantyniemi? Will Finland maintain its cultural identity as it gains in economic strength? It remains to be seen.
Credits:
Mai-Lis Rosenbroiier, landscape architect
Antti Paateru, interior architect
Irma Kakkasiarvi, textiles
Reijo Paavilainen, Kinni Paharinin, Rut Bryk, Mais Kaarna, contributing artists
Sources:
"The President's Residence, Mantyniemi, Helsinki," by Olga Gambardella, Domus, May 1994.
“Raili and Reima Pietila, Mantyniemi, The Residence of the President," by Raili Pietila, A+U, June 1995.
"Finland's New Presidential Residence," Progressive Architecture, September 1994.
Reima Pietila: Architecture, Context and Modernism, by Malcolm Quantrill, Rizzoli, 1985.
Reima Pietila, Intermediate Zones in Modern Architecture. Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki, 1985.
Author's interview with Raili Pietila, July 1997.
Comment
This is a well-argued article, with an accurate, discerning description clearly based on a site visit. The writer expressed his opinions and, aware of a surge of praise as well as criticism around this building, nevertheless forged a well-balanced article.
Note the short, snappy sentences and the virtual absence of puzzling jargon.
Article B
A HOUSE FOR HEALING
A New AIDS Residence Gives Hope to New York's HIV+ Homeless
by Gonzalo Fernandez
[Gonzalo Fernandez wrote this article as a student in the School of Architecture and Environmental Studies at City
College of The City University of New York]
Almost twenty years since the first case of AIDS was diagnosed, a cure is still out of reach. Nowadays patients are living longer, however, thanks to new combinations of drugs and treatment. But there are many people who cannot afford treatment because they are homeless. In 1990 a group of people of different minority groups formed HOUSING WORKS INC., a non-profit organization that provides permanent housing and medical and social assistance to New York's HIV+ homeless population. Since then they have helped more than 30,000 New Yorkers with housing and medical and psychological treatment throughout the city. In June 1997 HOUSING WORKS INC. opened a new building that provides housing and assistance on site for residents of the Lower East Side.
The AIDS Residence and Day Treatment Centre is located at 741-749 East 9th Street in Manhattan and was designed by Allan Wanzenberg and Associates. This five-story, reinforced concrete structure was built on two adjacent lots forming an L-shape, with the longer side facing East 9th Street. The shape of the site and local zoning regulations forced a long, narrow, design.
To preserve a residential atmosphere, the entrance is announced by a glass marquee in front of a glass wall. The lobby is also kept at a residential scale with no grand spaces or information boards that might hint at a health institution; a reception desk and waiting area give a private atmosphere that helps residents feel that they are in a secure and private environment.
The common spaces are located on the ground floor. A foyer or corridor divides the game room and the dining room. The game room is in a comfortable setting with game tables, a TV set, and plenty of sunlight. This space is also used as a meeting area for local community groups that visit the centre. The dining room seats 80 people three times a day. Next to it is the "sun porch" that leads to the garden. Yet this space receives no natural light because it is located in the north façade and faces a six-story building.
Nevertheless, the residents use the porch as a secluded and quiet space. At the moment the garden is under construction. The design was provided through the generosity of landscape architect Edwina von Gal who donated her time and resources to completion of the project. The design consists of small pockets of bamboo trees along a paved weaving walkway ending in a water fountain. The design was conceived as a self-maintaining garden because of the limited funds allocated for its maintenance. Also on the first floor is a retail space run by the Centre. This space will house a small diner for the community and will be run by residents as part of their work training.
The day treatment centre is located on the second floor surrounding the double-height lobby. The three departments that form the centre (administration, clinic, and social services) face one another. This is done for two reasons: one is to provide a feeling of service and openness for the clients; the second is for efficiency, as only one receptionist and waiting area service the three departments.
On the next three floors are the suites. Each floor has its own laundry room and lounge. Each suite is on average 300 square feet and completely furnished. To nourish a sense of independence no two studios have been decorated in the same way. The furniture was donated by high-scale patrons and corporations such as Crate & Barrel (furniture and china) and SAMSUNG (appliances).
Some of the pieces were designed as modules that can be changed or combined in many ways as the residents' needs change. On the roof is the community room overlooking the World Trade Centre where residents can meet as a community in a friendly and familiar atmosphere.
The simplicity of the design, the distribution of the spaces, and the finishing materials ably provide the residents with comfort and a sense of independence. But most importantly the Centre provides an atmosphere in which they can feel like functional members of the community.
Comment
This is a well-documented report on a highly sensitive and timely topic. It aptly combines description and assessment. Sentences are short, the style simple and clear, and the vocabulary straightforward.
Sensitive Language:
Gender-Neutral Language .
You risk offending many of your readers if you use language in a way that implies that there is only one gender, or that one gender is superior to the other. The subject of gender poses some problems for writers.
Forty years ago a woman architect looking around her in the design studio would see almost nothing but men. Ten years later, more and more women were graduating from the professional design schools, working as designers and in due course, were becoming principals in firms, teachers and deans in the schools of architecture, were working on construction in the field and doing many other types of jobs in the design field. Today, over 30 percent of those enrolled in bachelor's degree programmes are women, and over 40 percent in master's degree programmes. For years, however, writing patterns in the design professions and in the student body as a whole, failed entirely to reflect this change. Design language still focused on references to he, his, him, draftsman, workman etc. Designers, partners, school board members, construction workers and contractors were still referred to as though such jobs were solely in the province of men.
In the late 1960s the consciousness finally broke through that language has to reflect reality, and the reality was that women in growing numbers were working in the design and building industry as active players.
In Anglo-Saxon days there was a word that meant he or she - an all-gender form of the personal pronoun. It atrophied and died, unluckily!
The only solution is to work around the problem. In other words, opt for a vocabulary that does away with gender-specific references:
man use people, humanity, the human race, humankind
manpower use workers, human resources
mankind use humanity
manmade use built, synthetic, manufactured
man-sized use large, husky
man-hours use staff hours, hours
manhole use access hole
councilman use council member
fireman use firefighter
eight-man board use eight-member board
salesman use sales representative
cameraman use camera operator
workman use labourer, carpenter, etc.
draftsman use drafting staff
When talking about a person’s occupation, prefer neutral terms to gender-specific terms:
barman/barmaid use bartender
cameraman/ camerawoman use camera operator
chairman/ chairwoman use chairperson
policeman/ policewoman use police officer
postman / postwoman use postal delivery officer
spokesman / spokeswoman use spokesperson
weatherman / weatherwoman use weather forecaster
clergyman use cleric, minister
doorman use porter
dustman use refuse collector
foreman use supervisor
salesman use sales representative
taxman use tax collector
career girl use architect, designer, engineer
male nurse use nurse
the fair sex use women
lady of the house use head of household
Guidelines for avoiding gender-explicit writing fall into four types:
1. Avoid using words ending in –ess when referring to a woman’s occupation, especially when there is a neutral
alternative.
2. Avoid referring to women as though they were doing men’s jobs:
a lady doctor; or to men doing women’s jobs: a male model
3. Use the plural whenever it makes sense. Note that the plural (they, their) is gender indefinite, whereas the
singular is gender-specific (he, his; she, her)..
Every applicant should include his curriculum vitae.
Anyone can learn a foreign language if he wants to.
Every applicant should include their curriculum vitae.
Anyone can learn a foreign language if they want to.
4. Other people prefer to use he/she or his/her. But this can be clumsy, especially when these phrases have to be
repeated frequently.
Every applicant should include his/her curriculum vitae.
Anyone can learn a foreign language if he/she wants to.
5. Perhaps the best solution is to rewrite the sentence in such a way that the problem is avoided altogether. The
problem can be avoided by using the word a instead of a pronoun, or by using a relative clause
Every applicant should include a curriculum vitae.
Anyone who wants to, can learn a foreign language.
The problem can be avoided by making the subject of the sentence plural.
All applicants should include their curriculum vitae.
All people can learn a foreign language if they wants to.
Above all, be aware. Write a lot: avoiding gender-specific writing comes steadily with practice.
Writing an Essay:
Among the most common assignments of students in schools of architecture, interior design, and landscape design is the written essay, often known as an article, theme, paper, or report. The assignment may originate in a history and theory course, a technical course, a course in professional practice, a related professional design discipline course, and courses in the humanities. Sometimes the writing is linked to a studio problem in which the instructor calls for a written summary to accompany the drawings, model, or animation.
When tackling such an assignment, look first for the instructor's intent.
Are you to write
- a succinct report on a lab test on concrete mixes?
- an assessment of a historic style?
- a review of a significant contemporary or historic interior?
- a discussion of professional ethics?
Set down your thoughts and ideas derived from your examination of the material, do background research, and develop your own thoughts. Record this data in the roughest possible way: use a handy notebook, pad, or computer screen. Don’t worry about how it looks or the order of the entries. The main purpose is to brainstorm and trigger a stream-of-consciousness thinking process.
Next day, review the assemblage of notes and scribbles, and begin to impose a logical order. A close scrutiny of your notes will almost always suggest an arrangement of the material.
Usually it will look like this:
Introduction - define the topic and why it's important (5%)
Subdivision of topic into principal subtopics-these should show how each subtopic or subtheme builds on the
previous one (10%)
Discussion of each subtopic (six, each 10%, say)
Conclusions (20%)
Restatement of topic and its importance (5%)
An essay of this type is not unlike the sonata form in music. A sonata typically consists of a medium-speed first movement that sets the tone, a slow second movement that brings it out in more detail, a sprightly third movement that reinforces the ambiance, albeit more happily, and a final movement that captures the vein of earlier material and ends usually with a bang on trumpets and drums.
Once you begin writing the body of the article, bear in mind the guidelines discussed earlier in this lesson, and keep the piece simple.
Avoid clever turns of phrases, hackneyed expressions or clichés (e.g., "they lived in a sprawling mansion"; "the two spaces were alike as two peas in a pod"), and pointless flaunting of obscure terminology.
Include your opinions if asked; when you do, make sure they are supported by facts.
Above all, recall the need to have a clear point of view: lacking such a point of view, no amount of verbal acrobatics will help you compose an effective essay.
Scenario
You are to identify a building (or a related group of buildings) that you have visited or are able to visit and develop an article suitable for submitting to a professional architectural magazine. Once you have identified the building, plan to visit it during hours when it is accessible. Spend whatever time you need to walk through and observe it as a whole as well as observing its parts. Bring a notebook and, if you wish, a sketch pad and a camera. Record what you see, then develop a 500-word article describing the building as well as giving it your assessment.
The article is to consist of these five parts:
1. Title or headline
2. Deck (a twenty-word expansion on the headline)
3. Description [Cover as many of the following points as feasible, not necessarily in this order]:
Context (relationship to its site and to adjacent buildings)
Style
General configuration and massing
Principal materials (exterior and interior)
Structural system
Electric and day lighting
Interiors and furnishings
Special spatial features (e.g., atrium, grand stair)
Access (parking etc.)
Landscaping
4. your conclusions and evaluation
5. credits (architect, consultants, owner, sources)
Devote about:
two-thirds of your text to description
one-third to conclusions and evaluation.
you may include up to two pages of illustrations.
Certain faults appear and reappear in student writing in general. Watch out for these. Avoid them when you can; there will be times when you cannot, such as a long sentence to make a complex point. The list that follows spells out some suggestions for avoiding common faults.
Tighten sentences. Not more than 17-20 words in a sentence
Make fewer words work harder.
Shorten paragraphs-twenty lines should be ample.
When describing a project, don’t ignore the user.
When evaluating a project, avoid unspecific, essentially meaningless words such as "interesting," "impressive" "intriguing," "amazing”, “surprising”.
Be specific, or explain why and how something is "interesting."
lf you become poetic about a building, do not get so carried away that your meaning is lost.
Be sure to include basic credits i.e., the client, the primary design professional and associated firms, the principal consultants, the contractor, and the photographer (essential if your text is to be published).
Writing Course
Home
