A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable. Louis Kahn
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Architectural design is now often featured in magazines, TV and YouTube.
It seems everybody regards architectural design is for public, completely free subject for everybody to discuss.
Design is freedom, open to anybody! It is sometimes even regarded as a kind of symbol which frees old fashioned life style or habits.
But is that true?
Sometimes in fact a kind of great design breaks through old habits and it leads to new era, like iPhone did few years before.
Like such industrial design, also some kinds of architectural design breaks through the time and spread new style of life.
But still architecture is made one by one. And it basically belongs to its owner.
Architecture is totally a personal thing.
So its design in detail also very personal, which is not circulatable.
In a meaning, spirit of architectural design cannot be circulated via media, though a lot of architectural images are overflowing in Instagram, Pinterest and a lots of web site in internet.
In such context, I recall what Louise Kahn said. "A great building must begin with the unmeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed and in the end must be unmeasurable."
Probably that is now what he wanted to say, but I assume like below.
Architectural design begins from unmeasurable expectation, personal vision and uncirculatable imagination.
But it has to be done by measurable tools, actual companies in public, circulating info/materials.
Finally, it is going to be again unmeasurable by assembling all particular parts for only one time work, not replicable, very personal thing for owner and uncirculatable thing containing owner's whole life.
Still we need to use measurable tools to build and we need to rely on media to circulate soft material and hard material.
Google Earth helps site survey. Pinterest is useful to search for world design treand and even share image between owner. Even university students can create beautiful rendering image of skyscraper using free 3d modeling software without any experience in actual architectural design work.
But to achieve real architectural work, we need a kind of experience.
That might be ability to go back and forth between measurable and unmeasurable.
And we better not forget that very core of architectural design is something very personal, though it stands out in the middle of the city.
Is that going to be a hint for architects (especially working in a small atelier office) how to survive?
How to play in the field of unmeasurable using measurable tools?
