The Second Studio (formerly The Midnight Charette) is an explicit podcast about design, architecture, and the everyday. Hosted by Architects David Lee and Marina Bourderonnet, it features different creative professionals in unscripted conversations that allow for thoughtful takes and personal discussions.
A variety of subjects are covered with honesty and humor: some episodes are interviews, while others are tips for fellow designers, reviews of buildings and other projects, or casual explorations of everyday life and design. The Second Studio is also available on iTunes, Spotify, and YouTube.
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss their pet peeves in architecture design. The two cover poorly adapted historical elements; inconsistent use of materiality and detail in a project; dead-end hallways; poor construction execution and more.
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Highlights & Timestamps
(00:00) Introduction.
(00:22) Pet Peeve 1 – Poorly adapted historical elements.
(16:50) Shutters’ impact on the aesthetic and scale of the façade.
(22:46) Painting façades with stories and graphics.
Architecture is at a point now where we are asking, “What do we do to find meaning?” Meaning used to be tied to iconography, texts, paintings, etc., but that’s not the case anymore. I think now more than often meaning is just tied to function, because it's easy for clients to understand, and the subjective aesthetics of what clients like or don't like. When there is not a good architect or a good client, those two aspects are the only things that dictate the meaning behind the building, and that is when you end up with bad buildings. (26:35)
(30:48) Pet Peeve 2 – Inconsistent use of materiality and detail in a project.
Every project has a ruleset that it should follow. That is how you create something beautiful… [it’s beautiful] because there's a logic to it. One of the things that makes it very clear if a building was designed by a good architect or not, is the consistent or proper use of materials [and details] for that project. You can’t just [apply different materials and details] anywhere based on the subjective whims of whoever thinks it looks good. The design should have a consistent thread. (31:40)
(40:18) Pet Peeve 3 – Dead end Hallways
A double-loaded ‘Death Hallway’ is when you have rooms on both sides [usually terminating at a dead end]. It is super efficient, but that is not what architecture is…I feel like, in general, the hallway is a cheat and it is not addressing the problem because you’re basically designing a freeway in a house. It’s saying, “This is the quickest, fastest, and cheapest way to where I need to go.” (42:10)
(52:35) Pet Peeve 4 - Poor construction execution.
(57:02) Care for quality of work has declined.
Construction demands a lot of physical effort and time. It’s frustrating if something needs to be redone because the contractor didn't pay attention because then you have to take it apart, move things with heavy equipment, reorder expensive materials, wait for delivery, and mobilize your crew again, and everything that comes after gets delayed. This is the snowball effect. Sometimes it takes a village just to get one detail right. That's why we always advise clients to spend the time and the relatively low amount of money to go through all the planning [before starting construction.] (01:05:08)
