ENVIRONMENT ENVIRONMENT

ASSEMBLY DETAILED WALL SECTION - LILY

PRIMARY STRUCTURE

STEEL DEAD LOAD ANCHORS

DOUBLE GLAZED IGU ALUMINUM MULLION SYSTEM

GFRC PANELS WOOD FACED ALUMINUM FINS

DETAILED WALL SECTION - KIAH EXTERIOR RENDERED VIGNETTE

Chapter 09 Reflection Reflection

Two-Quarter Studio has been a major development in my architectural education, and have progressed in many ways in my understanding of building systems, structure, and their interconnections in architectural space. My partner, Lily, and I accmplished much over these two quarters such as making it into launchpad at the end of Winter Quarter, as well as producing work on such a large scale over a short period of time which created a huge amount development.

Bibliography

• “San Diego Historic Preservation Plan.” City of San Diego. Accessed May 18, 2023. https://www.sandiego. gov/sites/default/files/pc-17-013-attach-i.pdf.

• “History of San Diego.” Wikipedia, March 15, 2023. https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/History_of_San_Diego.

• “Old Is Cool : What’s Happening in the Renovation of Our Main Classroom Building .” California Western Facilities Management Updates, January 22, 2007. https://cwslfacilities.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/oldis-cool/.

• “ENERGY CALCULATOR for CALIFORNIA – ZERO Code.” 2019. Zero-Code. org. 2019. https://zero-code.org/energy-calculator-for-california/.

• “Rainfall - San Diego County Water Authority.” 2022. San Diego County Water Authority. SDCWA. June 29, 2022. https://www.sdcwa. org/your-water/reservoirs-rainfall/ rainfall/#:~:text=With%20a%20Mediterranean%20climate%2C%20temperatures,inches%20in%20the%20 inland%20mountains.

An architect plays a much larger role within society compared to what the average person realizes. From my primary and secondary research on the topic of the role of an architect, the basic level that most people think of is someone with the skills and ability to design constructible buildings that allow for the creation of inhabitable space. While it’s clear this is an essential facet of what makes an architect, especially within the civil realm, an architect’s role greatly supersedes what is stated above. An architect is further given the essential challenge of serving not only as a bridge between every profession in the world, but also as a bridge between the professional world and communities all over the world that are often left out of mind, and certainly not often considered as ideal clientele for the typical architect. It wasn’t until architects such as Shigeru Ban from Japan, and Sambo Mockbee, the founder of Rural Studio that dramatic shifts were made in the mindset of architects towards serving all communities, not just those that will make them the most money and yield the best portfolio pages.

When considering the architect’s role in the civil realm, an underlying building block that must be regarded is the ethical standards that architects work under. These standards, in the United States at least, are layed out by the AIA Code of Ethics and the NCARB Model Rules of Conduct. Both documents, in a broad but crucial sense, compel architects to “protect public health, safety, and welfare.” This statement immediately takes architects out of the bubble of individual projects and moves the scope into the public as a whole, which creates a whole lot of more responsibility than an architect who is only thinking about if they can design a building that is inhabitable for their clients. This responsibility, however, is what architects must build on and use to create designs that serve the community and protect them in as many ways as possible. In the AIA code of ethics, besides upholding the law, which is heavily mentioned by NCARB and the AIA, architects have an ethical obligation to “uphold human rights in all their professional endeavors.” This is clarified to pertain to any harassment or discrimination on the “basis of race, religion, national origin, age, disability, caregiver status, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.” I think this is one of the most important rules in the Code of Ethics for architects to actively consider, because this is something that can easily slip the mind when trying to create some fantastical design for a wealthy client. As stated earlier, architects serve as the bridge between communities, and in order to cultivate the creation of positive human experiences, every aspect of the people that make up these communities must not only be considered but respected and taken to heart so as not to even unintentionally leave a group of people out of the vision. With this idea of considering all groups of people, as a general obligation in the AIA code of ethics, it’s stated that architects should “design for human dignity” … “Members shall not knowingly design spaces intended for torture, including indefinite or prolonged solitary confinement.” This relates to the argument by Bryan Stevenson in the New York Times article, “Slavery gave America a fear of black people and a taste for violent punishment. Both still define our criminal-justice system.” The title alone gives a good representation of this connection because our prisons, holding several million people and a vastly disproportionate share of the world’s imprisoned people, have largely targeted black people and other minorities. This creates a power differential that allows for free labor and mass control by the majority that has always held power in this country. Therefore it goes against so many ethical obligations as architects to design spaces in the willing and knowing aid to the continuation of this system. Lastly from the AIA Code of Ethics, I appreciate the section that discusses the obligation to the environment since architecture and the built environment play such a huge role in impacting the earth and its limited natural resources. It is therefore essential that architects keep the environment and climate change at the forefront of our minds while designing buildings because it will protect the long-term health, safety, and welfare of the public by fewer people being forced out of their homes from extreme heat and rising seas.

Architecture from a humanitarian standpoint is a topic that has not always existed, and as stated earlier, the architects Shigeru Ban and Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee, while from different parts of the world, are essential human case studies on understanding what it means to go above and beyond in taking action on architectural ethics. Shigeru Ban is a Japanese Architect and Pritzker Prize winner and is one of the first notable architects to take projects that focused on efforts to create affordable, temporary architecture as humanitarian relief for natural disasters. He has been very innovative in his materiality exploration in using paper as structure, and other recycled items like old barrels and tires. Sambo Mockbee was an American Architect who started Rural Studio in rural Alabama, which, as seen in the documentary, “Citizen Architect Love Stories,” provided a unique opportunity for architecture students at Auburn University to go into an underserved community in order to affordably design and build a house or other communityfocused building however they see fit. Creating meaningful architecture for those who wouldn’t typically have the means to afford to hire or even find an architect is of growing importance in our field. Designing and constructing an equitable built environment for all to experience and cultivate spaces that allow for everyone to live their best lives is a seemingly impossible goal, but one that should be strived for by architects all over the world.

Six weeks have passed since my previous thoughts which expressed what I believed to be the role of architects, especially from a civic and humanitarian perspective. I never doubted the crucial and potentially powerful role architects play in shaping communities, but I’ve come to question how often, and whether or not this power is always wielded in the most positive and productive ways. It might be strange to describe the role of an architect as “potentially powerful,” but I’ve come to learn especially recently that it takes a lot more than an architect to create architecture. The determining factor on if an