Infrastructure and the Future
ture project, and the worst architects simply draw something or render something, and they say “doesn’t it look beautiful?” Everyone says, “Not so much, how can we make it cheaper?” The best architects start with a logical process. I’m actually thinking of European architects. I’m totally stereotyping here, but American architects render the bird’s eye view, right? Sarah Williams Goldhagen In the abstract it’s difficult to discuss, but what constitutes a compelling argument? Byron Stigge I want to get back to your question on goals, because when I worked in Europe there was always a stepping back. ‘What are our goals, what are we really trying to achieve here?’ Sarah Williams Goldhagen What do you mean by “achieve”? Achieve socially? Achieve aesthetically? Byron Stigge I mean all of those things. Very few projects really stop at the beginning and define goals, and even fewer return to them throughout the project. Sarah Williams Goldhagen In the United States? Byron Stigge Well, yeah. Sarah Williams Goldhagen So we can bash Americans, that’s ok… Byron Stigge As a sustainability practitioner I’ve really tried to define goals for a project. You know, ‘What are we really trying to do here?’ And then, reminding ourselves, ‘What are we really trying to do here?’ We must be constantly structuring arguments on why the handrails need to be beautiful, why we need to spend extra money on the paving, why we actually need to do the things we do.
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