studioTEN architects

ON THE STUDIO AND THE CREATIVE PROCESS:

Offices’ are not places of creativity - they don't contemplate the momentary assertiveness of the creative process – the moment of the making - the moment by moment change that occurs as the pencil draws across the paper, each inch of each stroke forever changing the dynamics and relationships of the page. Creative environments are the studios and workshops of the traditional craftsmen, where a thousand ‘next moments’ are created with each individual movement, each individual word, and each individual thought. It is the process of revelation that defines the environment.

We like to work within open-ended orders - to work within organizations and ordering systems that require more than a cursory examination to discern.”

ON CRAFT AND BOUNDARIES:

The problem for anybody who starts learning a craft is that it creates its own boundaries. Most crafts, once initially defined, are remarkably predictable. If you can get people to stop thinking about simply executing their craft and to start thinking about communicating their ideas then something fresh is apt to arrive.”

ON TRADITIONS:

Our best traditions are the ones that are built to withstand our defiance. Traditions and systems are to show us how to act, not what to do.

ON CLIENTS:

The client/architect relationship is a collaborative, but the architect must provide the formal process for this to occur. This process is one of discovery where each plays a role in the uncovering the unknown within the known. Programs are often the same – twelve classrooms, administration, a gym, and 28 coat hooks - so what is it that makes the architecture? The site and budget can vary, but these are often reduced to influences that inform strategies. What is it that makes the building and it’s experiences unique from project to project? It is the client. It is the client who’s discovered wishes turn the program. It is the uncovering of the client, the discovery of the client’s inner-personal stance of occupation and the nuances of their stance on habitation that creates the hybrid within the commonality of program.

You need not seduce your clients with your designs when you begin to reveal to them the essential power of architecture. You are not a salesman, but rather somewhat of a teacher, but a teacher who learns from the student – this is the collaboration that so many talk about, but an honest collaboration, not the hierarchical heresy that festers within the profession – it is not linear in nature, but circular.

ON DEFINING ONES PERSONAL VIEWPOINT/TRUTH:

“No generations has ever been more manipulated than the current generation living today, and they know it.  They are adept at live in a technological society that they distrust, even as they are compelled to use it.  Today's generation is responding to an overwhelming array of stimuli that is simply overwhelming – to filter this out as a means of self-protection requires a kind of understanding and discipline of resistance that is rare.  If we encounter stimuli that we find immoral, illogical, manipulative, dark, or otherwise repugnant, their needs to be some personal forum to challenge the predominant powers that control these media elements.  As individuals, we need to be a conscientious objector who always want to return to some place of personal truth and maintain some place of vulnerability to that truth.  Allowing your personal truths to be those fed to you by the media is, and has always been, dangerous.  A path of personal discovery is needed – the path more and more 'less traveled'.

I find it very uncomfortable that most people don’t really want to go through the pain of discovering any form of personal truth if it means being disappointed by the necessity of change along the way.  The prevailing societal mentality, therefore, is to eat, drink, and be merry - be distracted, entertained, and amused to death.

The risks of pursuing and defining a personal viewpoint or belief system is tremendous, but what could be a greater adventure then the pursuit of something that is worth risking everything for?  If it is not worth risking it all, than it probably is not a truth.”

- Gordon Pennington, 2006

ON THE ENERGY AND THE DIVINE OF ARCHITECTURE – the purpose of architecture:

“Man seems to have spent the last century draining the Divine out of life. This, in my way of thinking, is a great lose and sadness to the human condition. Much like Music and Art, Architecture is a source of energy that gives humans a chance to transform, even for a brief moment, into spirit. Much like Art, this is the greatest purpose of Architecture.

Mark Harris, AIA mharris@studiotenarchitects.com

Dave Porwoll, AIA dep@studiotenarchitects.com

Brian Elyo

brian@studiotenarchitects.com

1327 N. Cascade Avenue Colorado Springs, CO 80903 719.578.5799 info@studiotenarchitects.com Copyright 2007