Even a brick wants to be more ...

On October 24th 2012, New York will have a new park, a new memorial and at last, a design by Louis I. Kahn: The Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park.

New York is a city that glorifies the pursuit of passions, with art and architecture being key among those. With the inclusion of Kahn's posthumous sculpture-cum-architecture masterpiece, the city's rich register of places to visit will now have another destination. 

In this serene and contemplative place, the memory of a Man and of a Presidency will be preserved and celebrated with dignity. The meticulously planned and thoughtfully designed edge of the island points forward like a ship’s prow, but also provides a safe sanctuary within its hull. It is sober and austere but also elegant, dynamic and full of Kahn’s considered details.

Image copyright Four Freedoms Park LLC

Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park

View of the East River: Roosevelt Island and Manhattan  East Side

Louis Barragan's once told Kahn that his piazza at the Salk Institute was like a ‘facade facing the sky’. Perhaps these words have not been as relevant since. Yes, New York has a new monument, and one that people will talk about. Whether it is the 36-ton granite blocks that sit side-by-side separated by inch-wide slits where the polished sides create an unusually reflective view through them, or the gently sloping paths that connect water and earth, or even the copper beach trees planted in angular rows to reinforce the perspective towards the Statue of Liberty.

I love having an opportunity to write about Louis I. Kahn. His work has influenced me so much: I admire his strict and solemn designs, I marvel at his unusually perceptive understanding of light, and I appreciate the rationalization in his building concepts. His remarkable designs are full of maturity and are layered with intuitive inferences about the impact of buildings on the natural order of the world.

Kahn was in his 50’s when his designs became centerpieces to the architecture of his time. He defined a grammar of construction and extended his concepts into his own philosophy of space. Educated on the crest of the Modern Movement, he broke the linearity that conditioned the thought of his peers. He searched the nature of architecture, and he framed the steps that led him to its understanding. During his intellectual evolution, he developed an enormous interest in natural light, and in the enhancements it could bring to architecture.

You can say that the light, the giver of all presences, is the maker of a material, and the material was made to cast a shadow, and the shadow belongs to the light.                                                       (Silence and Light lecture, Zurich 1969)

He relied on instincts, on preliminary ideas and concepts that were not constrained by the practical considerations of construction. Maybe for this reason, it was so easy for him to work closely with the immateriality of light. It became for him a defining element of the architecture, as important as any other physical material.

Kahn’s designs have to be felt. They are the expression of a personal philosophy that sought to understand how knowledge could allow architects to create spaces where a sense of community exists and where a respect of natural order is ever-present. Louis Kahn’s architecture was built on his own orders: an order of Movement, an order of Winds and an order of Light. Continuously re-visiting the basic post and lintel structure, ‘when the walls parted and the columns became’, he sought to define structures that were conducive to human interaction, that were shelters, but also enhancers of man’s knowledge and achievements. For him, light was not an element of architecture and well-being, it was also the luminous inspiration driving his creative mind.

The power of Kahn’s words is often overwhelming. The fact is that Kahn’s sensitivity and vision allowed him not only to see the built structures in his mind, but also to test the reality of his ideas. With each design, thoughts were refined, descriptions were sophisticated and his views became clearer. 

Experiencing his spaces can leave us in awe but it also energizes us, and leaves us full of hope.

Looking at the Four Freedoms Park, I can't stop thinking about his most exalted words:

               A brick wants to be something.
               It aspires.
               Even a common, ordinary brick ... wants to be something more than it is.
               It wants to be something better than it is.
               Even a brick wants to be something.

Entrance to the Four Freedoms Park Memorial

  

Can hotels become super-brands?

Throughout the past year, Apple has been rolling-out a make-over of their stores. I visited the 5^th Avenue flagship store when it re-opened and at first glance it seemed to be more of an upgrade of the company’s successful retail operating system rather than a re-invention of the i-device’s sanctuary. But as we so often have experienced with Apple products, god is truly in the subtlety of details:

• The cube is more transparent, with a new lightweight structure that is ever more inviting to discover what is underneath.

• The lighting is crisper, creating greater visual comfort in the daylight-starved space.

• Store staff seem to be more efficient, and I am sure that the back-office has had as many upgrades as the front-of-house to ensure an increasingly seamless experience.

These stores are a fascinating part of the Apple story. Not just because they were a visionary aspect of the strategy that turned it into the most prosperous business on earth, but because they have so successfully addressed key challenges of modern retail. They expose the importance of the human layer in brand-building: they apply a seduction strategy, they provide the vehicle to consummate the relationship, and they offer prospects of life-long happiness.

I once read that the conceptual research behind Apple stores had included extensive analysis of hotel spaces, particularly those that create positive dynamic interaction with guests. I later heard a hotel executive express how important Apple stores had been in his own research to re-conceptualize hotel public spaces and to build their hotels awareness as user-friendly destinations. 

Whether we focus on the notion of brands as platforms, or whether we focus in understanding the levels of engagement and interaction that are required to create an appealing product, the reality is that successful branding strategies are the result of a multidimensional layering of experiences that, metaphorically, seek to make every interaction feel like an ever-lasting first kiss.

Creating a desirable product or service in today's dynamic market requires an understanding of how this layering applies to each business and to each industry. High-performance will increasingly come from selling "deeper" services or "stickier" products, or a combination of both. I like to think of the companies that achieve this as "super-brands". It a promise delivered even before payment is made. More than being desirable, these are products and services that are forever tempting.

Apple is an obvious super-brand, but in my dealings with the hospitality industry I have seen companies that are building similarly layered experiences. There are many lessons to learn from the way they are packaging their experiences, so I'll focus on two examples that I find intriguing. One is a hotel brand that seeks to offer broad yet authentic travel destinations, and the other is a retailer that aspires to harness the unique product attributes that hotels possess.

Starwood Hotels & Resorts 

Under its current leadership, Starwood has successfully transitioned the hotel company from a property-centered business to a brand-centered business. With a wide range of experiences offered in its portfolio, which includes Sheraton, Westin, Aloft, Le Meriden, W Hotels, Luxury Collection and St Regis, the company has at its disposal a multi-generational, economically, geographically and aesthetically diverse product offering that provides the opportunity for long-term relationships with its customers, both at a corporate level as well as at a personal level.

It is also a brand that relies strongly on the value of contextual elements in a hotel stay, ensuring that even the shortest stay can be memorable. Starwood strives to provide each property with a story that starts before the arrival and continues after the departure. As an operator that relies on real estate developers in disparate settings, ensuring the fluidity of the experience is a problem that presents a particular set of challenges, but through a disciplined approach to the definition of standards for aesthetics and operations, the brand has been strengthening its delivery well beyond a basic awareness of an experience–centric product.

IKEA

A manufacturing powerhouse, IKEA has impacted urban living environments in a very significant way. The layering of experiences in its product range includes the sense of economy, the commitment to being ecologically and socially minded, the appeal of a modern simplicity, the possibility of buying “living solutions”, and a sense of independence. A product that found its original competitive advantage in the efficiency of packaging has grown to become itself an efficient way of living, and in the process it deploys the basis for a consumer community: IKEA sells an ideal of Scandinavian culture and design at affordable prices, and provides enough opportunities for customization to keep open the opportunity for something unique.

  

Bigger Storage Ideas - Advertising Agency: Ogilvy Frankfurt, Germany

IKEA has recently announced its intention to move into the hospitality space. Interestingly, they do not have plans to furnish the hotels with their own furniture, but rather to apply the tenet of “good quality at a reasonable price.” Rather than offering the expected room-sets, Ikea is applying a new layer to the brand experience: to unify the philosophy behind the brand and expand the product base through sound company values. By expanding the brand within the same constellation and applying effective strategies of social media consolidation, IKEA activates the feedback loop that continues to enhance the super-brand.

How much does your building cost, Mr. Designer?

I recently watched the remarkable documentary: How much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?

Led by a singular vision and determined rigor, for the last 30 years Norman Foster's practice has been at the nexus of innovation and aesthetics in architecture. Not only has he grasped with unusual clarity the multi-dimensional problems raised by modern urban development, but he has also consistently delivered design that is aligned with his client's goals.

In the movie, as we marvel at his mastery of the design process and his use of new light-weight materials at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, we are caught in a wonderful twist when Buckminster Fuller, the Yoda of the built environment, asks the Architect one of his incisive questions: "So, how much does your building weigh, Mr. Foster?".

Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (Norwich, UK - 1974-78)

The Architect did not have the answer, but once he found it, this insight was incorporated into his process and became another critical variable of design: an additional element of value to clients that seek his firm's expertise.

As I watched this, I thought of another critical question which so often turns designers and building consultants into masters of evasion:  "So, how much does your project cost, Mr. Designer?"

I do believe that it is the role of the design professional to challenge the Client's assumption, all of them, without exception. Clients, whether they are owners, developers or investors allocate a portion of their budget to hire talented and experienced consultants with the expectation that they will contribute to achieve or exceed the project return on investment. The perception of value will be ever greater the more the client feels that the consultants are sitting on his side of the table, looking at the problem with the same set of eyes, although with a different set of tools.  

It is a reality that increasingly fragmented technical disciplines dilate costs estimates to wide intervals that leave too much uncertainty in the project, and result in extensions of the decision-making timeline. This in turn increases the project costs for the consultants and initiates a spiral of negative value sometimes as early as the schematic phase of the project.

Integrated Project Delivery (IPD), a collaborative process between all consultants to optimize project results, is beginning to address this problem, but it is taking time to reach the base of the design services pyramid. Even in robustly managed projects, I have seen design solutions advance well beyond design development before cost assessments become an objective element of project management. Why do I think this happens?

• Maybe the client feels that it might constrain the creative impulses of consultants while they are focused on the conceptual aspects of the project?

• Or maybe project managers believe that strong concepts can always be budgeted down, but that budget-conscious designs can't be upgraded successfully?

• Or maybe designers are all too aware of the fact that when design documents are sent out to bid they will be inevitably simplified, and they pursue high-level concepts regardless as long as someone else is paying for their time?

• Or maybe the coordination of work between disciplines during the schematic phase is always seen as too time-consuming and ineffective?

These are all issues that PMs commonly address as part of project risk management, but in reality they are also the result of each consultant's very narrow view of their own scope and financial performance on the project. 

Until IPD becomes more commonly used, I believe that managing projects with a higher degree of effectiveness can begin with an improvement of communication and the implementation of a simplified set of tools. None of these notions are new for seasoned professionals, but I find that they often elude decision makers and less discerning consultants. An increased effort to communicate them can vastly improve project efficiency, especially in property renovations where the sequencing of activities presents more complex challenges than in new construction.

These are a few initiatives that I believe can improve project cost management:

• As many consultants as possible should be simultaneously involved at a very early stage, instead of staggering the appointments based on when the information will be  needed. This will reduce scope gaps, and eliminate empty layers of accountability. It requires some front-loading of soft-costs, but the impact in ROI is more likely positive than not. 

• Designers particularly must develop an ability to communicate the value in pursuing alternative solutions and in exploring innovative ways of approaching the building problem. This can result in constructive discussions with the client in regards to the deployment of project funds, and replace the often inaccurate use of benchmark percentages in budget allocation with more rigorous scope-specific budgeting.

• Explore collaborative platforms to manage communication and documentation. The cash-flow limitations that prevent many firms from investing in robust technologies, as well as the numerous international projects that integrate first world consultants collaborating in emerging economies with local partners mean that the use of full-blown BIM to achieve documentation consistency is still some time away. There are numerous cost-effective cloud-based technologies available to increase the intensity, timeliness and depth of communication between consultants. Setting-up project-specific media rich networking tools based on existing social media platforms, coupled with equally inexpensive video-conferencing tools is not complicated. But it does require a disciplined process and the implementation of strict quality control and quality assurance guidelines. I also find that this is an area where the millenial generation can become extremely valuable, and where their intuitive understanding of these tools can be leveraged to increase their sense of accountability and commitment to projects and to professional services firms.

• Transparency in project cost analysis. The complaint from Clients about consultant's inability to stay on budget is as common as the complaint from consultants that they don't have access to the project's evolving budget. In an age where business intelligence is so pervasive to most organizations even with the most basic accounting applications, it surprises me that so few projects have real-time budget dashboards. Regular updates of budget allocation by discipline with high-level values and reviews via web-conferencing could easily allow consultants to adjust their designs and documentation in real-time, before too many hours are spent proceeding in abortive directions, which consume both the client's and the consultants resources unnecessarily.

By implementing a few of these principles, and mostly if appropriate time is applied to communicating their importance to the project team, I think consultants will be in a better place to answer the dreaded question, and probably their projects will be more profitable. 

Color blocking: trendy or timeless?

I lived this year's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in a particularly intense way as my wife covered the Jason Wu for Brizo Collection for her blog Dec-a-Porter. As I browsed through photos of the new collections, it struck me that color-blocking seems to make a comeback with some regularity. It is almost originally predictable. I wonder if color blocking is a recurrent trend, or rather a timeless fashion statement? There is no doubt that when used well, it can be very elegant and effective, but we have also seen the easily forgettable cases of simplistic adaptation.

                                                                                              BCBGMAXAZRIA

Drawing a parallel with my world of interiors and architecture, I tried to remember when I have seen it used effectively in the built environment, and when it has fallen short of what solid colors can achieve when used with talent.

A recent Dezeen feature on the Hotel Modez in Arnhem came to mind, where the ubiquitous QR-codes were used as decoration, framed by blocks of black and white. I am not sure if this is the kind of room that Philip K. Dick might have had in mind when he wrote about the way androids dream, but it must be close.

                                                                        QR-Code Hotel Room by Antoine Peters 

Beyond this unusual example, my mind wandered towards images that have been more inspirational to me, and bursts of my favorite abstract expressionist painter popped-up. I have always been captivated by Rothko's pulsating canvases, and if they are not entirely the result of pure blocking, those large juxtaposed color spaces are both mesmerizing and soothing.

                                                                                                                                      Mark Rohtko 

Luis Barragan achieve the same serene tension in his interiors with the use of color to define surfaces and architectural elements, and I think he created unmistakably timeless spaces that recurrently provide inspiration for the newer archetypes.

                                                                                              Casa Gilardi (1975) - Luis Barragan

On a more artistic level, the use of sharp, well-defined color blocks to influence human interaction with the urban world has been a theme in the work of artists like Christo and Jeanne-Claude, which illuminated another New York catwalk with their Central Park The Gates project in 2005. New Yorkers that were lucky to experience this site-specific artwork will probably never again see the color orange in the same way.

                                                                                          The Gates (2005) - Christo and Jeanne-Claude

I think color is a crucial element in the creation of the visual environment, and if the richness of layered spaces can often be key to achieving comfort, a wise and talented use of color in its simplest form can achieve simultaneously a fashionable and timeless quality that so many designs aspire to.

Some great examples are:

The work of Karim Rashid, in particular his Semiramis Hotel in Athens, where blocks of colored glass not only define the spaces, but they also influence the way guests transition from one to the other.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Semiramis (Athens, Greece)

The Saguaro in Palm Springs is a colorful oasis, where all the side-by-side hues achieve a visually striking effect that flows from exterior to interior.

Architects Peter Stamberg and Paul Aferiat infused local color into the building around a palette of 12 vibrant tones found in native desert wildflowers.

The colors adorn each balcony and patio, enlivening the indoor areas and spilling to the outdoor public spaces. The color set follows the light spectrum, which in turn creates different perspectives of the hotel according to the time of day.

The Saguaro Palm Springs

And finally, a hotel that I wish I could call my regular hang-out, the Gramercy Park Hotel. I love how the blocks of varying tones of red color punctuate the spaces, and define this intriguing and fashionable New York sanctuary.

                                                                                                             Gramercy Park Hotel - Lobby

Hotels of the future: will they be comfortable?

Whenever I see articles with propitious titles like "Hotels of the Future" I already know it will be all about renderings of buildings that visionaries like Fritz Lang or Ridley Scott imagined long before there were such things as easily available desktop rendering programs. 

Don't misunderstand me: some of the proposals that are floating around are fabulously inventive and they do push the envelope of the built environment (Forbes.com: Hotels Of The Future: 7 Architectural Stunners On The Horizon.)

Zaha Hadid's Dorobanti Tower - Bucharest

My issue with these images is that what seems to impress so much is only the result of very controlled studio experiments, that so often get diluted as they approach feasibility. And outside industry conferences, or the usual tech talk, few people really talk about what the experience of a hotel will be like 30 years from now.

One thing I am sure: it will increasingly be about choices that relate to our own comfort. The choices might be between service and independence, or between human connection and pre-determined selections, or between random ambiances and perfectly controlled environments, but I have no doubt they will relate more to human "stuff" than to building shapes.

There is one thing that architects can't imprint into these buildings at the edge and that is things like a sense of history, or a sense of comfort, or the homely notion of relaxing in a space that takes care of us. The surrealist french writer Boris Vian wrote that music can alter the "roundness of room corners". I think that what hotels feel like is what will really impact our comfort in a world full of tech.

So I wonder if we should be talking about the hotels of the future in these terms, or if we should be talking instead about the ones that will be able to create that sense of unexpected and inner traveling. I have a few favorites, some that I have been to and others that I dream of visiting, and here they are (in no particular order).


The Saint James Paris (France)

Vidago Palace Resort (Portugal)

Fasano Punta del Este (Uruguay)

The Upper House (Hong Kong)

Amangiri (Utah, USA)