Storymaking.
Like many (all?) of us, I love stories - all kinds of stories - from those told in books, movies, music, comics, and video games to words spoken in a short social media clip or around a campfire. I’m often invested in the audio books my 10 year olds listen to while getting ready for school and sometimes I have to look them up on Wikipedia to find out what happens if they finish it without me (which they typically do!). I love stories for their messages, lessons, ways of communicating history and personal experiences that I cannot on m y own, and more than that I love the imaginary journey that a good story takes me on.
Consequently I love good storytellers and aspire to be one myself.
Alright, I’m not afraid to admit that I think I AM a good storyteller - even without evidence - but I digress.
Throughout my career I’ve wanted my work to actually tell a story, so that I think that the designs I produce and help execute tell a complete story of those that commissioned me and who they invite into their homes or workplaces.
That’s a nice and idealized way of looking at the role of an architect, but we’re gone from the project sometimes even before furniture has been moved in and are absent from the life of what we’ve designed. If we’re lucky we’re brought back as things need to be expanded or updated, but for the majority of projects we don’t see them being used at all.
In story telling terms, if a persons life is a series of novels, the work of an architect can be summed up in the prologue of one of the sequels. The main character has overcome some life challenge in the previous book and has come out changed and in need of a new setting (possibly they’ve declared love for a partner and need a new home for the expanding family) and so the architect comes in to design the setting for the next installment in the series. In some stories an architectural project is an entire volume, but in most it’s a chapter or prologue at best. Sometimes people even skip the prologue, but not me,
I’ve come to terms with my work not being that of a storyteller, but rather that my work is to create the setting for the next part of someone else’s story.
In that way I can think of myself of a storymaker. I’m here to create the setting for the many stories that you’ll tell in your life for years to come. I’m creating the place you bring your infant home from the hospital, the backdrop to holidays, family dinners, to lonely moments, heartbreak, happiness and the mundane experiences of everyday life. Though I don’t wish bad things on anyone, I get fulfillment from my role, however small, in creating the place where all of these ups and downs can happen.
HinterSpace Architecture. Creating the setting for your story.
