One of the things I want to do with my posts is to share thoughts about the design process. I sat down tonight thinking about how we have, in our own office, recently challenged the way we work in “charettes.” And I pondered how to characterize the new thoughts and strategies we’ve been toying with. I’ve written much about the old process and went searching my old files for a departure point.
What I found was a surprise; an article by Gerry Gutierrez. He’s a wonderful man who worked in our Philadelphia office in the 90’s. And he wrote this beautiful piece reflecting on the nature of our creative work…in groups.
And what I discovered was that even though we are reinventing the notion, the process, the deliverables and the detail particulars of our “charettes” the spirit of the flow of work still strikes a chord in me. I am reminded that this spirit should not be limited to charettes. It is too powerful. We should instead, seek it and infuse all of our work with it. His words follow:
“in the olde city neighborhood of Philadelphia where I live and work, the first Friday of each month brings new faces and lively discussions on the street...much of the conversations are focused on the first showings of art in the many galleries that line these narrow streets... a fun and fulfilling event for anyone with an appreciative eye for art!
on this recent Friday, a “working” gallery called HOT SOUP, opened its doors to a crowd curious to see and experience the latest concoction of art...free drinks ...appetizers...and a bonus!!!...blazing heat to ward off the winter!...a great night was had by all !...not because of the drinks or the eats, but because Hot Soup is a working glassblowing shop whose owner and staff put on an 30 minute impromptu performance in making Frosty the Snowman’s head...up to the last adjustments to Frosty’s carrot nose, everyone was hypnotized by the action at the blasting furnaces...
as I watched, I had one of those deja vu connections to our current life as human beings with distinct creative and intellectual energies... how could I not, I suppose... here were 5-6 people working in concert...one tending the furnace to get the temperature right... another rolling a molten bulb of glass on a coloring bed for Frosty’s eyes... now another, helping shape the head with a steaming pad of wet paper... if the lights were turned off, it would be seen as a ballet of long poles with glowing ends pirouetting and gliding through the air...
in drawing parallels, the design process in architecture via charette certainly comes to mind...the charette brings a group of people to interact on a specific proposition or problem statement and bring about a constructive dialogue, through verbal and written means and with sketches...like the glassblowers, each person makes a unique and critical contribution towards the dialogue... a word... a line... or a gesture... all these may be the catalyst that points the dialogue in a certain direction...as in the glassblowing, the action moves at a fast pace, each turn and twist an enrichment...a revelation leading to yet more revelations... liquid hot and running towards the bare hands, the glass calls for rapidly weighed decisions that seem part intuitive, part ‘brute’ intellect...
Frosty’s head, like the charette’s dialogue, is the result of elegant teamwork...”
How beautiful. Very nice Gerry. And what a privilege for any of us to be working on a project with a group that works in this way.
So consider this. It certainly doesn’t just happen. Does it? Csikszentmihalyi calls this seamless work experience “flow” in his book of the same title. Do you have ideas on how, in the middle of our incredibly crazy professional life, a design group, focused on making something together, gets to “flow?”
Steve
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