I have written before about my theory of niceness as relates to architecture. Briefly stated, niceness (as in "that's nice") is one of the most desirable characteristics architecture can possess. If one makes is a necessary characteristic it voids the possibility of really terrible architecture.
There are big problems with this theory. The biggest is architects. I don't know if it is nature or nurture, whether architecture attracts people who think they are destined to produce the next Fallingwater or if architecture school either creates that expectation or eliminates those without it. I do know the slightest criticism of a new design (particularly a shocking new design) will cause an uproar of trolling - accusations of timidity, Ludditism, praise of mediocrity, etc. If you don't celebrate the avant-garde (even if it is terrible) you are ignorant and should A) shut up, and B) get out of the way of progress (beautiful beautiful progress).
A big part of why niceness seems like a concession to mediocrity is what we consider important architecturally. Look at any magazine and you will see museums, restaurants, private houses, stores, maybe University buildings. What you won't see are public schools, retirement residences, community centres. Why is it we place more value on the design of places we hardly ever go than on those in which we (statistically) spend most of our lives? If you went to a well-designed public school, to a well-designed college or university, with well-designed dorms, then moved to a well-designed apartment (or house or condo) while working in a well-designed office, architecture played a significant role in making your life better. To be clear, I'm not talking about efficiently designed, I'm talking nice. So where are the schools, workplaces, residences and apartments in our architecture magazines?
I interviewed for a job at a company that designs buildings that will never get published in major architecture magazines - not because they are low quality but because they are not flashy. There is no great claim in the form or materials for authorship, no desperate attempt to have an individual genius recognized. They are just well designed, well built parts of a community. Not accidentally, the firm specializes in building types that don't grab the spotlight - schools (but not Universities), small churches, retirement residences. Parts every community needs but no one thinks about much from an architectural perspective. This is nicenesses wheelhouse.
I think it is clear architecture has been focusing on the wrong things. And architects are abetting this mistake when they celebrate fantastic (but otherwise irrelevant) design. If our duty is to society (as I believe it is) we should be focusing on those places where society happens - and I don't mean the playgrounds of the society pages. I mean where regular people live their regular lives.
Peter Zumthor put the town of Vals on the map with architecture. Gehry did the same for Bilbao. This is going to sound like heresy but who cares? By celebrating these achievements (very rare achievements) to the extent we have, by making that level of design and that type of claim of authorship (where everyone can recognize a Gehry or a Libeskind) the only goal worth having, the only level of success we can agree on, we have effectively marginalized ourselves. We are now makers of museums and over-priced restaurants.
Anyone can recognize bad typography. I maintain this is because no one would dream of publishing something without a typographer. So why are so many buildings designed without architects? Are the aesthetics of books and webpages really more important the the aesthetics of the built world? Of course they aren't. Is there something for a typographer equivalent to a major museum for an architect? Kerning is kerning, leading is leading. Please understand I'm not diminishing or making light of typography, I have the utmost respect for the art. And I appreciate how it is approached. There is text to be set, let's set it. I think architects could do a lot worse than (I was going to say "taking a page" but, G*d, I hate puns) following the example of typographers. Really great typography disappears until and unless you look for it.
I dream of a time the typical quality of our buildings is high enough even well-designed buildings blend in and it isn't until or unless someone looks for it they see, "Hey, this is a really nice building!"
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