“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” James Froude 1818-1894
I’ve found that my general design process is more of a thought process. I think my thought process was conceived somewhere during high school and gelled during college. Over the years, I have worked to refine how I think about “things”; this in turn has reeducated and refined my basic design process.
I’m noticing more reiterative and reinforming component to both as I’m considering and evaluating firm management and/or project management processes. On the one hand, it’s very tempting to take how we know to manage projects and apply that to our firms; on the other hand, the MBAs of the world say it should be different: quantifiable aspects should be first.
The quote above seems right, because we call it “the practice” of architecture; in that we are still striving for better ways (plural).
-Lisa Stacholy, AIA