Rote Memorization vs. Common Sense and Good Design + some Biblical application

An officemate asked me for help with a
sideline project, the owner wants it to be a 3-unit apartment building, and
this officemate was asking me for ideas on how to go about the design of the
structure. I decided to skip lunch so I could think of solutions for the
problem, besides, I think it would be a good way to save money… and lose some
weight in the process. So anyway, I came up with something that was different
and that wasn’t exactly conventionally accepted. I brought home the work and
tried to clean it up some more and settle the finer details of the solution.

 

The following morning I presented my ideas
to my officemate (around 35 years old, hasn’t passed the board yet, and extremely
diligent and trustworthy when it comes to jobsite coordination). I was
frustrated to see the look on his face and to hear the succession of questions
and protests… “Eh diba sa Building Code dapat minimum ganito, eh diba dapat
standard height ganito, eh diba dapat ganito yung ruling diyan?”

 

            I felt irritated and annoyed at his
rote adherence to the rules, because as far as I was concerned, I did not break
any, and in fact, enhanced the project by going beyond the rules. I felt an
uneasy combination of pity and guilt because I thought that maybe that’s
exactly the reason why this guy won’t be designing anything of importance or
impact.

 

            In the first place, those rules were
instituted in order to provide bare minimums for good, safe design. Now, even
if you don’t fully memorize those rules, but you know what the basics for good
and safe design are, along with a basic understanding of human dimensions, how
can you go wrong? Common sense!

 

            The same situation goes with my
classmates and my instructor in Microcadd, where I’m taking up ADT, as if every
window has to be a casement window, every sill has to be 900mm above the floor
line, every main door is 900mm x 2100mm, and every roof has to have a
Spanish-molded gutter.

 

            Do you tell Frank Gehry that he
needs to square off all his buildings because its cheaper to do it that way? Do
you tell Ken Yeang to remove all his roof gardens because they are going to
leak? Heck no! Of course I’m no Gehry or Yeang for that matter, but I’d like to
think that, based on my training, I can solve problems and design.

 

            Shucks, if anyone wants a definition
of our true vernacular language of architecture, you don’t have to talk to
Bobby Manosa, you just take a look at our building code, because it has
virtually dictated how the rest of the rote population design their houses.
True enough, if you visit the village I live in, almost all the new houses look
the same.

 

            Whatever happened to thinking out of
the box? Whatever happened to pushing the envelope and actually designing
something unique? So anyway, he takes the sheets of paper I worked on, and goes
home and does his own thing, the following morning, voila, he shows me his
work, and what do we end up with? Exactly what I was imagining, a 3-door
apartment building with the units side-by-side, and their firewalls jutting
out.

            I realize he didn’t ask me for my
design opinion because he valued it, he asked me for my design opinion so that
he could point out that he knew the rules much better than I did. An
architectural Pharisee!

 

            Doesn’t it go the same with the Ten
Commandments? Didn’t the Israelites get too stuck up with the law, that they
eventually forgot what God’s point was? Didn’t God have to send His Son to come
over and teach us what God really needed? As my friend would say, it’s a heart
issue. Are you good because you adhere to the rules and do nothing to break
them, or are you good because you love God and realize Christ’s sacrifice so
much that you do not break these rules and go beyond them out of love for God?

 

            Do we follow the rules and
regulations instituted in the Building Code because we know that our plans
won’t be approved by the Building Official? Do we stick to the rules because
we’ve run out of good ideas? Or do we follow these rules and go beyond them
because we know what good design is? I guess that’s the distinction that
defines an off-site project coordinator and a project designer.

 

            But then again, at the end of the
day, I still have to memorize the rules, because I still have to take and pass
the board. Arggh!