year out essay

8/8/2019 Year Out Essay

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Silviya Aytova

Bartlett year out essay


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Are recessions good for architecture? Discuss this in relation

to your experiences during your year out

In recent years there have been several external forces that

have influenced the nature of the professional practice in

architecture in my country Bulgaria. The current recession was

almost inevitable after the building boom since 2002 that led

Bulgaria, especially through the construction industry, to become

the leading magnet for investment in Europe. And I am saying

inevitable mainly because of the mass production of projects andtheir realizations based on poor design, bad urban strategies or

even none of them and extremely bad accomplishment due to low

qualified construction firms. All of those elements, combined with

the World Financial Crises lead to an immense downturn in the

architecture field as a whole. During my practice in a small

architectural firm in Bulgaria for the past two years, I have

observed a movement towards a more radical and critical

rethinking about the future of architecture and the way it shapes

my country. It is probably true that only through taught times, welearn from the mistakes we have made and something new is born

afterwards I think that from this crisis will emerge another

moment, says Alvaro Siza, when talked of a return to austerity

and consideration in architecture An architecture that is essential

and not reliant on things that are not needed.


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Bulgarian Black sea coast

In this essay I will argue in three different directions, mainly

emphasizing on the positives that are coming from the current

recession. In my practice through the projects and the attitudesobserved in clients and developers this recession was necessary in

terms of chastening what came to be once one of the most beautiful

sea resorts on the Black Sea- Sunny Beach. In my practice I

worked on several projects in Sunny beach and Nessebar, which

are two of the best-known summer resorts in Bulgaria, just 10 km


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from each other. Also my family has a house in Nessebar and I

usually spend my summers there, therefore I have a lot of

opportunity to gain insider impression that this recession will help

bring architecture to another level in my country: It is a good

opportunity to evaluate the work done, and how it can be donebetter in the new future that lays in front of us. In the second

part of the essay, that is looking at the practical side of the matter

and deals with short term opportunities, I will argue that recession

is frustrating for the architects and thus this can transfer to the

architecture itself. I think this will be the Renaissance Age all

over again, with many of us reinventing ourselves, and going from

Architecture, to more generic design, to other completely different

fields of work.

I cannot consider this as a completely negativeaspect of the recession. This brings me to my last argument which

will have no clear answer on the positives or negatives of a

recession and will just address some issues that might or might not

bring architecture to a greater standard in terms of esthetics,

efficiency, sustainability, feasibility, comfort, social aspects, ect.

Are recessions good for architecture? As painful as

downturns may be, a bracing change often betters the built

environment. A go-go economy licenses too many complacentideas, and too much overwrought styling. Fewer buildings go up in

a recession, but those that do are subject to more thought and self-

examination, and they tend to be more sensitive calibrators of a

changing culture. In other words, a recession is often the moment

when architecture finds its future. I agree completely with thisstatement and given the current situation, there is no better time to

move towards a brighter future for the architecture. I have been in

a small architectural firm of eight people when I joined the practice(now they are five). We were mainly working on residential

projects at the Bulgarian seaside resort Sunny Beach and other

office and residential buildings in the capital Sofia, where we were

based. The building boom in Sunny beach started around 2002

when many foreign investors saw Bulgarian market very attractive.


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Quick and easy money was the main objective of the developers

wanting to invest as little as possible and gain as much as possible.

On the other hand more and more architects pumped out of

nowhere without any experience and vision to gain a good name.

They were solely interested in the money they can get, alsocombined with no high requirements from their clients other than

low cost and short time to complete a project. All these factors led

to the creation of not well thought and expedient buildings that

were poorly designed, poorly built, not efficient and destroyed

nature. Traditionally, Bulgarian buildings are made from

unreinforced brick with concrete stucco, or more recently, from

steel-reinforced concrete with brick infill. They are energy

inefficient, heavy, and take a long time to build. Wood and steelframe buildings are almost unknown. This situation offers many

opportunities to promote high-tech building materials based on

advanced technology combined with sustainable solutions. The

idea of promoting new ways in construction would not be possible

without the massive escape of the tourists in our resorts not merely

due to the recession but also to the building up of the resort at the

expense of green areas and wide virgin beaches. Fall between 20

and 25% were reported in our seaside hotels, even third line and

deeper into the complex are virtually empty. I believe this

period of time, where no buyers for properties although the prices

has fallen twice since 2007, is a good lesson to learn for the future.

As others have pointed out, there's an upside to recessions. They

give people time to step back from the frantic pace of a boom

economy and think hard about what it is they want to do. In a time

of limited resources, architects and their clients will focus again on

solving the practical problems of making an environment that is, in

every sense of today's overused word, sustainable. I haveattached several photos of showing how built up is Sunny Beach at

the moment.


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Indeed I think that recession is good thing about architecture

and brings the automatic question of what went wrong or what can

we change and how we can improve the quality of life, attract

investment and be at the same time ecologically friendly with the

buildings we design. Although that is a big step to make from whatwas before, the Bulgarian architecture is starting to address all

those issues in order to respond to the need. I consider that the new

architecture will be much more thoughtful, taking into account

social and environmental problems, really talking and considering

sustainability and sustainable methods of design. There's nothing

like a recession for bringing architecture back to its senses. With

less being built, there's time to think. It is the end of the era ofeasy money and profits over 100%, earned without investing in allthose aspects of a building, which makes it modern, environment

and human friendly. The new market is screaming for architecture

that responds to the needs of this century and a society that has

evolved over the centuries.

When I joined the firm Modus 313 they had already started

a project of a residential building in Nessebar, near Sunny Beach,

which I see as a reasonably good design in terms of esthetics but

not addressing the issue of sustainability and the wider context ofthe area.

Kristal, Nessebar


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Integrating those issues in the design does not always mean more

costly projects but is a question of motivating the client to seek it

and be one step ahead of its time. The challenge will be to

convince the clients that good design can add value without cost.

The architecture will need to be considered It is also a timeto re-think where are the public spaces and weather we have

thought about them, is there something missing. Now is the right

time and opportunity to re-look at how we practice architecture.

One group of people who always look on the bright side during a

recession is the conservation lobby. Less good existing stuff gets

knocked down. This is another example of how not only therecession has a tendency to create good architecture for the future

but also to protect the existing historical one. In Sofia there was acommon practice with the help of the municipality to wait for a

historical building to get so destroyed through time, so that they

can knock them down and build a new office building in an

attractive central part of the city. This recession brings a lot of

questions and provocations to the world of architecture and that is

only the starting point of a much desired change that will lead to

the creation of a better architecture tomorrow. The original report,

authored by AMION Consulting and Taylor Young, concluded thatthere was strong evidence that economic, social and environmental

returns increase with better design. Equally, the costs of bad design

can be very substantial in economic, social and environmental

termsDespite the current economic climate, high quality design

is still critical, perhaps more so, to maximize the benefits of

investment in the physical landscapeThese benefits include the

commercial returns of new development as well as a range of

wider economic, social and environmental benefits. Moreover, thepromotion of good design has an essential role to play in place

making, which is emerging in government policy as a key strand

of the regeneration process in our towns and cities."

But is recession always the good scenario, we might argue in adifferent direction. The recession creates high levels of


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unemployment among the architects and in the other design

specialty areas. That really means no work, no design, no

stimulation to continue being an architect at that particular

moment. In short term these negatives could be transferred even to

the few project that are currently in progress. When there is nomoney in the field and a great fear of the upcoming return that the

developers can expect there is a tendency of investing even less

then before so they can get back the money they have put

considering only the situation now. This is more true to a greater

extend for the projects that were design before the crises end are

built now. Clients are cutting cost even further, sometimes

ignoring the requirement of the already designed building in order

to retain the expected profits. In Bulgaria, only developers thinkingahead of time will see the investment in sustainable and delicate

architecture as reasonable and such that will pay its money in the

future and will be appreciated by its users in the long term.

In my architectural practice this winter we worked on the

design of a restaurant-bar-lounge on the beach in Sunny Beach that

comprises of a first floor kitchen for the restaurant with a bar at the

front, also outside seating places and a second semi open terrace

for the restaurant. What actually happened without the knowledgeof the architect was to cut cost dramatically down resulting in the

creation of one floor bar that has a bare connection with its

original design. This attitude is damaging the architecture but I

believe is an approach only for the short term as more and more

people will run away from bad design.


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A lot of people are going to look again at schemes on the drawing

board and work out how they can become more efficient, and how

to get costs down In our case getting costs further down willnot be the right move, given the fact that projects usually are

already with low budgets. There is a need to move toward higher

quality design, investing more and decreasing profits respectively,

if our clients want to compete in even more demanding market.

However, thinking back through architects point of view, that will

be a really hard time. Now, having shrunk, firms may decide to

stay smaller. Rather than hiring experts in special building types,

they may rely increasingly on alliances with other firms. Andrather than adding full-time staff when work comes in, they may

continue to hire temporary employees. In support of this

observation, our office consisted of eight full time employees,

however, in May we remained five when I decided to leave instead

of waiting, unknown how long, for projects or any other work to


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come at all. Very likely others can consider completely different

professions: Young architects will find that the traditional entry

provided by drafting jobs has been foreclosed by computer-assisted

design. Thwarted by the economy and technology, they may

forsake traditional design work entirely for careers in real estate,government, teaching, construction, environmental preservation or

nonprofit organizations. Its not clear if the limited

employment opportunities in the architecture industry will lead to

positive or negative influence. On the one hand the positive will be

that when there is a wide choice of architecture offices now

competing for limited number of investors, only the best will

remain. Architects have to offer a more varied knowledge, skills

and abilities in addition to be competitive and to sell their ideas.That will take the architecture produced and the methods of

creating it on another level. On the other hand some very talented

and potentially good architects can change their direction of

professional realization forever. "We're in a new business," said

Richard Roth Jr., chairman of Emery Roth & Sons, a 94-year-old

firm. "We saw the handwriting on the wall that architecture is not

going to be the bread and butter of the 1990's, so we formed an

interiors company."

Interiors has always been the secondchoice of an architect as merely interior projects, but they become

more and more desirable during a recession where people prefer to

renovate the old they have and need interior solutions rather then

building new. That is the case in Bulgaria as well: Bulgarian

construction stopped, but not the household repairs But still is

the architect who can make the most of the rising tide of interest in

good design, while it is accompanied by a tightening economic

climate. But how? By selling the idea that it is architects who arebest placed to design the interiors that will survive a downturn, an

upturn and whatever else the future brings. When architects design

interiors, they respond to both the space and the client, producing

designs with an integrity that will long outlast the 3D branding

concepts. Architecture is the sustainable interiors solution and


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thats worth paying for in a downturn more than ever. But

weather a swift towards interior design will help architects

improve is debatable. Some will experiment in trying to promote

new architecture while other will stay where the safe option is. As

a whole architecture is regarded as not essential in our culture andespecially in an economic crisis so it will be the last to recover.

Indeed, it is very difficult to be sure of where the future will lead

the development in architecture, but yet there is a tendency for

architectural action to be followed by reaction, and reaction by

further reaction. Therefore, I think those reaction will be crucial in

understanding where should the architecture head on. Still

Architecture, more than most arts, requires, and even demands,

optimism even in the face of the most severe economic

downturns. And this positive attitude should precede a more

critical examination of the work done and a more clear vision for

the future. It might be a difficult sell to the thousand or so

architects now claiming the jobseekers allowance, but the

economic slowdown will force the design community to take a step

back and examine the work it is doing in more detail. A recession

is indisputably bad for architects, but it could be good for

architecture. Architects should explore new kinds of buildings

and technology sometimes accepting smaller but architecturally

challenging commissions so that they can offer something new and

promote this idea. Although it is sad that so many of them have to

continue without some of their best employees, it is a time when

firms should rethink their structure and philosophical approach. A

moment to step back and evaluate the work done, a moment of real

search and change. In conclusion, I agree with the statement that

Recessions are a time for architects to rethink their game. Theyneed not despair but, rather, regroup for the next boom. For a

while, I think there may well be a reaction to the fireworks of the

past decade. Architects such as the Tokyo practices of Toyo Ito

and Sanaa point to one highly inventive, yet gentle future. Andthat is in a world perspective! How much more the architecture in


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Bulgaria needs a much gentle approach, a future in which we have

to consider its wider aspects and responsibility to the society and

the nature. Unfortunately, human nature is such that we learn the

most important lessons only through hard times like now. With

respect to the creation of architecture that is not merely pleasingthe esthetics or solely investing in practical solutions I believe that

the architecture will become more adequate in ways combining

them, as well as looking into methods of addressing new vital

issues. It is a way that sometimes is unreachable but the pure

pursuit is the one driving architecture forward. It needs

provocation and if this happened to be the current recession I am

welcoming it with open hands, with all the negative impact, until

the moment we are ready for the next incitement.


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Bibliography:

1.http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=31358922.http://archrecord.construction.com/news/economy/survivalgu

ide/0903strategies-1.asp

3.http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design4.http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/michael-

cannell/cannell/do-bad-economies-produce-great-buildings

5.http://www.investorsprovident.com/europe/bulgaria/bulgaria-property-market.html

6.In the Bulgarian newspaper Monitor on 27.7.20097.http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2009/01/11/marking_the_end_of_the_bilbao_decade/8.http://www.hughpearman.com/2009/01.html9.http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=313589210. http://www.hughpearman.com/2009/01.html11. http://www.nwda.co.uk/news--events/press-

releases/200901/places-matter-report.aspx

12. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=313589213. http://blueverticalstudio.com/go/?p=21030

14. http://blueverticalstudio.com/go/?p=2103015. http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/175116. In the Bulgarian newspaper "Trud" on 06.7.200917. http://www.bdonline.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=31224

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18. http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/mar/06/architecture-rogers-foster-recession

19. http://www.building.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=3135892

20. http://architecturaltechnologies.blogspot.com/2009/03/architecture-of-recession.html


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