As architects and designers, we’re meticulously trained and educated with hours of certification and mentorship. We spend days making sure our working drawings meet the high qualifications of particular jurisdictions, and we anxiously await approval at city council meetings. As a young child, by contrast, we’re imaginative, creative, and think without boundaries. We don’t know our limits. We take chances. Kids are notorious for creating out-of-the-box ideas—imaginary worlds out of sticks, mud, blocks and empty cardboard boxes. As we age, however, society, culture and the need for acceptance encompass us. We lose the uninhibited traits of children, and as a result, we create products that we’re told should be successful. But what if we could design and think like children again WITH the benefit of years of experience? What might we learn about what a house or city could be? This playful yet serious discussion will explore ways of learning to be bold, take chances, design in ways that is flexible and not over-programmed, and think of live/work as a lifestyle, not a building type.
AIA CE Course Learning Units: 1