more charettes, less shop drawings

When constructing buildings, both the design and construction are required in sequence to create well built, efficient, and aesthetically pleasing structures that provide all of the amenities for it's users.
When recently thinking about our analysis, judgment, and influence on our own lives, the lives of others, and especially our children, I thought about how our children need us to do more charettes and less shop drawings.

When I was in architecture school, I was introduced to design
charettes. The term comes from the French word for small cart students in the Ecole Des Beaux Arts used to rapidly carry their projects to their professors. When we did a charette in school, we considered the program (list of needs) for the project and carefully analyzed the topography, prevailing winds, sun angles, existing trees, vernacular architecture and climate to come up with as many possible design solutions as possible in a short period of time. We would look at the designs and all of the ways they benefited from the characteristics of the surroundings. One question that was used often was "what does the building want to be?"
When a building is under construction, one typically spends time reviewing shop drawings and specifications for every material used on a project, right down to every window, every door, piece of hardware, light fixture, etc. In this stage of construction, the designer is ensuring that every component of the project has been coordinated and finalized to fit perfectly in the building. This is a rigorous process of highlighting and correcting every inadequacy, every fault.
I propose that when it comes to what we carry around with us, the spirit, the essence of who we are and are meant to be and do, that we look at ourselves, our children and each other with more of an intention to ask what does this person or this moment, "want to be" rather than highlighting all of the imperfections that keep this person or this moment from fitting with our plan.

Grace in, peace out