Aesthetic Challenges | Whole Building Design Guide

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(/index.php)RESOURCE PAGE

by Mark L. Gillem, AIA, AICP

Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment(http://www.afcee.af.mil/)

Last updated: 06-08-2010

Is beauty really in the eye of the beholder? What may be an attractive style(style.php) to a retired teacher in Omaha

may be unsightly to a graduate student in Manhattan. While one may prefer ornamentation and oak, the other may like

chrome and concrete. While one may choose to live on a tree-lined street in the suburbs, the other may want the

vitality of a downtown loft. Yet, despite the diversity of our desires, there is some agreement regarding underlying

patterns of development. There are indeed places and buildings most people would agree are quite attractive: the

townhomes of Boston's Beacon Hill, the storefront shops in Cleveland's Shaker Heights, and the charming Victorian

homes ringing San Francisco's Alamo Square to name just three. But what is standing in the way of similar

developments today? How can we learn from these memorable places in a way that responds to today's design and

construction challenges?

Left to Right: a townhome in Boston's Beacon Hill, a storefront shop in Cleveland's

Shaker Heights, and a Victorian home ringing San Francisco's Alamo Square

A. Roadblocks to Aesthetic Design

The United States is blessed with a beautiful natural environment and a long list of attractive cities and suburbs,

buildings, and public spaces. But these places are in danger of being overwhelmed by rampant suburban sprawl and

unsightly architecture. Charming rural roads now found throughout the country are turning into clogged 'arterials' lined

with underused parking lots and generic strip malls. Rolling fields are being enveloped by a tidal wave of tract homes

and apartment complexes. Historic buildings are being cleared to make way for yet another drug store.

Why, despite a long history of creating remarkable places and remarkable buildings, are these unsettling changes

occurring? If you have kept up with the latest debates in planning and architecture, you may think you know the

answer: suburban sprawl. Architects now recognize that buildings do not exist in a vacuum. Buildings and landscapes

are the thread of our built fabric. These buildings can be used to create memorable places or they can be used to

further sprawl. Sprawl can be measured in four simple ways:

Low density single-use development (think of residential subdivisions with houses on half acre lots or the big box

"power retail" centers surrounded by acres of asphalt);

Isolated land use patterns that unnaturally segregate even compatible uses like residential and retail areas (just go

visit almost any emerging suburb, where the stores are in "retail strips" isolated from neighborhoods);

Automobile-oriented design (Have you ever tried to walk to a Home Depot or count the details on a Wal-Mart

facade?); and

Uncontrolled outward growth (I have lost count of the "Land For Sale: Will Build to Suit" signs sprouting up around

California's central valley. Who will these developments suit anyway?).

Aesthetic Challenges

INTRODUCTION

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Anywhere USA: Where many Americans work, shop, and live.

However, sprawl is only one roadblock to aesthetic design. Anonymous architecture is another. It is an architecture

best characterized by its generic appearance. It is an architecture of sameness, built without much concern for context

or continuity. It is an architecture of function over form. It can be found in the endless horizontal bands of reflective

glass wrapping many of today's commercial buildings; in the repetitive and overdone rooflines of suburbia's

McMansions; and in the stripped down facades of big box development.

The disappearance of detail on this anonymous architecture is a significant issue that traces its roots back to the

modern movement in architectural theory. Architect Adolf Loos even argued that decoration on buildings was a crime.

Modernist architects adopted Louis Sullivan's dictum that form follows function. As the modernist architects claims to

authority increased, the role of the user decreased. After all, as Jan Michl notes, since forms were believed to be

intrinsic to functional solutions, there was no serious reason to consider the form-related preferences of clients. And

Roger Scruton suggests that the aesthetic attitude may be connected only peripherally with the art of building. Hebelieves that aesthetic requirements may simply be a minor irritation in the practice of the architect. Indeed, after

making architecture accessible(/design/accessible.php), sustainable(/design/sustainable.php), durable, cost-

effective(/design/cost_effective.php), safe(/design/secure_safe.php), and productive(/design/productive.php), there may

be little energy left to address the potential morass of aesthetics.

But suburban sprawl and anonymous architecture are just symptoms. The real sickness is an inability to communicate

and act on our collective dreams and desires for better places to live, work, and play. Oddly enough, our grandparents

were not afflicted with this damaging disease. After all, they built the places many of us love, from the town square in

Medina, Ohio to the tree-lined streets of Chico, California.

The same street in Mariemont, Ohio. What went wrong?

Over the last 60 years, however, the common language that was used to build these wonderful places has been lost.

And without a shared language for development, chaos reigns supreme. Like the people of Babal, we have been

dispersed into a thousand factions speaking individual and incoherent languages. Developers talk about 'return on

investment(/design/use_analysis.php)' and 'value engineering(/design/use_analysis.php)'. Real estate agents talk about'resale value' and 'curb appeal.' Bankers talk about 'balloon payments' and 'interest rates.' Transportation engineers talk

about 'vehicle miles traveled' and 'capacity per hour.' Planners talk about 'land use zones' and 'floor-to-area-ratios.'

Architects talk about 'deconstruction' and 'charrettes.' Owners talk about 'deferred maintenance' and 'mission

requirements(/design/func_oper.php).' And politicians talk about 're-election' and 'quality of life.' Unfortunately, experts

rarely talk in understandable terms. Moreover, the concepts their terms represent could pose serious aesthetic

challenges to today's architects. Simple phrases, and the concepts such phrases represent, like town squareand

shady boulevard, have been swept away in the flood of specialized and incompatible languages used by a growing

number of so-called experts.

Architect Christopher Alexander writes about this problem in A Pattern Language. He writes that "towns and buildings

will not be able to come alive, unless they are made by all people in society, and unless these people share a

common pattern language, within which to make these buildings..." Without such a common language, we are destinedto build more sterile office buildings(/design/office.php), homogenous housing tracts, and unsightly strip malls.

B. Making Memorable Places
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A faade with a rich and poetic design

language

Given the roadblocks presented above, what can be done? Since the real problem is the loss of a common language

for development that most of us understand, agree with, and support, we need to recapture that language. We need to

develop a shared vocabulary for design and construction that can guide future physical development. To do this, we

first need to look around our cities, suburbs, and towns and ask three questions:

What is working?

Why is it working?

Where can it work in the future?

For example, in the Midwest, many people encountered there by this author lauded the numerous small towns with

their mixed-use town centers. In Ohio, from Lodi to Hudson, these people knew town centers, with their mix of uses,defined public greens, storefront windows, detailed architecture, and increased density can work exceedingly well.

Town Centers: Then and Now

Identifying and respecting the language of design is one of the first steps to including aesthetics in architectural

practice. Creating the "words" that comprise this language of design is a challenging task. These "words" (which have

been called patterns, principles, guidelines, etc.) can be specific (like Visible Entries) or they can be more general and

address issues of form(form.php) (i.e., scale, proportion, symmetry, asymmetry, light and shadow, texture, and color),

order (i.e., axis, hierarchy, repetition, and rhythm), and meaning(style.php) (i.e., symbolism and metaphor).

Attractive architecture can also emerge from using the language of design

that responds to the complex requirements of today's environment. Rather

than see these requirements as burdens, architects can view them as

aesthetic opportunities(aestheticopportunities.php). For instance,

sustainable design(/design/sustainable.php) may lead to buildings

designed to maximize energy conservation through the use of largerwindows and more appropriate landscaping, which will contribute to an

improved aesthetic. Likewise, durable designs will likely incorporate

materials that have an inherent beauty, from brick facing to tile roofs. And

safe designs(/design/secure_safe.php) that incorporate elements like

stoops and porches that allow for more "eyes on the street" will likely be

more attractive than fortress buildings.

How can a diverse community define and come to agreement on the principles or "words" required to make up this

shared aesthetic language? One approach is to begin with a charrette where the community joins the design team in a

collaborative process geared towards developing design principles, analysis documents, and schematic solutions. As

part of a charrette, or as a stand-alone exercise, designers can conduct a Visual Preference Survey. The concept,

developed by Anton Nelessen, is straightforward: simply take pictures of the existing built environment in your

neighborhood or city and arrange them in a sequence so that community members can 1) rate the images and 2)

develop appropriate design principles. Also, by considering the constraints of modern development as opportunities,

architects can leverage the special requirements of today's owners into more aesthetic design responses that consider

the building as a whole(/wbdg_approach.php) rather than a set of isolated systems. The concept of integrated design

considers the totality of the building and requires a collaborative design effort. When aesthetics are considered an

integral part of the design effort rather than a mere wrapper, the building and its occupants benefit.

APPLICATION
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A Visual Preference Survey: Rate each image on a scale of +10 to -10. A safe bet

would be to say that nearly everyone would rate the image on the left higher than the

image on the right. Why? Good design: a sheltering roof, defined walkways, frontsteps, and trees to name just four elements.

Communities that have decided to address aesthetics challenges have instituted a number of processes that have

allowed them to exercise control over the look of new buildings. For example, many municipalities have formed Design

Review Committees that analyze design projects, make suggested improvements, and offer recommendations for

rejection or approval to the community's Planning Commission. Likewise, Homeowners' Associations perform a similar

function in planned communities. Additionally, many communities have published guidelines that the design team must

follow. These guidelines may address issues as diverse as the placement of buildings on a site, the location of entries,

and even the permissible colors. On military installations, numerous guidelines influence the design process and

address issues such as architectural compatibility, sustainable design(/design/sustainable.php), and force

protection(/design/provide_security.php). Some states have even set up elaborate peer and community review

processes. For instance, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requires that an Environmental Impact

Report (EIR) be completed on all large projects. As part of the EIR, independent consultants review the aesthetic

impact of the proposed design.

WBDG

DESIGN OBJECTIVES

Cost-EffectiveConsider Non-Monetary Benefits such as Aesthetics, Historic Preservation, Security, andSafety(/design/consider_benefits.php)

PRODUCTS AND SYSTEMS

Federal Green Construction Guide for Specifiers:

07 30 00 (07300) Steep Slope Roofing(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8046)

07 50 00 (07500) Membrane Roofing(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8048)

07 55 63 (07530) Vegetated Protected Membrane Roofing(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8049)

08 14 00 (08210) Wood Doors(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8051)

08 50 00 (08500) Windows(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8052)

12 10 00 (12100) Artwork(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8068)

12 59 00 (12700) Systems Furniture(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8070)

32 90 00 (02900) Planting(/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8082)

PublicationsArchitectural Graphic Standards, 10th Editionby John Ray Hoke, Jr., FAIA, ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons,

Inc., 2000. A concise description of urbanism is presented along with a sample guideline for Traditional

Neighborhood Design.

Architecture: Form, Space, & Order, 3rd Edition(http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2191068-10438326?

url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wiley.com%2Fremtitle.cgi%3Fisbn%3D0471752169&cjsku=0471752169) by Francis D.K.

Ching. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2007. Ching outlines the timeless principles of form, space, and order

that are at the foundation of architectural design.

The Autobiography of an Ideaby Louis Sullivan. New York, 1956.

City Comforts: How to Build an Urban Village(http://www.citycomforts.com/) by Sucher, David. Seattle: City

Comforts Press, 1995. Sucher shows examples of small patterns that make life more pleasant.

"Form Follows What? The Modernist Notion of Function as a Carte Blanche" by Jan Michl. Magazine of the

RELEVANT CODES AND STANDARDS

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
http://www.citycomforts.com/http://www.tkqlhce.com/click-2191068-10438326?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wiley.com%2Fremtitle.cgi%3Fisbn%3D0471752169&cjsku=0471752169http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8082http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8070http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8068http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8052http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8051http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8049http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8048http://www.wbdg.org/ccb/browse_doc.php?d=8046http://www.wbdg.org/design/consider_benefits.phphttp://www.wbdg.org/design/provide_security.phphttp://www.wbdg.org/design/sustainable.php


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Faculty of Architecture and Town Planning. Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel. N. 10, Winter

1995: 20-31.

Housing as If People Mattered: Site Design Guidelines for Medium-Density Family Housingby Clare Cooper

Marcus and Wendy Sarkissian. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986. Similar to A Pattern Language, the

authors present 254 guidelines or patterns for residential design and planning.

A Pattern Language: Towns, Building, Constructionby Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, and Murray

Silverstein. New York: Oxford University Press, 1977. In this text, the authors identify 253 patterns suitable for the

development of towns, buildings, and landscapes. The patterns can be used to form a poetic language for

buildings as small as a garden shed to the development of entire neighborhoods. Also, see

patternlanguage.com(http://www.patternlanguage.com/).Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Architecture by

Kenneth Frampton. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1995. Frampton focuses on the recent history of

architecture as a "constructional craft" and highlights the link between form and construction.

Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream, 1st ed. by Andres Duany, Jeff

Speck, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk(http://www.dpz.com/). New York: North Point Press, 2000. The authors critique

the aesthetics of cul-de-sacs and strip malls, and describe the social, environmental, and fiscal costs of suburban

sprawl and anonymous architecture.

Visions for a New American Dreamby Anton Nelessen(http://anelessen.com/get.php?page=Meet_Anton). In this

book, Nelessen describes the Visual Preference Survey technique.

OthersCalifornia Environmental Quality Act(http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/)Environmental Impact Reports (EIR) prepared on

large projects as part of the CEQA process can address issues of aesthetics.

Charrette Center(http://www.charrettecenter.com/towndesign/)Offers tips and tools to help architects run design

charrettes.

Great Buildings Collection(http://www.greatbuildings.com/)Access a comprehensive documentation of over a

thousand great buildings from around the globe.

Kingstowne Residential Owners Corporation(http://www.kingstowne.org/Architectural-and-Design-Review-

Guidelines~220837~16500.htm)For an example of a detailed set of Architectural and Design Review Guidelines.

Smartcode(http://www.municode.com/)Order a detailed planning and design code that follows principles of smart

growth for infill and greenfield development.

Smart Growth Network(http://www.smartgrowth.org/)Access a comprehensive review of the principles of smart

growth as a counterpoint to suburban sprawl.

Sprawlwatch Clearinghouse(http://www.sprawlwatch.org/)Access the latest information and impacts of sprawling

development.

National Institute of Building Sciences(http://www.nibs.org/) | An Authoritative Source of Innovative Solutions for the Built

Environment

1090 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 700 | Washington, DC 20005-4950 | (202) 289-7800 | Fax (202) 289-1092

2010 National Institute of Building Sciences. All rights reserved. Disclaimer(/about.php)
http://www.wbdg.org/about.phphttp://www.nibs.org/http://www.sprawlwatch.org/http://www.smartgrowth.org/http://www.municode.com/http://www.kingstowne.org/Architectural-and-Design-Review-Guidelines~220837~16500.htmhttp://www.greatbuildings.com/http://www.charrettecenter.com/towndesign/http://ceres.ca.gov/ceqa/http://anelessen.com/get.php?page=Meet_Antonhttp://www.dpz.com/http://www.patternlanguage.com/

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