February 8, 2001
Essay Questions- Thought Experiments, Design Economics
Part I- Design Economics
1. There is a crisis in the architecture profession- architects are expected to lead project teams in an increasingly complex development process where the expectations of clients, municipal planners and politicians as well as approval agencies and community activists are soaring. Expectations are higher while the fee structure is increasingly unrealistic. Identify ways in which the professional architect might address this issue.
2. Are young architects exploited by the profession and, if so, how can this be ameliorated? Some young architects are saying that they are working 100 hours per week and being paid for 40. They might quote a typical Russian worker in the old Soviet Union: "They pretend to pay us (in worthless rubles), and we pretend to work." Discuss.
3. What are your expectations of the architectural profession? What financial and non-financial rewards are you expecting from your practice and what constraints can you identify in terms of your ability to achieve your professional objectives?
4. What steps can an architect take, if any, to protect their intellectual property? How can architects better use their IP? Most projects are 'one-offs'. Perhaps this is the way the profession was meant to be. Discuss.
5. How would you go about boosting the value of your services through design creativity and better design programming? How would you demonstrate to your clients that the least cost solution is not necessarily the best solution and perhaps a more costly project would also yield proportionately more utility (measured in revenue dollars or some other non-monetary measure)?
6. The internet is sweeping away the old economic order. Discuss what you think the internet's impact will be on the profession- a) intra office management and communication, b) team co-ordination, c) design collaboration between architecture offices, d) project delivery, e) design drawings, f) design presentation, g) effects barely perceived but possible in the next decade and a half.
7. Clients can get full architectural plans for homes for $350 from a book of plans or, indeed, from the web today. Why should clients pay $6,000 to an architect for home plans while these services are available? How can we as a profession compete and justify our services? Is the internet going to put the profession out of business except for large and complex, one-off projects? How can architects react and take advantage of the new technology instead of waiting for it to trample the profession? (Read a sample essay on this topic by student Jeff Dennis.)
8. In delivery of a project, rank the following in terms of importance to you and to the client and explain your ranking: a) meeting the budget, b) artistic merit, c) design creativity, d) increasing revenue opportunities, e) ease of construction, f) identifying the critical path, g) on time delivery of completed project, h) in field quality assurance and inspection, I) work certification for bank and other financing, j) adding to your portfolio of work, k) meeting the municipal zoning codes, l) complying with building and fire codes, m) speedy approvals from approval agencies, n) other.
9. How would you go about increasing the fees that a professional architect receives and how would you justify it?
10. Where is the profession going and what are some of the new, exciting fields that architects may become involved with in your opinion? What special skills does an architect bring to these new areas? (Read an essay by student Sangeetha Narayan on the subject of "New Prospects for the Architect in the 21st Century".)
11. Can you be a professional architect doing work for other clients and be a developer in your own right too? Discuss the ethics of this and areas for possible conflict of interest.
12. Bankruptcy, either professional or personal or both, is not unknown to the architecture profession. Discuss ways to limit your exposure to this unfortunate outcome and how you might personally deal with it if misfortune came your way.
13. There are many brand extensions of the architecture profession. Discuss one or more non traditional career paths for today's architects whether it is in the field of web design, architectural signage, space imaging, data mining, and so on. Explain how an architecural degree and training can assist or, indeed, limit such alternative career paths.
14. Discuss the advantages of using management science techniques such as Critical Path Methodology to schedule projects; what can you learn from such techniques and what are some of the limitations?
15. The web is blowing everything to bits, to paraphrase a recent book title. If as a profession, we don't 'get the web', we're toast. Architects must learn that their practices are subject to the same rules as other entrepreneurs- their compensation is tied to the value they create and their productivity. They need to market their services and extend the 'franchise' in order to escape the vise that the profession is currently in. Architects must learn the difference between a J.O.B. and entrepreneurialist culture- an entrepreneur tries to create lasting value that is independent of the founder or individual practioner. Discuss.
16. Is it possible that the web could be a huge boon to achitects? Can architects place their knowledge and portfolios on their personal web sites- all their Intellectual Property could be there? How can an architect exploit their IP? The web may allow architects to sell their designs many times over- to use and reuse whole designs and parts of their work for many clients and customers. They can retain ownership and copyright of their IP and they may still be receiving royalties from their body of work even when they are relaxing on a beach. Architects have to figure out how to do this in order to counter current trends in the profession. How would you do it?
17. Can you think up and describe any new tools you would want to be available to the profession on the web? How about an online shadow study generator where you type in longitude and latitude and day and month as well as height, width and length of your structure and it generates a shadow study for you? Or what about a CAD system that is hooked up to a cost analyser/quantity survey tool that automatically generates changes in the budget as you add or substract to your building? How about adding a revenue generator too so that you can see what extra benefits you are generating (and rates of return) from design changes at the same time?
18. Can you think up any new uses for Architects' Personal Web Sites? What new kinds of uses can you dream up for them?
Part II- Urban Issues
17. How can conflict between urbanists (who are essentially positivists with an anthropological need to shape the environment around them) and nimby'ites (not-in-my-back-yard'itis), enviros or bananas (build-absolutely-nothing-anywhere-near-anything'ists) be resolved, avoided or ameliorated? Give an example of nimy'ite behaviour and what could ahve been done to address it.
18. Should town planning authorities be allowed to ban undesirable' land uses on a moral or other basis within their jurisdictions? Uses such as rooming houses, video game parlors, massage parlors, basement apartments, escort services, prisons, liquor stores, adult video stores, exotic dance clubs, rooming houses, casinos, horse tracks, group homes, co-ops, cultists, dog tracks, jai alai, needle parks, needle exchanges, housing for the homeless, half way houses, funeral homes, crematorium, red light districts come to mind. Is there such a thing as victimless crime? How does one reconcile civic order and personal freedom? What rules are appropriate and what processes should apply?
19. Why does it appear that conflict between the developer and the architect, on the one hand, and neighbors, planning authorities and enviros on the other hand is inevitable? What are some of the underlying causes of this discord?
20. Have zoning rules, in common use since the beginning of the 20th Century and now a world wide phenomenon, helped create better urban spaces or have they hindered town morphology? On what basis can one evaluate comparative urban designs?
21. Is higher density in a city a positive force for city design and development?
22. Why do town planners, community associations and municipal politicians resist projects that will increase urban density?
23. Does increased density increase or decrease neighboring property values?
24. It is said by some that town planning today is based on greed and fear'. Discuss.
25. Application of Broken Windows Syndrome' in New York City by Mayor Rudolf Guillianni in the 1990s has been credited with reducing vandalism, street crime and even the murder rate there. It is also said to be responsible for violations of human rights including the rights of the homeless, vagrants, passers-by and non conventional residents and businesses in NYC. How can the goals of civic order be reconciled with freedom of expression, freedom of the person and the right to use private property for non conventional purposes?
26. Before 1900, the growth of villages, towns and cities was often the subject of an explicit or implicit consensus about what constitutes civic art. Complaints about rampant goats or smells and effluent from the tannery or reserving pride of place for important civic buildings (the town hall, the school, the hospital, the theatre, ...) was subject to discussion and resolution at citizen meetings where complainants were required to come forward in person. Today a great deal of bylaw enforcement is based on anonymous tipster traffic and rat' lines. Discuss how this coarsens and weakens the social fabric and undermines respect for the municipal processes.
27. Over 80% of new suburban growth in the United States is said to be inside gated communities. While taking up residence in a gated community may be a rational decision for an individual or family given the social disorder in many US cities, but the implications for the social fabric of the USA may be parlous. Discuss.
28. Should governments subsidize professional sports franchises and their arenas? Do these franchises and their stadia contribute to the development of city-states? Do they add value or take value from a community? Does their economic contribution depend on the size of their cities with smaller economies benefiting proportionately more from the spin offs including name recognition and international marketing than larger centres?
29. Developer charges have been introduced everywhere since the 1980s. They are unfair, inequitable and inefficient. They raise intergenerational equity considerations and represent a transfer of wealth from the younger (and poorer) generation to an older one. It may be that new infrastructure is being paid for over and over- first in general property taxes, next in DCs, next in utility payments and lastly in at-no-cost subdivision agreements. The dispossessed have no voice in the matter- future homeowners and voters don't vote in elections that create or extend DCs. DCs give sitting owners a one time increase in their home prices. DCs invoke an obvious human trait- "Since I paid them," says the new home owner, "why shouldn't the next guy." Money is power and governments rely on Dcs to generate a lot of cash. DCs are often levied in multiple for multiple unit dwellings even though they may place the same burden on the public infrastructure as a single family home. This discourages the construction of multiple dwelling units and affordable housing. Once in effect, DCs are hard to get rid of: new home costs would fall; sitting owners don't like the idea of decreasing prices; politicians don't like to see a tax get away from them. How would a city-state go about getting rid of DCs?
29. Iconic architecture has created landmarks in cities around the world. The Eiffel Tower, among others, was initially frowned on by the general public as a blight upon the cityscape. Georges Eiffel obtained approval for his landmark structure by calling it a "temporary" structure. A century later, the Eiffel Tower is perhaps the defining monument for the City of Lights, Paris. It certainly would be considered a sacrosanct heritage piece which could never be demolished. The recently completed London Eye, the largest ferris wheel ever constructed, was approved by the British Parliament on the basis that it too is a temporary structure. The term of operation is five years. Interestingly, the specifications for the structure require components of the London Eye to have a lifetime expectancy of 50 years. The London Eye is sited in the most historic part of London and dwarfs the structures around it. Discuss how projects such as these are approved under a guise; is this the only way to get these projects approved? Is this a 'bait and switch' approach? What are the ethics of this? Does the end justify the means? Is the London Eye likely to become another icon in the City of London on a par with the Eiffel Tower? Is the public fickle? Should the elites decide what is built knowing public opinion will or may change? Do we want the public approval process to be participatory democracy or is it democratic abuse? ) Read an essay by student Tommy Ong, "s u s t a i n i n g o u r u r b a n i c o n s").
30. Governments are unlikely to contribute to the development of city icons in the future. We are perhaps less likely to see mega projects such as the Eiffel Tower, Statue of Liberty, Washington Monument, L'Arc de Triomphe or, for that matter, the Egyptian Pyramids again. What is the proper role for governments in producing large scale public art if any? Producing large scale public art is perhaps only possible today with private funding. This leaves two alternatives- a) public art becomes the exclusive realm of wealthy foundations and individuals (eg., the Millennium Gate proposal for Washington D.C.) or b) public art is funded by commercializing the art. Examples of the latter are the London Eye and the proposed Kanata Media Tower where the "Media" part is needed to get the "Tower" part of the equation. Is this crass commercialism or is this "necessity is the mother of invention"?
31. Governments can play an important role in the development of our city-states. We have also seen that an inappropriate regulatory regime can choke growth and change; it can produce suburban blight and urban design that is 'dreck' as well as limiting options for residents by, for example, outlawing small flats, granny flats, duplexes and other forms of affordable housing. Governments can, however, socialize risk; they can act when others will not to offset boom and bust cycles. They can promote or provide 'mega' projects such as subway construction, bridge construction and other public goods that the private sector will not supply. They can view a new road or other public infrastructure as unlocking development, jobs and tax assessment or they can view it as an unwanted cost with negative fiscal impacts that should be borne by the development industry through development charges, special assessments or at-no-cost rules. Discuss the appropriate role for governments in city-state development in terms of their involvement in regulatory, infrastructure, counter cyclical programs.
32. Other questions relevant to design economics, urban design, urban economics and real estate development will be accepted with the prior approval of the lecturer.