Creating abundance through design
I have been exploring abundance. The thing about this is that the more it is focused on specificity, the more it expands. Say you focus on abundant health, as you pinpoint your body in health a curious thing happens, energy starts pouring in; energy that has no bounds. Try it. The key is that abundance has no limits. Sounds about right, yea? So it is with the snug where light and earth are focused. Step inside with the intent to just Be and be surprised at what you receive.
When conventional can no longer meet the needs of a rapidly changing world, you can jump ship or you can see the possibility hidden in plain sight. I have been considering the tenure of House alongside our capacity to dwell. I think that House is a convention that might no longer meet the needs of humanity in our rapidly changing world. Wait – humans have sought shelter since the beginning. In America we take House to mean x# bedrooms and bathrooms, the kitchen and living rooms, with a basement or attic for storage, and a garage. These expectations are being eroded in the rental market yet folks living there still aspire for the House. How do you jump ship? Self-built tiny houses, Airbnbs for nomads, and campervans are some who have jumped off the House ship. I choose to look deeply at what is here because I believe that our next move is in plain sight and I think it is tangled up in the essence of dwelling.
If you have ever perused the studios of artists you admire, you will likely find 3 things in common: volume (depending on the medium), abundant natural light, and mess. We all know that play is messy, in the throw of creation, a frenzy of activity and materiality are released. It is unavoidable. But it is also true that mess in a creative’s place is cultivated. Carefully curated bits of material or slips of paper, pages taken from magazines, books marked on certain pages. All are triggers to step into the creating flow. Necessary. Plan for this.
Part Two: I attended PAACADEMY Design Tech Talk a few weeks ago because StructureCraft was one of the speakers. I (Poche) was a tiny guppy among sleek whales. But here is the thing, the impressive scale difference was irrelevant because where Poche was headed had been undeniable. The world of parametric architecture, where the environment, geography, zoning, and truss constraints push and pull to make intelligence was right there in that first wobbly sketch. And the power embedded in that sort of sketch has cajoled me into places I would never have entered. I make small houses. Computational design and all its heavy lifting has nothing to do with my work. Or does it?
Being pulled by something undeniable is not negotiable. It will find a way to catch your attention and land you on its path. Poche thrust me into the world of startups, famously thick in Boulder, where the irascible lessons peeled me apart. Pivot, pivot, pivot: I know the path is here somewhere. And then it landed. Design software. And what do I know or care about software? – the universe is laughing! But the bell kept dinging every time I faced ‘software’. The tech talk illuminated all the micro dots that I had noticed but failed to see (innovation afoot?). Software is not my landscape. Yet here I am. The Poche Optimizer is design software. It will enable that undeniable sketch to enter the world. I know the power of those sketches, we call them Parti, but never before has a Parti jumped beyond its’ specific site. The Poche’s Parti entered the entirety of architecture. And at least a decade ahead of my wee studio.
As Architects we see those things that are not yet built or imagined. I have been seeing the Poche_Truss for over six years. First as potential: why can’t we build trusses that include the walls and the roof?? Think of all the time and material we could save! And we wouldn’t be restricted to boxes in a prefab world! And so it went, touching down with engineers, patent attorneys, mentors, fabricators… and the courageous and generous clients. The Brooks ADU has landed in the capable hands of Josh Mitchell, and in a small backyard off a dead-end alley in Boulder, the first Poche_Truss is under construction!