Tag: #pochestudio

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Where will architecture focus computing capacity?

There has been a convergence in the architecture world between design and computing. I have been posting a series of ‘parametrically’ designed Poche structures to illustrate the power of parametric data to surround with presence, especially when applied to the malleable truss structure that is Poche.

Walk with me here as I lay this out: say an architect uses parametric design, which is when designers input variables—like dimensions, climate data, or component limitations into computational software, where an algorithm generates optimized shapes, visually, think Zaha Hadid. You will get a deeply informed building shape that is deterministically correct but it may or may not become architecture. This is where the interface between AI and the designer takes on critical importance. The input that was provided at the beginning, the prompt if you will, can be sourced from deep knowledge or simply from data. Like anything in our digital world, you can get involved from intelligence or by skimming. If you own the input, then the output will resonate with your talent. Master architect input, architecture output.

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To speak of a garage.

Shifting from a familiar structure we all know as iconic to our houses in America and blurring right past the decades of customizing the workshop with fancy benches and shelving and lighting, bumping over the grunge bands that grew up there and the inventors that found solitude ‘out in the garage’, and landing right..splat..in 2026 where we just passed codes removing the requirement to store an automobile on your property. And just like that – the end of the mandated garage. There is a crack in the solid foundation of what we think of as house. A house has a garage because you need to store a (or many) car(s). Perhaps the time has come to rethink what we are storing.

What are we storing in our mind: Dismantling a belief

Unique shapes are hard and expensive to build…says who?  

Recently, my meditation landed the following on my lap: “Don’t get into street fights.” I tend to be a coward anyway, so this did not frighten me. It wasn’t until I recalled a moment in a game with friends where, as the tension built toward the end of the game, one of the players pointed a finger and disclosed something that instantly put me at a disadvantage. I cringed and protested. In the height of the emotion that thickly spread over me, I completely missed the opportunity that had also presented itself. Completely missed it.  Sometimes things do not look like what they truly are. Poche is a simple manufactured truss AND all trusses are custom.

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A garage is a garage, is a garage, is a garage…until it isn’t.

I have a story about two garages. In the first, the client is excited to finally get their workshop in the garage. They have a meticulous layout of every tool and bench, fully dimensioned and set. As we designed, every decision was second and third guessed. Their builder pushed for what he knew how to build again and again. You can see where this was going, right?   There was no way to reconcile what was possible with the existing garage with all that was holding it in place. It remained a garage. In the second garage, the owner had slowly been inhabiting her garage for her creative work. A wall had broken free, the tilt up door had given way and the floor had been overlaid with a thick slab containing radiant heat and was pigmented in a mottle of color. It didn’t take much to release the rest of the garage. Can you feel the difference? In one scene the garage refused to let go, in the other, little bursts of letting go were occurring all around. The first client had occasional flickers of joy in his eyes, but, always, thinking overcame. The second client could hardly contain her joy.

If you want to get new work done, check in to see if you are able to surrender your thinking. This isn’t so much about forcing something because, quite frankly, sometimes you are ready and sometimes you are not. Which garage is yours?