WOMEN IN DESIGN: Details, Students
The comma changes everything. So say our visiting lecturers yesterday, Katherine Johnson and Rebecca Rudolph, of the firm Design, Bitches. Though they began the lecture with this statement, one of its many underlying ideas applies broadly to the architectural discipline.
The comma, such a small (and, in many of its uses, overlooked) detail, can completely alter the meaning of nearly anything. Just for fun, let’s look at an example.
“Let’s eat Grandma.”
“Let’s eat, Grandma.”
That comma just might be a lifesaver. By making one tiny change of punctuation, you can change the entire message of a sentence. Similarly, making one tiny change in a design might alter the building’s meaning. Image Mies Van der Rohe’s Farnsworth house with the structural support on the interior of the building. Sure, in the greater context of the floor plan, overlaid on the site plan, this is a miniscule detail. But once the building is built, once that detail is carried out as fully as possible, the effect is massive.
The same holds true for the comma. The beginning of the lecture held two captivating images. Without the comma, Design, Bitches is simply a couple of women who almost seem like slaves to the design process. With the comma, the women are free to design and explore, while everyone else (typically the clients) are the ones who must pay for the job and possibly endure any of the occasionally unpleasant aspects of turning the design into reality. The comma, such a small detail, brings a sense of liberation.
Imagine if this principle – a small detail makes a large change – were further applied to the architectural field. Though the field has changed largely in the last few decades, it is clear that more changes are on the way. There have been many small details that have largely affected the field. Not too long ago, three universities changed their admissions policy so that women could attend the school. At first, this probably had little effect, other than the enrollment of a few women. Now, every architecture school is co-ed, and the number of female students is typically equivalent to the number of male students.
For another example, it was too far in the past that very few women pursued architecture as a career. They might stay in the field for a while, but they would often change jobs or stop working entirely because they had started a family. Now, there are many working mothers in the architectural field. In the greater realm of architecture, the a few individuals’ decisions to work while having a family was probably a small detail, but its effect was much larger.
Or, not too long ago, there were few women who held upper level positions in firms. Now, there are more women in power, and many women have started their own firms. Design, Bitches is the embodiment of the effects of this small detail, this minute change to the leadership that women might have.
These small details, these proverbial commas, change everything, both in grammar and in life. So go
make a few commas today.
You should check out Design, Bitches’ work. Seriously, you won’t regret it. Go here: http://www.designbitches.com/