How Not to Be a Starchitect
Liza Fior – Katherine Clarke – muf
SOME TIPS FROM MUF ON
HOW NOT TO BE A STARCHITECT
Produce projects which are deliberately ambiguous as to where they stop and start
Expand definitions of the client, site and brief by adding unsolicited research into every project
Produce feasibility studies where the recommendation is, you don't need a building
Give equal status to processes and objects
Design for a ground plane at least 4 metres thick
Design in a simultaneously pragmatic and endlessly ambitious way in the same project
Foreground the most fragile in any situation on the basis that taking care of that will address other requirements, e.g. asking a museum to imagine treating people with the same care and precision as objects
Design projects deliberately rich in visual association – open to others’ interpretation as to “where it’s coming from”
Implicate yourselves in order to wedge open the door for agendas beyond the brief
Be aware of what “working with a community” means: they are not a material, they are people, if they work, pay them
Despite contractual impediments, always try to have a productive and creative relationship with the person who is actually building the project
Pay at least a bit of attention to where things come from and don’t mindlessly support unjust supply chains
Offer very flexible working to staff.