Architecture as Storytelling

157 South Jefferson Street,Spokane WA 99201

12 December, 2022

Description

When we consider architectural compositions as texts, designers as authors, and the end-users as readers of those texts, then good design becomes good storytelling. Thirty-six years of searching for a comfortable, fun approach to learning and practicing design is distilled into storytelling as a design process and product. A summary of that journey, how it got started, and how it concluded (for now) is presented in three parts. While my journey relates to landscape architecture, each step along the way is easily related to architecture and interior design. Part One looks at my introduction to the ambiguous world of landscape design and the first question I asked of my studio professor, “What’s the formula?” Efforts to answer that question became a three-tiered analogy that provides a comfortable way to learn architectural, landscape, and interior design based upon how we learned to read, write, and tell stories. With the idea that good design is good storytelling, Part Two, introduces design as more than text. It is a narrative. Highlighted is the idea that architectural and landscape texts are authored by designers and once built, are read by those who experience them. Put simply, and with the help of Betty Edwards (1999), John Simonds (1961), and John Conron (1974), our design process rests solidly on the fact that “People Come First.” That realization is an outgrowth of John Simonds’ epiphany that we design "...not places, spaces, or things [but] experiences (my italics). The places, spaces, and things take their form from the planned experience” (1961, 225). The three-tiered analogy sets us up for an experiential approach to design as a three-step process. You, as the designer-author write a first- or second-person narrative of someone or group experiencing your design. No, you do not have a design at this point. You do have a good idea why people will come to and experience your design. You have a good idea as to their expectations. As the characters in your written narrative, your eventual design’s participants take you through your design. Once written, even in a rough form, your narrative, with the help of your peers, is then turned into a storyboard. Finally, the storyboard, again with the help of your cohorts or friends, is turned into your proposed architectural design. Given Parts One and Two we arrive at Part Three’s logical question: “Are we, as the designers of other’s lifeworlds, ethically responsible to at least meet if not exceed the experiential expectations of those we serve?” Those attending my talk will be given a graphic example of the three-tiered analogy and a bibliography in support of what is discussed. Presenter Bob Scarfo, BLA, MLA, & PhD. is an Emeritus professor with Washington State University. He taught landscape architecture for 40 years in Canada and the US. He is a registered landscape architect in Washington and Massachusetts, lives in Spokane, WA and practices under Land and Life ® LLC. Bob’s new book Landscape Architecture through Storytelling is a dream come true.