A Young Architect Saves The Day

Setting:

A meeting in a firm’s conference room to talk about getting a new project. 

The Players:

Concerned Senior principal, Overloaded Project Manager, Project Designer, Marketing Leader, and Junior Staffer

The Plot:

The senior principal has called the meeting to nail a winning strategy for a proposal to design senior housing. It’s from a hard-headed developer known for doing things the way she sees it, which sometimes means building very innovative designs. How will the firm create the proposal that breaks out of the heap and shows how this team of architects will also be innovative and add value for her company? 

The principal is getting frustrated after three hours without a breakthrough idea. Thinking there’s an opportunity to contribute, a new staff member, while aware that everybody else is much her senior, takes a deep breath and speaks up.

Junior Staffer (speaking up nervously):

You know, I was just at my grandparents’ place. My grandmother was talking about an article she just finished about driving at night. 

Senior Principal (impatiently):

That’s very nice, but what’s that got to do with this developer?

Junior Staffer:

Well, it was about the kind of vision problems seniors have that make it more dangerous for them to drive after dark. I think we could design around their vision losses and show how we really understand what seniors need to be safe and comfortable where they live, not just challenges when they’re driving.

Senior Principal (still impatiently):

You’re getting me curious. Go on a bit.

Junior Staffer:

Evidently, the eyes of most seniors lose a lot of their black/white capabilities, and that makes them feel uncomfortable and uncertain about getting around generally. There could be a lot of design responses to help them out. They need higher contrast surroundings to get the sensory information they need, like higher light levels without any glare. I’m familiar with the research. I can get the citations and translate the science to intrigue the developer.

Senior Principal (intgrigued):

How is it you know the research? 

Junior Staffer:

I’ve been interested in how perception works in architecture for a long time, so, between graduation from architecture school and coming here, I did two years of graduate study on the subject in Europe. We took a very deep dive into how the senses work and how the brain transforms that information into understanding the environment. There’s also a lot more that explains some of the reasons people do or don’t like certain buildings.

The teachers were experienced architects who were great at translating scientific research into useful approaches. It’s how they conduct their own practices. They were also very careful about using evidence-based design, because it’s easy to misapply it. They’ve started a degree program for something called Human Factors Design Consultants to help firms like ours with opportunities like senior housing.

Senior Principal:

You all know I’m not easily impressed, but this does, and might just impress this developer. Beyond that, it could help us get other work, particularly if other firms aren’t taking this new tack. If we do get the job, I think it would also be exciting for our team to have a solid foundation for growing design ideas. When we sit down to design, I’ll want to be part of that discussion.

Project Manager:

You know, if this approach works, I think it could save us a lot of design hours. 

Marketing Leader:

I know people on the developer’s staff. I think this would work with the way they think and how they monetize ideas. Let’s do it.

Senior Principal:

OK. I want everybody back here in two hours with a new proposal outline. This thing’s due in two days.

The Others:

Gulp.

Milton