Literally the best bus in the history of ever
I'd love to work in a studio like that, and I really admire the work as a whole. But it did strike me that some of it was just too clever for its own good. It is really necessary to see if a building can be hairy?
Yes, buildings can be hairy. This is a Sitooterie, where you go an sit oot if you happen to be Scottish and not feel like being indoors, but not quite outdoors either.
I want my work to justify its own existence in the world, and not just be clever. There are so many things in the world, so much needless stuff, one of my concerns as a designer is to not add to the mountains of clever effluvia.
Does the world really need another concept boat? I really do not know.
A lot of people are designing intangibles now, systems and apps and things, and I don't know if that's quite my wheelhouse. I'm bad at thinking abstractly, good at thinking 3-dimensionally, and just vain enough to think I might have a few good ideas buried under all the clever and dash.
Also, seeing all the Heatherwick stuff made me miss London a whole lot. I wish there was a New York equivalent studio, but we seem to specialize a bit more here.
Greenwich, off a non-concept boat. Sigh....
My thesis is gonna be about getting around cities, I think, though it will have to narrow down dramatically. I've always been happiest rolling out of wherever I happen to be, and there are plenty of obstructions and annoyances to be smoothed down and made better. I wonder, though, if an unobstructed city is desirable. We thrive on mild adversity I think, and goodness knows I gather substantial energy from a good loud shouting match with the odd delivery guy in the bike lane. Japan had almost no visible obstructions between here and there, yet people seemed more stressed than New Yorkers. I could be underestimating New Yorkers though; even with, say, a functional transit system we will always find a reason to blow off steam in all directions.
Thinking up something that is clever, useful, universal, clever, sustainable, attractive, clever, and philosophically sound is hard. I should quit fretting and start doing. I think it's important not to lose a sense of delight and whimsey and beauty in design, and if it winds up being clever that's better than being dull.
Heatherwick's rolly chair-- there is room for the goofy.
Finally, here is a great poem by W H Auden that starts out being clever and ends by giving me cold shivers. I'd forgotten about Auden until the other day, I used to be really into him.
Who's Who
A shilling life will give you all the facts:
How Father beat him, how he ran away,
What were the struggles of his youth, what acts
Made him the greatest figure of his day.
Of how he fought, fished, hunted, worked all night,
Though giddy, climbed new mountains; named a sea;
Some of the last researchers even write
Love made him weep his pints, like you and me.
With all his honors on, he sighed for one
Who, say astonished critics, lived at home;
Did little jobs about the house with skill
And nothing else; could whistle; would sit still
Or potter round the garden; answered some
Of his long marvelous letters but kept none.
Right, now back to work.
--Isis
