I wrote a play some years ago, exploring the relationships and perspectives of three very different people, caught in wartime Afghanistan. At an early stage, my friend Michael Sanie expressed interest in writing an opera based on the play, and after several years of delays and struggles, here it is.

The opera is in three acts, each providing a platform for one of the characters. There is also a fourth character: an Afghan boy. It seems to me that we rarely hear the perspective of the people over whose lands we fight.

You can get your copy here.

It’s not crazy, even if it is unfair.

I believe that people’s willingness to pay for a service has to do with their sense of criticality: the distance from a crisis. A simple analogy: most yachtsmen are resistant to the cost of a proper life-raft, when they see one in the chandler. No-one intends to have their boat sink, and it seems hard to justify the raft. But the same sailor, when dismasted and holed in the open sea, will happily pay almost any amount for helicopters and other rescue options. Similarly, if you need surgery, your first thought is not the cost, but the quality and experience of the surgeon. If you are up against the IRS, you want an experienced tax advisor, not just a cheap one.

So the challenge with architecture, is that most clients don’t see it as mission-critical. For that reason they are very cost-conscious on the building and design budgets. It’s difficult to be well paid for something that is seen as non-urgent, unless you can provide some other benefit. The “star” architects provide a brand benefit that clients see as additional value. Bjarke Ingels, Daniel Libeskind, Norman Foster, and Moshe Safdie (to name a few) offer that additional value. If you hire them, the building is likely to be newsworthy, to be published, to be recognized, and over the long haul to add value to your organization.

Architects therefore need to engage much more directly in the creation of long-term brand and reputation value for their clients, rather than simply doing a good (even great) job of satisfying the functional requirements.  We have to  be in the business of selling excitement, quality, differentiation, and creating buildings that put our clients on the map, literally and figuratively.

This is especially difficult with developer-led projects, which account for a lot of commercial and residential projects. But even there we can add more value by creating a differentiated experience that provides better rents and higher occupancy rates. Bjarke Ingels is the best current example of this.

He insightfully shows the many virtues of religious practice, and suggests that rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, we should be learning from the best practices of religion: ritual, symbolism, organization, mutual support and more.

• focus
• nurture
• nourish
• meet
• research
• grow.

It’s a good list, but I think it misses something really important. In my experience there are two very different kinds of focus work.

The first is the really difficult creative work – looking at a problem carefully, trying to understand, to innovate, to discover. This is intense, playful, and can be done alone or with others. It’s often the most rewarding part of work.

The second is what I would call “production” – generating drawings, writing papers, documenting accounts, writing marketing plans and the like. This is a very different kind of focus, and it requires a different kind of environment, and different tools.

Creative, problem-solving focus work is for me best done in an environment away from the normal distractions of life: in a cafe, walking, sitting in a quiet corner with a notebook (paper or plastic) in which to collect my thoughts. On the other hand, production work is best for me in the office or in my home office, with a good computer, big screen, lots of desk space, and all the tools of my trade.

So if you’re designing the office of the future, how about considering the nuances of how intense, focused work is done?

In this video he talks about how he has used architecture and master planning to create environments that are a pleasure to be a part of, while offering new perspectives on traditional typologies.

The Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) has a stream of prestigious comissions, and a portfolio of significant projects in many parts of the world. Glen in contrast has a lot of breakthrough ideas, but much less built work.

There’s no answer to the question of which is the right approach. At the end of the day, some choose to produce ideas, others choose to produce product. Ideas can be very influential (think Adolf Loos), and so can product (Frank Lloyd Wright). It’s probably more comfortable to make a living out of product than ideas, and Glen can attest to that.

Music seems to create that opportunity and experience, perhaps more than other art forms.

Having made a career shift back to architecture, I’m looking for the same thing. Architecture is not really a performance art (although we do perform in making client and internal presentations). How do we find the same kind of emotional connection to the work? Through the collaborative process? Through drawing?

I wish I knew.

Architecture is certainly very engaging, and the problems are fascinating. Perhaps this is why Zaha Hadid does oil paintings, and Steven Holl and Santiago Calatrava use watercolors – as a way of connecting body to image?

He insightfully shows the many virtues of religious practice, and suggests that rather than throwing out the baby with the bathwater, we should be learning from the best practices of religion: ritual, symbolism, organization, mutual support and more.

While we were living in England, my younger son and I were talking about writing. I think he was about seven at the time. Together we developed the idea for a story about a boy and his toy dragon. Starting with a mind-map, and moving on to a full-blown outline, we talked the story through. It took a long time to get it all written, but both our boys took an interest in the story and offered suggestions.

The book was completed a while ago, but as anyone who has tried to get a children’s book published knows, it’s tough out there.

Finally, five or so years later, the book is published! You can get a copy by clicking here, or on the cover image.

It’s published at lulu.com, which offers print-on-demand services.

You can also get an electronic copy here.

The next step is to get the book into Barnes and Noble and the Amazon bookstore: hopefully you’ll soon be able to order it from there as well.

If you haven’t read it yet, Ollie’s New Beginning is the story of a young boy and his dragon. It explores the challenges of separation and independence in a story that makes great bedtime reading for a young child.

Now if you buy a copy, I can share the royalties with my son and writing consultant!

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