The Very, Very Right and The Very, Very Wrong.

Ever have one of those weeks where you are simultaneously reminded of what is good design and what is not?

I just had one of those weeks. It started when a friend turned me on to this company, Heath ceramics.   As an industrial design pal of mine once told me, “a cup is an object meant to stop your tea from falling all over the floor.” I marveled at Heath’s sense of purposefulness and form, and felt it was something of an ultimate expression of the art of things done well. Things crafted to simply satisfy need.

Yes, it's more expensive than your average tableware, but that’s because it's hand-made in small batches by people who actually care about what they are doing. And yet despite the price, as I placed a mug on my birthday wish list, I couldn’t help thinking that this would be a satisfying way to stop my tea from falling all over the floor each and every time I have a cup of char.

The same week I found Heath, I went to Seattle and while I was there, I went to their fancy public library. Since it opened, I have formed my own thoughts and opinions of the place, as one does. For example, I’ve always hated the building itself. It looks exactly like the Lego buildings my son makes on weekend mornings-- nd while its kind of cute when a 4-year-old does this, it’s a little less cute when a city spends gazillions of dollars to plonk this lumpen slab in the midst of its downtown.

But more than that, when I was actually in the place, I was struck by the fact that it seemed a truly miserable place to read a book. And isn’t that at least part of the point? I decided to research this further and came across this jaw-dropping speech by the architect.

It’s a jaw-dropping speech to me, for the most part, because it shows how we can use this thing called design process to talk ourselves into almost anything. And while I agreed with almost every premise of his lecture--about trying to reinvent the way we think about these spaces--the end result, to my mind, falls spectacularly at the first fence. For all of its rationale, nifty programmatic diagrams and well…waffle…I didn’t want to hang out in this building, much less curl up and expand my mind with a good read. In fact I couldn’t wait to leave.

Perhaps I’m just not getting the point. Perhaps Seattle’s library is the future and Heath is the past. But I kept thinking to myself something was horribly out of whack here.

To quote Jeremy Northam in the movie "The Winslow Boy": “Let right be done.” I wonder if we are doing right when the process we are following results in design that doesn’t satisfy the most basic of needs.

If you happen to love the Seattle Public Library I’d love to hear what I was missing. Until then, I’m off to have a cuppa.

--Christian Davies, Guest Blogger

Comments

[Christian Davies]

Katrina!

Thanks so much for posting your first hand experience. I think it gets at the very essence of the question. What do we end up with when form follows function gets applied to a project where the function is open to debate.

To my mind the cliche of the "shushing" librarian spoke to the need in such spaces for calm and focus. But you your point in today's world maybe that is trumped by the desire for first hand social connection and community spirit.

I am as excited as you to hear of 9 year olds getting jazzed about a space filled with books. I hope they also get some time alone with the books in question to enjoy them without distraction.

It brings the debate full circle to retail as well. In an age where you can buy anything your heart might desire online do stores serve another purpose, as gathering places more than shopping places - in the Ray Oldenburg "Third Place" sense of things.

Perhaps they have always served this purpose and the shopping was just the impetus to get us there...maybe today its the other way around? We go there for the social impact and we buy things as a result.

Thanks again!

Christian

[Don Depke]

Thanks for the feedback, Christian. Actually, i was expecting to see something radically different at Heath. when u think about it, a mug is supposed to do more than just keep the tea from puddling on the floor. i heard a rumor that an engineer designed a mug that gives the cup stability (so it won't let the tea get all over the floor), and retains the heat better to keep your brewed beverage hotter longer. it is the mug that has the funky super wide base with the super narrow top. i am sure u have seen these. I was expecting Heath to the company that designed this mug. this type of mug isn't interesting to look at but it sure shows thought behind it. so i would give it an A for functionality but a D for looks...that is of course, unless you subscribe to the philosophy of form follows function theory of beauty. then u would have to give it an Uggs Boot A.

[Christian Davies]

Hey Don,

Thanks so much for the tip, I've been to Shanghai a few times this past year and definitely share your sentiment. Shanghai's skyline is this breathtaking mishmash of styles and cultural references - simultaneously inspiring and confusing - but definitely worth a look.

Heath might be a bit austere for some tastes, but it was actually the cup page which got to me the most. The one with the handle at the bottom of the cup as opposed to the middle, presumably to lower the center of gravity and thence the stability. Something they've been producing for over 50 years...

And the Target comment definitely raised a smile. When I first floated the idea of getting my first Heath piece I got the same response at home. Accompanied by the question "and why exactly do we need another cup?"

Thanks for sharing your experiences!

Christian

[Katrina]

I recently made my first visit to Seattle and one of the things on the top of my list to see was the public library. That's right, a tourist, going out of her way to see the building. The thing that most surprised me about the space was how busy it was - loads of people were excited about the space and happy to be there. In contrast, I can say that the library in my town is not a hot destination. Getting on the same elevator with a couple of young school-boys, I chuckled to myself under my breath when one turns to the other and says, "I love this place". How many nine-year-old boys do you know excited to be in the library? I think the library is about the community and I could certainly see many parts of it -young and old-coming together there, first hand. I can't speak to the process, but from an outsider, it seems that the community got what it wanted from the design.

[Don Depke]

i think i get your point. when something is simply done and it achieves a level of performance that is superb, engineers and mathematicians call it 'elegant'. however, i glanced at the Heath website and i fail to see the uniqueness in the design of the tea cups. maybe i saw the wrong page (i looked at 'cups') or maybe i am just not perceptive enough but they didn't' seem all that different than what i could buy in Target.
on the other hand, the Seattle library is definitely different. it looks like an inorganic Birds Nest Stadium in Beijing. i am not sure if i it like either. but i have no taste, or at least if i do have taste, it is for the elegance of the design of something like the Birds Nest. that being said, if u want to see architecture like no other, i suggest a trip to the far east. you may not like what they do, but i can tell you, we have no buildings like them in the US. they are definitely different. sometimes they hit and sometimes they miss, but it is entertaining as heck to drive thru one of their cities.