Original Design

We spent some time with renowned writer, actor, force-of-live, performer John W. Love Jr. in our studio. He took us deep into the world of theater, including the dynamics between play write, producer, director, and actors.

Part of our discussion hovered around the origin of a specific piece of creative art; may it be a play or a beautiful well designed modern building. The parallel, of course became fascinating, as any modern house would have a designer, a builder and a developer and/or home owner.
In either case, play or architecture, all parties are involved bringing richness to the work at hand. They shape and are integral in the final full experience to be had.

With the play, however, we named the play write the originator of the piece. The play write conceives of a lived experience, to which all other participants bring their talent and skills. They bring it to life on a stage. There is an intent and an original thought, vision, questioning and creation that are all asked to be understood and developed to its full intended being.

Well, this morning we saw an article in the Charlotte Observer about the present state of architects in this city, emblematic we are sure, for the entire nation. The unfortunate aftertaste, reading the article, was that of a dis-connect of the architect from the art of their craft. The short pieces of interviews read as sad reactionary attitudes towards the direction given by the Developers or the Investors; the architect rendered voiceless as the mere technician, the executer of only monetary interests.

The play write, we are sure, often writes a play, without maybe a specific venue or production in mind. Even though the reverse happens, too. The architect, of course, is being called in when somebody with the finances says “go” first. But what then? Does that make the faceless number-driven developer the originator? Or is it still the artist, the play write, the designer? And we mean the art of a building, the true lived experience, the life it breathes.

There are creative developer-designer-builder teams or entities out there that might be all in one. And we enjoy working with creative minds and give great credit and much thanks to all of our friends who have brought challenging propositions to us. Once we get going, though, we tend to create a piece of art that wasn’t there before. We induce our own seedling into the process that grows into its own artistic experience, into a building that will give you goose bumps when you will finally enter it in person (good goose bumps, of course ;) ). In that sense we think of ourselves as the ones that create as artist the lived experience of a modern house. It is not that we don’t execute our clients’ wishes or needs and we also do not disregard economic parameters. But we take all the pieces, hundreds of them, and shape them into a true piece of art. We live through a creative process that dreams up, develops, and truly lives the experiences to be had in a specific built environment, a specific contemporary home. When we got to build it ourselves, we got to direct and act a little. And when we developed ourselves, we got to produce a little. But, we think of ourselves as play writes maybe first and foremost.

It occurred to us that offering our modern house plans online, makes us then truly the play write. The original design lies in our fingertips. We create these modern house plans as creative expressions as a result of our artistic needs.

The clarity in this realization meant for us that you are sure going to see designs coming up that are much more free in nature; designs born out of our expressive need maybe, more so than pragmatic needs. They will be buildable and they will be beautiful, and they might be for just the few of you, who want just that one special, crazy, cool modern house design that will make you live a life you always wanted and could never dream of.

In any case, though, it means for us that there is going to be much more fun yet to be had for us and for you.

To have this kind of art developed between you and us, please continue to enrich us with your valued comments, ideas and wishes at www.dialectdesign.com .