What Good Means

WHAT GOOD MEANSUX London

Dan Klyn

CERTAINTY

Cass GilbertDetroit Public Library 1865

PIXEL-PERFECTWhat good means:

MEDIUMISMTactic:

BETTERTactic:

BAD

Denise Scott BrownLearning From Las Vegas1972

ALMOST ALLRIGHT

What good means:

DO IT DEADPANTactic:

MAKE THE COMPLEX CLEAR

What good means:

The classic pervasive seduction to designers is finding a solutioninstead of the truth

An architect should not take the program and simply give it to the client as though he were filling a doctor's prescription

DEEPHUMAN AGREEMENT

What good means:

GO BACKWARD FROM THE PROBLEM

Tactic:

Louis KahnKimbell Museum1972

Louis KahnSalk Institute1965

VERY GOOD ISLESS THAN

GOOD

Louis Kahn

Ask brick what it wants

the ordinary way

5

a single, solid, objective basis for the difference between good and bad

WHOLENESS • BEAUTY • LIFE

What good means:

PLAY ALONGTactic:

Something within space and matter can be awoken by the presence of the proper configurations

photo by Dan Klyn

Christopher AlexanderEishin School1986

MAKE THE “CLEAR”COMPLEX

Tactic:

Wes AndersonRushmore1998

Architect(s) UnknownFort Mason1912

PRINCIPLES

Make The Complex Clear

Go Backward From The Problem

VERY GOOD IS LESS THAN GOOD

Wholenessbeautylife

Make The “Clear” Complex

for making things be good

150X/DAY40HRS/MO

PRIMARY SOURCES

What would it be liketo live in a mental worldwhere one’s reasons for making something functionallyand one’s reasons for making something a certain shape, or in a certain ornamental way are actually coming from precisely the same place in you?

PROMISE

@undrstndnghttp://understandinggroup.com

@danklyn

http://iainstitute.org

Works CitedPortrait of John Calvin (1509-64) (oil on canvas), Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (c.1488-1576) / The Reformed Church of France, Paris, France / Bridgeman Images

Calvin, J. (1960). Institutes of the Christian Religion. Philadelphia: Westminster Press.

University of Detroit Public Library Library photo by Meghan Nicholas http://studi-osnap.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/detroit-public-library-engagement-session-wedding-photographer-studiOsnap-001-2.jpg

Photos of 1922 Paris 1st edition of Ulysses owned by the Detroit Public Library from a graduate school project by Dan Klyn in 1995 https://www.flickr.com/photos/76178901@N00/albums/72157635734229943/with/9860661344/ HMS Unicorn photo from Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29103506

Venturi, R., Scott, B. D., & Izenour, S. (1972). Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.

Venturi, R., & Museum of Modern Art (New York, N.Y.). (2011). Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture. New York: Museum of Modern Art.

Brand, S. (1999). The Clock Of The Long Now: Time And Responsibility. New York: Basic Books.

Photo of ordinary storefront by Dan Klyn in Austin, Texas USA

Interview with Richard Saul Wurman by Dirk Kn emeyer (2004) http://www.informationdesign.org/special_wurman/

Photo from the collection of Richard Saul Wurman.

Kahn, L. I., & Ngo, D. (1998). Louis I. Kahn: Conversations With Students. Houston, Texas: Architecture at Rice Publications. Photo from the collection of Richard Saul Wurman.

Wurman, R. S. (1989). Hats. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press for the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. Photo by Joel Baldwin for LOOK Magazine, 1971.

Photo by Dan Klyn at Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth TX

Kahn, L. I., & Wurman, R. S. (1986). What Will Be Has Always Been: The Words Of Louis I. Kahn. New York: Access Press.

Ed Burgoyne (2015). Advertising Agency Organization http://adsubculture.com/workflow/2014/12/9/examples-of-advertising-agency-organizational-charts

Christopher Alexander (2007).Empirical Findings. Environmental and Architectural Phenomenology, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp 11-19.

Alexander, C. (1983). The Timeless Way of Building. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

Alexander, C. (1983). Unpublished Speech Transcript. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Graduate School of Design.

El Saturn Research (1975, December 17). Hot Hits Fresh From The Sun [Advertisement]. Ann Arbor Sun.