Personal Narratives as a Key to Design

[Peter Pallotta]

Just something I'm rolling around in my head, i.e. the notion that the way an architect understands himself (his personal narrative) is a key to/window into/harbinger of his designs.

I've posted about external keys/windows before (e.g. labelling those architects who seem to me to be Logicians, Romantics, and Hybrids).  But this might be better way, or not

So, for example: architects might understand themselves primarily as Historians, or as Craftsmen, or Founders, or as Students, or as Popularizers of the Game, or as Doctors, or as Radicals/Revolutionaries etc.

Now, I'm just guessing of course (since by definition these are internal/subjective narratives, not external ones), but for example:

Max Behr's family wealth might've been a key to an understanding of himself as a bit of a born-Radical (thinker) and Revolutionary (designer) -- and thus to the early iterations of Lakeside

MacKenzie's experience during the war (re camouflage and its applicability to design, as he experienced it in GB&I) and Spirit of St Andrews suggest the Historian -- and thus to Augusta et al   

CBM's essentially dual citizenship and his cross-Atlantic journeys would have helped bolster his personal narrative as a Founder -- and thus to NGLA

Ross' working class and learn-it-from-the-ground-up life and design education might have fostered in him the sense of a humble Craftsman -- and thus the hundreds of courses to his name, often (I'd imagine) with only the plans/routing provided

Palmer's great popularity as a golfer and his adoring Army, along with his own obvious love/enjoyment of the game, perhaps engenders the self-understanding of a Popularizer -- and thus to the prolific business that is Palmer Design

Raynor's educational background (engineering/surveying) and his close association with and study of CBM might well have caused him to think of himself as a Student -- and thus to the many wonderful MacRaynors

There are many more architects and possible personal narratives. As I say, just knocking the idea around in my head to see if it has any value

Peter

[Paul Gray]

I'll add that the reasoning mind of a solicitor is expressed in Harry Colt's work. His flair for painting a narrative is always done within a logical framework.

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks, Paul - that's the spirit!

Another one: the golf course "Doctor" - it would not be surprising if RTJ, whose life almost literally spanned the entire 20th century, and who started work before WW2 with Stanley Thompson and then saw his career flourish after the war, thought of himself as having one foot in both camps, i.e. the classic and the modern, and thus saw himself as ideally suited to renovate/improve old courses for the new times.

Peter

[Peter Pallotta]

Undaunted that a thread on a red graphics bar has 3 times as many views and 5 times the replies, I carry on! 

I wonder if Bill Coore's university degree in philosophy is part of his personal narrative, and if this has influenced in part his "thinking man's" golf courses -- he is the design Philosopher, bolstered by his partner Ben Crenshaw's self understanding as a golf Historian.

 

[Mike_Young]

Peter,
I think I see where you are going or coming from with this.  In my mind architects are separated by only two letters.  C and D.  An architect is either a Craftsman "C" or a draftsman "D".    For a craftsman type of designer he is usually much more involved in the day to day happenings of his project and is more hands-on.  For a draftsman type he is usually more concerned with creating a specific set of drawings and specifications and letting a contractor create the day to day project with him checking the work less often.  If an architect tells me he has designed 20 courses and I know he has been out there on the 20 projects then I know he will have a totally different look and caring than an architect who tells me he has designed 20 courses but has mainly made site visits to check the contractor and make slight adjustments.  For myself an 18 hole design is a consuming project for others it is a once or twice a month site visit.   I'm not judging either but I feel those two methods define most.

[Dan Kelly]

Undaunted that a thread on a red graphics bar has 3 times as many views and 5 times the replies, I carry on! 

Read this -- and you will feel either much better (about being thoughtful but unpopular) or much worse (about what sort of CRAP is popular, nowadays): http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/web-poets-society-new-breed-succeeds-in-taking-verse-viral/


As usual, I feel much worse.

[Peter Pallotta]

Mike - thanks. I have to take your post seriously, since your perspective on architects' personal narratives will be of meaning/relevance. Nonetheless, I think I will assign you a label as well, architect-wise, i.e. you are the "Independent"!

Dan - I will look at that link, thanks, but feel I have to fortify myself first. The title of the piece, and your reaction to it, does not bode well for the possibility of it making me feel better today and not worse!

[Jeff_Brauer]

Peter,

I guess we all do develop a personal narrative, although I tend to think some of it is marketing and some is so deep we don't realize exactly how it affects our designs.  Do we really "Know thyself?"

The typical pro narrative is "I've played the best courses in the world, many with pro am partners so I know how to design for all levels.) I am sure they mean it, I doubt its entirely true, based on experience.

Of course, Doak's "I have studied the best courses of the UK and emulate them" seems to be true and worked pretty well for marketing, too.

My personal narrative (you can find it) First round of golf at a great course (Medinah on a Monday) relegated to public courses after that, and I knew the difference, and have tried to elevate public courses since then) ehh, Pretty true, but not so effective as marketing.

To be honest, I think our designs are more affected by our personality types, from great artist (Mike Strantz) to engineering types (too many examples to list)  Most architects are somewhere in between on the spectrum and one thing (for me) that makes the job so satisfying is the blend of creative skills and technical skills keeping the job different from day to day.  (I was personality tested once......it took a while to find one, but then, I did come out with a score indicating a design oriented personality. 

[paul cowley]

I like all my courses to tell a story...and I approach the design of each hole accordingly. I constantly ask myself what's the story-line? What am I trying to say here? I suppose the use of story vs strategy could be synonymous...but I prefer story. Like a good book of short stories.


That's part of the reason I like to create... when I can...a historical setting for the course as part of the story...old forts and ruins, old walls and waterworks...rice field dams and canals.


I like to add another dimension other than the purely physical as part of the design. I have lost track of the compliments I've received for saving such and such historical item and being able to incorporate it into the design...as if wasn't I skillful to be able to blend the old and the new. 

[Jeff_Brauer]

Paul,

I have had some of those backhanded compliments from clients. On two different projects, during a site walk to review centerline staking, clients have sounded surprised - "This hole fits the topo real well, too!"  It sounds like they thought I got lucky 18 straight times........

[Steve Lang]

   Is this equivalent to an architect playing chess and narrating a story of the moves in their design?

[paul cowley]

Absolutely Steve...I have always maintained that golf is 3D chess on a changing board, and this was long before 3D virtual computer games came along.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Steve,

Sort of like kids "sports announcing" their own activities?  Like a boxing match or hockey fight-

Cowley comes into the drafting room......pulls out a pencil.....he SHARPENS IT!  puts down the paper....tapes it......now he looks like he's thinking HARD!......

Now he's drawing......it looks like a straight hole on the opener.....followed by a dogleg right........and another right!

[Frank Giordano]

Two friends with whom I worked a bit in Houston, Robert von Hagge and Joe Finger, represented, respectively,  the gca as "artist" and as "engineer."  With his background in graphic design, performing in movies as a stunt man, and his colorful personal appearance -- the stylish hairdo, the occasional cape, and the ubiquitous open shirt and ascot --  von Hagge  naturally described his courses in terms of the artistic elements of shape, movement, variety, colors, and rhythms, even when speaking of the various grasses blown by the winds and the patterns of sunlight and shadows on his hole designs.  A graduate engineer from Rice Institute, Finger was very concerned with, and spoke most often about, issues of water movement (drainage) throughout the course, proper bolstering of greensides adjacent to water hazards, bunkers construction, and especially greens and the relevance of USGA recommendations about soil compositions.

Still, these personal narratives, however relevant in the minds of critics and the designers themselves, rarely led to courses that were strictly artistic but devoid of engineering  competence, or merely mechanical forms without beauty.  The best creative work, in whatever area of art, is characterized by appealing  as well as workable, functional forms.

[Jason Topp]

I think there is something to the idea and, in the modern age, you can extend the concept to the manner in which a player/architect plays the game.  As has often been discussed - Crenshaw - wide fairways, tough greens; Nicklaus - high iron shots, emphasis on long game; Doak - high single digit handicap, emphasis on short game.

The same goes for how one experiences a golf course.  I hit a hook most of the time and have always enjoyed Minnesota Valley.  Someone pointed out to me that the course consists of dogleg lefts.

[Jeff_Brauer]

Frank,

Agreed most designs come out fairly balanced, at least among good architects.  But a Von Hagge design always leaned to the artistic, with some maintenance problems, while a Finger design could be artistic, but never at the expense of the fundamentals.

That illustrates why the best design partnerships featured the two different personalities.  Or, why employees are hand selected to fill in required gaps.  That said, the tendency is actually to hire people like yourself, and you need to fight that urge when building a staff of all the same type of people.

As in another thread, yes, a course should be judged at least partly by its function, and also in how it functions.