By Neil Turner, Director, Howarth Litchfield.
One of the most difficult questions in architecture is how to define quality and how do you measure this quality.
To many people, quality is what the building looks like, or the materials chosen for its construction. At university and beyond, architects will look to judge, debate and review the success of a building design in purely academic design terms.
But I think the answer is more complex than that. Quality of a design is of course about the designer’s skills and ability to create a three-dimensional form. It is also about how it functions and works for a client; history has examples of beautiful buildings that fail in the task of performance.
Can a building that is poorly detailed or leaks in wet weather really be defined as high quality? I can think of examples, even recent listed examples in the North East, which have leaked since the day they opened.
In running a busy practice, we work across many sectors involving different scales, challenges and a huge variety of client briefs. We discuss what a client wants, their budgets and sustainability requirements; but assessing the quality can be overlooked. A larger budget doesn’t necessarily guarantee greater quality.
When people choose cars, I think quality is higher on the agenda than in architecture. These days virtually every car can travel at 70mph and is reliable, warm and safe. However, customers choose a BMW over a Skoda because of the perception of quality when in fact both will perform equally well. In such cases, the image, impact and perception of quality is just as important as the real quality.
So, taking the car analogy back to architectural quality – the design is vital in delivering looks, style and appearance, but the quality is equally in the service, guidance and help.
Architecture is often about building a ‘one off prototype ‘, unlike a car. So, the quality that comes from your architect is about getting the building to function and flow, ensuring its design is appropriate for its setting and maximising its orientation in terms of views and sunlight. It doesn’t matter if it’s a house, a surgery or factory – there are always key qualities to achieve.
So, in architecture some commissions are about the visual appearance, some about the impact of the development, but a great many are about its functionality and performance in operation.
I have already touched upon the areas of service and help. This is where a good architect is vital in the success of a project. There is no substitute for experience and knowledge, working alongside skill and talent. Employing the right architect to help you is key – I have written this many times – but it’s so true.
Quality in architecture, like a car or a bespoke piece of furniture, is more than design – it’s the materials, the thought, its fitness for purpose and longevity.
Quality, in whatever definition it is used in architecture is complex and multi-faceted. So, a quality building can be an industrial shed as much as a civic building. Its value lies in how a client responds to it and uses the building as much as how others simply view that building.
Neil Turner, Director, Howarth Litchfield can be contacted on 0191 384 9470 or email n.turner@hlpuk.com
www.howarthlitchfield.com