Design Inspiration: Ethan Warren
What is the meaning of design? It may be easy to google the definition of design but you’re not getting the whole truth of the definition. Design is defined as “to create, fashion, execute or construct according to plan”. While this is true, the question that must be asked is what has to be done before you execute or create according to the plan? Short answer: a lot of research and thought.
So, what inspires me as a designer? Lots of things can inspire me to create things, but there are a few things that really stand out and drive the things I design.
Vistas
When I first got into architecture school I thought a good design was all about how the building looked. The more I studied and the more trips I took to see great architecture, I realized it’s not as much about what the design looks like, as much as how it’s being viewed. Within this digital age, everyone can be a professional photographer just by using their phone. We all try to get that perfect picture every time we reach for our camera. But, of course, the architecture needs to look great; if not then the vistas will have been studied for nothing.
What a building looks like is something that will never be overlooked as a designer, but how the building is looked at should never be either.
Iconic view of the Fallingwater home by Frank Lloyd Wright.
This kind of vista is a rare one, but who wouldn’t love to have this view every time they came home?
Materiality
I enjoy learning about new materials, using new materials in my designs, and drawing the details on how different materials interact with each other. It’s also exciting to learn new ways that materials can be used. Some materials, like concrete, have endless ways that it can be used.
In Tadao Ando’s Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, TX there was a certain process used during construction that allowed the concrete to look and feel like it does. The concrete has a glass-like smoothness to it and careful steps during construction were taken to achieve this look.
Right across the street from the Modern Art Museum is the Kimbell Art Museum, which also has a unique way of using concrete. It is primarily a concrete structure with a series of barrel vaults providing the roof and ceiling of the building.
Light
Light is not a unique quality for my design inspiration because it is a common inspiration for most designers, and it should be. Light can be a powerful tool within architecture. It can highlight the architecture, bring life to a space or blur the boundary of inside and outside.
“We have no longer an outside and an inside as two separate things. Now the outside may come inside and the inside may and does go outside. They are of each other. Form and function thus become one in design and execution if the nature of materials and method and purpose are all in unison.” Frank Lloyd Wright
The Federal Building in Seattle does exactly what Wright’s quote says. It brings the outside in, and it blurs the line between interior and exterior.
Throughout my years in school there was one architect that I looked to for inspiration, Frank Lloyd Wright. When I look at his architecture I see meaningful design, simple and beautiful works of art. He thought about every space that he created and how the user interacted within that space. Absolutely nothing was pushed to the side to be dealt with on a later day.