Architectural (and design) criticism is static. The media devoted to these interests rely heavily on observable form and visual shape, many times basing reviews just on images and interviews with designers. Critics are ignoring the relationship between people and design that develops after the building is occupied and used. The media is not holding buildings responsible for the good and bad effects they have on the world. The solution is simple: get inside the users’ heads.

While inspired both by epic architectural failures, such as the Pruitt-Igoe Housing Projects in St. Louis, and curiosity into how modern architecture can positively affect life, Jim has extracted the user experience of two heavily-used, recently constructed buildings that exist somewhere between the modest, everyday and the extraordinary. Both buildings (the MIT Media Lab and Williams College North and South Buildings) contain academic programs and are located within an afternoon train or bus ride of New York. The users of these spaces reacted differently to the same architectural devices, such as transparency, space, materials, and light. Some even rebelled against their architecture, redesigning the spaces that become deeply ingrained in their lives. Sometimes, designed objects and architecture morph with use—criticism should follow suit.

Jim’s thesis harnesses user experience to critique architecture after it has been lived in. Through the eyes of the occupants, we can feel, touch and experience designed phenomena, and then put these experiences in context. This approach may be a tough sell to a design press focused on the flashy and new, but “Lived-In” intends to include the more truthful, and more fun, human stories of architecture.
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The School of Visual Arts MFA Design Criticism Department presented “Crossing the Line: The 2010 D-Crit Conference" organized by graduating D-Crit students at the SVA Theatre in New York City on Friday, April 30 2010.