"We had a lot of fun with this."

Tonight Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro came to campus to speak. We were expecting Liz Diller, but Renfro turned out to be amazing by himself.

His talk was about "The New Black" (ie Green) and I was amazed at how many times he said "we had a lot of fun with this". Architecture does not feel "fun" often enough for me. His proojects reflect this lightness, passion, and overall genius.

Renfro wants to realign sustaianble design with DESIRE. Leed, he says, is "like tithing" - you do it, you feel good about it, and then you forget about it. The buildings don't end up being something you lust after. He thinks (and I agree) that until you bring that desire factor to green design, the American public won't latch onto it. His projects aim to amplify rather than forsake our desires for the sake of green.

A thorougly modern man, Renfro was introduced as being "Breathakingly modern", and he often spoke not just of design or buildings, but of experience and "spectacle". Damn, I like this man.

The major currents I saw in each project were that he thinks aboutspace, experience, etc rather than materials, conventions, or the "how to". A formal language is chosen and it sets the rules -- but ultimately the spacial program and experience comes first. Again, amplifying the experience through the formal language rather than sacrificing it to conform to the language.

I came away from his lecture with this thought: I want to live in the world that Renfro has imagined through his works.

On a very different and unrelated note, I am not sure if ANY of the lecturers this semester were women. THat's why I was really looking forward to Liz Diller.