14_Service
I’ve been watching the TV show “The Bear” lately and the more it dives into the world of the Culinary Arts, the more commonalities I find between Chefs and Architects.
Beyond the surface level things like neuroticism, the near toxic level of perfectionism, the need for precision… just to name a few; I feel like there are deeper inherent connections between the two artforms. Maybe this has something to do with the primordial origins of the two arts; our inherent need for food and need for shelter, that tie the two so tightly together. Nevertheless..
In my opinion both of the arts deal with materiality in a physically tangible way; translating ephemeral and abstract ideas into material form. There’s something romantically visceral about this process, it is, to a certain extent the epitome of human ingenuity. Both represent our ability to bend materials to our will, shaping our surroundings and sensorial experience to conform to our individual world view. It is through our very own hands we craft a Dish and craft an Architecture.
The way in which The Bear depicts how the kitchen staff trains, remind me of the making of an Architect.
The repeated practice of polishing a fork, setting a plate, wiping a wine glass, chopping vegetables, all seem like mundane, trivial tasks in comparison to the grilling, sautéing, frying of the actual dish. But as Chef Terry puts it, “[it’s about] Respect. Feels attached. Time spent doing it is time well spent”.
Architects are not much different. We repeatedly draw the same line, compose the same planes, and cut the same piece of basswood. To what extent?
In a lecture Clancey Moore gave in 2022, Andrew Clancey said “you draw some things over and over again not because you are bored, but because you are addressing something new every time”.
It is this type of deep care and obsession that keeps the fire burning for us.
Why do we even do what we do?
The waiter Garret put it better than anyone else.
Restaurants, he explains, care deeply about service. The ability to take care of people to the highest degree.
Hospitality.
This parallels what Adam Hopfner has been trying to drill into our heads all summer during the Building Project; the Architecture of Service.
If the discipline's foundational origins are indeed rooted in the need to provide shelter, Then there is an ethical imperative from us as Architects to provide for all beings the rights to a Dwelling.
To take care of people to the highest degree is the highest form of respect.
P.S.
After posting this I realized the human centric nature of the writing, I just wanted to add that I think the stewardship of our land and environment is just as important. The idea of Dwelling is inherently tied to a deep care and understanding of our immediate environment. So the idea of the highest degree of Service and Respect should extend to the tending of our earth.
- T
11/07/2023