Documentary Gives Voice to Architects

Architects Anton Harfmann and David Saile of the University of Cincinnati are chronicling everyday life within their profession. 

Their first video documentary titled, "Voices of Practice," features 12 working architects - from those recently out of school to those near retirement - who share professional triumphs, anxieties, conflicts, concerns and challenges.  It is now being used as a teaching and professional tool in university classrooms and meetings of American Institute of Architects' chapters from Buffalo, N.Y., to Los Angeles.

Said Saile, professor of architecture and assistant director of the Center for the Study of Practice (of architecture) at UC, "The students viewing the video are excited to see more-seasoned professionals worried about the same issues that they worry about.  The struggles of the architects touch the students where they live.  This speaks as to why architects chose and remain in the field personally and emotionally.  And we focus on 'ordinary' architects because we know that wisdom is not a product of fame."

The 42-minute video is accompanied by a Web site, located at http://said.uc.edu/vop/, that includes thumbnail histories of 40 working architects.  Saile and Harfmann hope that this Web archive will grow as a means of professional communication and education for students.

Cincinnati architect Neena Jud, owner of Harmony Architecture, was one of the 12 architects featured in the project.  Of it, she recalled, "This project came up at a time very fortuitous for me because it was a time when it was wise that I should look at where things were going in my practice.  It mainly reassured me that yes, I had made decisions that I was happy with.  Just as you do a post-occupancy evaluation on a building after it is built and occupied, "Voices of Practice" was the post-occupancy evaluation on what I've learned and how I've grown in my practice by making the decisions I had."

"Voices of Practice" was the first video that Saile and Harfmann ever created, but it won't be the last.  They are now setting out to chronicle the design and construction of Cincinnati's soon-to-open Contemporary Arts Center, designed by Zaha Hadid.  They will view the making of the structure through the eyes of the architects working at Zaha Hadid Architecture in London and at KZF Incorporated, as well as through the eyes of construction workers, the CAC staff, and engineers involved in the project.

The new project will build on "Voices of Practice," which served to give the UC architects  a fundamental lesson in documentary production.  Recalled Harfmann, associate professor of architecture and director of the CSPA at UC, "On our way to do interviews for the first video, we watched good documentaries while in the van.  We also learned to get permission for everything in terms of using someone's face, a building façade, photos, slides, stock footage and more.  We went through the process of organizing and strategizing, re-editing, transcribing dialogue and narrating.  It was like putting together a giant jigsaw.  We both saw the film hundreds of times.  I was surprised by how much the making of a documentary and the making of a building are so similar.  If God is in the details, then God is in this video as much as buildings."

"And it was definitely fun enough to do again.  So we're just underway in repeating the process by documenting the Zaha Hadid building here," said Saile.

In addition to Saile and Harfmann, other faculty and students from UC's College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning contributed to the making of "Voices of Practice."  They include electronic artist Charles Woodman, assistant professor of art, who consulted on the project.  Also involved was architecture graduate students Pete Akins, who served as principal cameraman and College-Conservatory of Music student Josh Wentz, who composed the video's music.  Other architecture students contributing to the project were Lejla Vujicic, Scott Miller, Elizabeth Ebersold, Randy Plemel and Tom Dangerfield. 

Copies of "Voices of Practice" are available for $20 and requests can be made by e-mailing Harfmann at anton.harfmann@uc.edu.