[sidcool]

This is true. While dealing with building architects on many occasions during my internship, they would say silly things like, 'Can you not just avoid this girder/beam/pillar?'

My boss would coldly say 'Do you mind removing brake pedals from your car to make it prettier'?

[gregmac]

That's not silly. There correct response is "well, what's your budget?" The reply may be a number that's an order of magnitude too small, but then you have a negotiating point to work with, or at least an understandable (and not condescending) answer.

[dsfyu404ed]

Yup. Saying "do you want me to remove the brake pedals from your car?" is basically saying "I'm lazy and want to build cookie cutter things and move on to the next paying job"

[fjsolwmv]

No it's not. You can remove brake pedal from your car but then you'd need to construct an expensive custom deceleration system. It's an apt analogy.

[jdavis703]

I hope as you progress through your career you learn to be more respectful of diverse ideas. I'm a software engineer, I have to have discussions with designers and business people who also sometimes ask for things that just aren't reasonably doable given time and budget constraints. It's our job as professionals to explain this using a tone and words that educates others on what the technical constraints are.

[alsetmusic]

> I hope as you progress through your career you learn to be more respectful of diverse ideas. I'm a software engineer, I have to have discussions with designers and business people who also sometimes ask for things that just aren't reasonably doable given time and budget constraints. It's our job as professionals to explain this using a tone and words that educates others on what the technical constraints are.

Funny. I inferred the tone as having levity. One, or both, of us is projecting.

[thaumasiotes]

http://slatestarcodex.com/2017/10/02/different-worlds/

[pitdicker]

The trick is that architects are often also just commissioned for the project. You work together to make a nice-looking, structurally sound, and not all too expensive design.

I think it is a nice remark :-). Sometimes the design has to make a little concession, sometimes the construction. The best engineers are those that think along and try to find solutions, the best architects have some understanding of what is possible. And often 'everything is possible, it is just going to cost a lot'.

[gonzo41]

I know what your saying about tone. But a retort like that in the building trades is pretty gentle.

[paganel]

I'm generally interested in the history of architecture of this small part of the world where I currently live (a country in Eastern Europe) and as such I remember reading an architect's memoir about how in the 1940s his architect teacher used to be run off with stones or worse by engineers and construction workers when said older architect would approach a construction site with "new design ideas".

It's much less funny when one knows that one such "star architect" back from that time (George Matei Cantacuzino for those interested, here's his wiki page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Matei_Cantacuzino) was in charge of designing the Carlton building in downtown Bucharest. Only 4 years had passed since the building had been finalized when it collapsed as a result of the November 1940 earthquake. Cantacuzino himself had an apartment in that building but fortunately for him he was out the evening when the earthquake happened so he escaped. He risked prison-time after the whole ordeal, but then we got into war with the Soviets (not such a bright idea) and nothing came out of it. Here's the wiki page for that Carlton building: https://ro.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blocul_Carlton (it's in Romanian, but it has photos with the building itself and the earthquake's aftermath).

Point is I'm sure that the architects can very well handle a small joke as long as they're aware that people's lives depend on their work.

[walshemj]

Architects have a bit of a rep for being prima donnas :-)

[myegorov]

This comment is right on point. In building construction, the structural engineer is typically the architect's client. The challenge is always to seek the compromise that promotes your partner's agenda, without compromising the structural integrity.

[fjsolwmv]

What awesome TTS system are you using that can reconstruct tone from text transcripts?

[sidcool]

I left structural engineering long ago for Software engineering.

[cityofghosts]

you arent an engineer. engineers have to be licensed and are liable if their work fails.

[theoh]

Often they are very sung, like Louis Kahn's collaborator August Kommendant. And a superstar like Cecil Balmond specifically deals with problems exactly like the one you mention—where an architect wants a column-free span in an unconventional space.

Can't say I am thrilled by the book under review. I've seen it in bookshops and it's far from offering a critical account of engineering. More like someone quite innocent and enthusiastic who has drunk the kool-aid of the macho, Cartesian, ethically oblivious engineering tradition. Rowan Moore's faint praise is appropriate.