What Makes “Great Design”?
If you’re ever wondering what a group of Condo obsessed agents do when they get together on a Friday evening (and I’m sure it’s crossed your minds once or twice), you’re about to find out. We were recently out for dinner with some of Toronto’s leading condo agents and a top developer and the discussion turned to the subjective topic of “great design”.
The question posed by the developer was simple: “what makes great design?” One of the answers that got the group going was that great design for a building has a “defining feature” and the litmus test would be “if you can draw it on a napkin and it’s recognizable, then it’s great design.”
It turns out, we weren’t very good at drawing on napkins but we were awesome at drawing on an iPad. We quickly purchased a drawing app called “Pro Create” and $4.99 later we all began drawing “napkin doodles” of buildings to emphasize what we thought were great designs.
What became quickly obvious is that architects have used a number of different methods in order to create a “defining feature” ranging from interesting shapes to unique balcony layouts to public art to different colours and it was a fascinating discussion – so much so that I wanted to share it on the blog.
Below are a collection of some of the designs we came up with (many of these were drawn from memory, so they aren’t 100% accurate). Enjoy!
One Bloor: One Bloor’s interesting use of balconies helps turn a glass box into a recognizable tower
City Hall: City Hall’s silhouette is so recognizable that it has become the official logo for the City of Toronto
Absolute Towers: What is a post about “Great Design” without the Monroe Tower?
L Tower: Unique Shape is another method of creating a “defining feature” – done expertly here by L Tower
Residences of Ritz Carlton: Ritz Carlton is a building that always catches our eye on the drive into Toronto because of it’s unique shape
First Canadian Place: The BMO Tower (First Canadian Place) is iconic partly because of it’s size, but it’s instantly recognizable by it’s white and black glass and messy antennae
Trump Tower: Love it or hate it, Trump has a number of “identifiable features” – it’s unique glass colour, illuminating spire and “onion dome”
M5V: How a red box can help a building stand out from the crowd
Parade: A floating bridge connecting two buildings isn’t something you see every day….
Exhibit: Exhibit Residences was lauded as one of the best designed buildings to launch in 2011. Four cubes offset against each other.
X Condos: Sometimes the public art outside a building can help define a building. Everyone in the group recognized the doodle to the left almost immediately.
INDX Condos: INDX used a series of rectangles up the building as a defining feature
What do you guys think? What makes “great design”?
