Creative Limits and Story Chicago

This week, the STORY team has been scouting sites for the 2011 event.

And while every site has its can’t-beat-it features–open ceilings, giant lobbies, central location–every one has it’s limits too.

One’s not the exact size we were hoping for.
One is so expensive we could pay our deposit in black market organs.
One requires trucking in a whole lot of equipment (should this make us nervous given last year’s set truck was stolen during event setup?)

There’s a bummer in every one of them then…because I hate limits.

It just so happens though that I ran into the right perspective-giving article earlier this week. In it, the author–a former architecture student–recounted her first college assignment. For it, students were asked to draw up a garden pavilion…without any limits.

There were no land specifications to negotiate and no requirements on the size, shape or materials used in the building. It was an assignment made in Creative Heaven…right?

Not exactly.

What the students actually discovered (which was the prof’s intention) was that it is difficult to design and create when there are no requirements whatsoever.

Without any limitations, students tried to take on too much or made things that had no real practical use.

It was actually limits delivered by client requests, budget, the lay of the land or climate, that narrowed the architect’s field of vision, allowing them to focus on creating the elements needed for a specific success.

That, I am convinced, is what is going to happen with STORY too. Whatever building we choose, I can’t wait until you see what we do with our limitations. :)