i'll be first. staleness huh? where does staleness come from? is it lack of ideas and ambition,or derived from the ignorance of clients and limited budgets? i think much of it comes from from for lack of a better word cowardice. may designers,(and owners for that matter) at least here in the states, are afraid of what people will say or think about them and their buildings if they step outside the lines of what is currently being done. there is a lot of good work out there but it is few and far between because people are afraid to fail. it takes guts to hold true to ideals and put your rep on the line for something deamed "idealistic" or on the edge of what is common practice. I think that staleness stems from so many aspects of current building practice that it is hard to state one single source and say that is why architecture is in a rut. (not sure if that is the discussion you were hoping for). anyone else?
 

i can see your point. i looked at the question from a different perspective. in school there are definitley unmotivated and dull people. the worst thing is they get jobs and produce even duller crap when they get out of school and have a life to deal with as well as their design work. but that is a hard thing to change. to change people's attitudes and work ethics is damn near imposible (especially without monetary incentive). that is where you seperate the men from the boys (as my father has always said and he is very sexist sorry ladies). separating the passionate, thoughtful designers from the shmucks. the schmucks are still going to get comissions and create buildings and their shit makes the good stuff look so much better. i don't have a solution for unpassionate or unmotivated people...does anyone???
 

i agree w/ you gabe, and fish both. it really scares me that some of these "boys/girls" will be in the work profession w/ us. very scarry. if it is allowed in school, it will ooze into our profession. i have no idea how to stop it...or even if it is stopable. i would think it is in our ethics of being designers to not be stale!
 

in my opinin staleness comes from a lack of balls. think about it, someone without balls in my opinion is going to be very boring. but really you have to posess them. if you want to push the level of design, if you want to puch details, and if you want to push the contratractor to look at new ways to build you have to grow some balls. i agree with everything that has been posted, but wanted to share a little story. my principles here were working on a house for some clients. it started out fairly cool, but over time and after numerous meetings, it ended up looking like a very traditional socal craftmen bugalow. my principle had a meeting to tell the clients they didn't feel this was the right direction for the house, and that they should find a more traditional firm. well the clients enjoyed working with this firm som much they decided to stay and go with the contemporary approach. now this also brings up a question as to wheteher we as architects should give the client what they want or what they need. in this case my principle told me that the site and location needed something modern, and they didn't want to be know as the firm that put up a throw-back to a past time on this amazing site. now i think that is a great example of having the balls. to turn down a job, instead of designing crap.
 

good show! that last comment made me all warm and fuzzy inside.
 

exactly!!
that is exactly what i was saying, cowardice otherwise known as having infant testicles goes along way to creating shitty stale architecture.one must have big balls or gigantic ovaries to tell a client that what you want is crap and we don't make crap. good f'ing deal. eric tell your boss to get those things bronzed and on the internet for everyone in the proffession to see.
 

ha ha!
 

I agree with what you all are saying, as I think that staleness results from people staying in their comfort zone. Everyone wants their life to be happy, and I think that many people are afraid to push things because they are afraid of failure. So, they continue to produce, safe, boring work because they know that the masses will buy it. Unfortunately, this trancends the realm of architecture, as it can be seen in music, art, film, business, etc. It is the innate fear of failure that causes human beings to stay in their comfort zone and continue to put out the same crap.
'Oh, I've got a family to raise and a retirement to think about, I need the money.'
I call bullshit, this is just an excuse for this lack of balls as you all are putting it, this is just a way to puss out of getting the most out of life. If you do not try, you will never know what you can accomplish in your life; most likely, your successes will heavily outweigh your failures, all you have to do is try.
 

and all you need is...LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED.