"Powers of Ten", Charles and Ray Eames, 1977
"Lights on a Leash," Song by Civil Civic, 2010

In architecture, we think and consider projects in scales. As you get deeper into the project phases, from concept design to construction documents to construction administration, you gradually transition from drawing to smaller and smaller scales, capturing the details from the urban plan to the door knob. From 1/8" scale down to 3" scale, each new scale focus our attention to another world of behavior - from the relationship of buildings in a city, to the attitude among walls, to the direct connection between the wall and the door at the jamb. This close attention and "zooming" trains architects to consider the design vision from the start, and imagine how a concept can be carried through from 1:100 down to 1 1/2", creating a "total architecture" in which the components and the whole are in dialogue.

Translated to business, I think scale can be very useful in organizing and managing a company. From the product at a micro-scale, to the distribution systems and partnerships involved at the human scale, and then finally to the financial models at the extra-large scale, each scale of thought and quality of attention is crucial to business success. And each layer of interaction involves craft, tact, and skill. You can have a great, bespoke product - but no scale. You can have a great marketing strategy - but maybe your product is hollow and faulty. You can have the best client relationships in the world - but no innovative service to deliver. You can have a great software strategy - but no physical manifestation of it, to express your values.

I am interested in entrepreneurship because I want to learn how to build a business, not just a building. As difficult as architecture and construction is, the AEC industry is really only a cog in the larger web of industries and business sectors. Ultimately, the decision makers and levers of power rest in the hands of government, finance, and legal sectors, and most importantly the individual entrepreneurs who make things happen. If architects explore spaces with drawings and models, don't entrepreneurs explore time and capital with numbers and ventures? 

And, underlying the motivations of both parties, unlocking the potential innate in places, people, and things?
If architects are in the business of optimism, entrepreneurship should be the next logical leap forward. 

I wonder if there is a "architectural drawing set" to business success - a series of instructions that guide you, from the smallest details to the global scale, how to put together an effective strategy. What would that look like?

• Site Plan = Mission Statement (Executive Summary) 
• Code Compliance = Legal Documents, Incorporation
• Civil Survey = Business Legal Codes, Insurance, Laws
• Floor Plans (Foundation) = Balance Sheet (This is the most important) 
• Enlarged Floor Plan = Income Statement 
• Enlarged Floor Plan = Cash Flow Statement
• Enlarged Floor Plan = Statements of Shareholders' Equity
• Elevations = Marketing, Advertising and PR
• Sections = "Nuts and Bolts", "X-Ray" of the Balance Sheet (Operational Data?) 
• Exterior Details (Front End) = Marketing Coordination, Customer Experience, Branding, Typography  
• Interior Details (Back End) = Internal Accounting, Engineering, Services, Technical
• Mechanical, Electrical, Plumbing (MEP) = Operations, Human Resources
• Fire Protection = Insurance, Business Exit Strategy
• BIM Model = Digital Strategy, a "Simulation" and Counterpart to the physical operation
• Spec Sheet = Payroll, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable
• Consultants = Consultants

Most likely, this set is just as messy as the schematic design process, or as messy as the consultant coordination process -- and project completion, or business survival, still seems like a miracle, after all is said and done. But I'd still like to see.  

There's always a lot of in the news. Something's always going wrong, and the world is always on the brink of chaos. Somewhere.

Instead of being anxious or fearful, we should actually ask: what can we do to make our world, and our life, a little better?

Is it to be a little nicer to others, and yourself? Is it to do the best you can at what you do? Is it to clean up your act, to pursue your dream?
I'd like to think that changing the world, starts with yourself. I'd like to believe that when you try to be the best version of yourself, trying to do the things you really want to do, things work out. And the world gets a little better because YOU get a little better.

This may be a very selfish, millennial worldview, but I think that successful, worthy causes begin because people want to see something happen--and if others follow or support them, so be it. Successful causes begin because someone is trying to do something good, for their own mission in life (i.e. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr.), which happen to align with the voices and wishes of the timid.

Making a positive impact means living your true self, and going to go get what you deserve. Making a positive impact means inspiring others to do the same --- with you as the example. 

In some ways, we are living in a stable, peaceful time, at the best moment possible, to pursue your dreams. In other ways, we're living in a fearful time, full of trials and uncertainty. Politicians on different sides of this debate claim they have solutions to the ills of today -- such as lower taxes, free education, or even more (or less) nationalism -- but merely, they are only treatments to the society's symptoms, never getting to the real root causes. We need to get to the core truths, and question assumptions, and find alternate points of view. Most importantly, we have to encourage ourselves, and one another, to be the best we can be each day, to try the best we can.  

On Friday, my girlfriend and I decided to do some "fact-finding" on the fitness industry, so we tried out a SoulCycle class at W77 St. Here are some initial impressions:
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• Introduction and First Impression
  • The space was clean, bright, and modern. In the half hour before the class started, people began to filter into the front reception space, placing their things in the provided lockers and talking to one another. The furnishings were sparse: some merchandise for sale at the front, a water dispenser for bottles tucked at the corner, and a wall of lockers. The center of the space was a "restroom module" with two well-appointed restrooms, with soaps, scented candles, and various amenities.  
  • As the location was on the Upper West Side, in Manhattan, the class goers was mostly young professional women, with some guys sprinkled around. My feeling is that this demographic is generally the same across many locations in New York City. 
  • I told the front desk that this was my first time at SoulCycle. I was promptly provided a health waiver form to fill out, as well as some personal contact information. We selected the open bikes we would use in the space, then we were provided with the specially equipped spinning shoes.
• Class Preparation
  • We got to the class late, so we were quickly ushered into the "cycling space", a dimly lit room in the back. The room was packed with spinning bikes, with a head instructor at the front stage, and theatrical lights and speakers spread throughout. We were helped onto the bikes, and got our shoes fitted to the pedals, by the front desk clerk. 
• Actual Class
  • Once the class began, the lights were immediately dimmed, and the music was pumping. It was a "club atmosphere", and all I could really make out were the brightly lit red exit signs scattered all around (and multiplied by the mirror). All the attention was directed towards the instructor, who was shouting out some commands that were sometimes difficult to follow. 
  • The music was LOUD - at least, that was my feeling. Perhaps it was because I was in the back of the room, and my bike was positioned directly below one of those pumping speakers. I found the audio to be sharp and screeching at times. The playlist, pandering to the millennial crowd, was a series of "power rock" songs from the 90's and 00's - a lot of Blink 182, with some Train, The Killers and Avril Lavigne throughout. 
  • Initially, I was very skeptical; the music and setup were stressful. I wasn't in control of the experience, and there I was, somehow strapped to the spinning bike with nowhere to go. However, as the songs progressed, I found myself bopping to the Black Eyed Peas and synchronizing my spinning movements to the beat. My bike was at the back of the room, so I really couldn't see or follow the instructor at some moments. Because of that, I just pedaled at my own pace, trying to spin to the music.
  • Throughout the 45-min workout, the instructor sprinkled through some light upper-arm workouts with small dumbbells, and various "movements on bikes", such as shaking side-to-side and lunging back and forth. Because the class was geared so specifically to spinning, there wasn't much flexibility inherent in these non-bike workouts. 
• Post-Workout & Summary
  • When the class ended, I was happy to exit the dark and loud spinning chamber. Although it was a fun one-off exercise, I couldn't see myself going to the classes regularly. 
  • In general, SoulCycle is a great "gateway" workout for people who hate going to the gym. Once you are in the "spinning chamber", you are essentially trapped on the spinning bike for the entire duration of class. There are no distractions, and there is a room full of people doing the same thing, so you are more motivated to keep spinning at the same speed as your trainer and peers. And, at least you are not sitting on the couch at home. 
  • Beyond this, however, I think SoulCycle hits a brick wall. In trying to "Make Gyms Great Again" by combining a club atmosphere with spinning, it fails to do either of those things well. For me, the music was piercingly loud, and the spinning wasn't very rigorously planned. Spinning felt like something to do, and the music was just another layer of spectacle on top of it. 
  • Most importantly, SoulCycle wasn't a creatively fulfilling activity, and I'm unsure if the exercise is even THAT effective as a workout. Because of the lack of data or information on the spin, I'm not sure how far I biked for the duration of the class, or my calories burned. There was no real-time feedback on the activity in the room, only a vague sense of "fun" and "sweat". As such, there is no information as to whether my spinning would improve the next time. In that way, SoulCycle spinning can be a passive, isolating, automatic, and almost artificial activity, with a low barrier of entry. Compared to dance, rock climbing, or boxing, there is no true creative fulfillment involved. I'm not really learning a new task, or targeting different muscle groups. I'm only there to complete this "spin" in this dark and loud environment, and pass the time with "fun". 
  • Looking at SoulCycle cynically -- the spinning class makes working out an extension to work. Rather than being chained to a computer and a desk, I am chained to a bike, with another fellow group of strangers also chained to a bike. Rather than executing the commands of my boss or manager, I am executing the commands of the instructor -- with the same group of fellow strangers. I didn't find the classes to be creative or intellectually challenging, but I'm sure it is doing something to my body, just like how a 9-to-5 job pays the bills at the very lesat. But, my gut feeling is that people are smarter than that, and they are demanding more than just a passive activity to pass the time. People want autonomy, mastery, and learning over their work and their life, not just a room full of loud distractions to get over the painful-ness of "high energy cardio" (maybe sometimes). Once you leave the claustrophobic confines of the escapist spinning chamber, what then? In this New York lifestyle of professional job, it can be easy to profile young professionals as folks who eat Sweetgreens, drink Starbucks, and work at a fancy co-working space, and who can only carve out 45-minutes a day to go to SoulCycle for their workout with their work friends, paying $40 per class. I would like to think that this is a very shallow snapshot, and people don't actually do that every day. SoulCycle is much more of a fashionable trend that people try once-in-a-while, amid a larger Rolodex of other fun gyms, like rock-climbing and yoga.  

All developing countries put on a grand show, to showcase their hopes and ambitions, before their dreams are realized in the near future...
Our job as designers and builders is to make those visions concrete. 

The White City, World Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Pudong Financial District, Shanghai, 2019

Moving from concept design to construction documents, all the way to construction administration -- each step is about gaining clarity. At each phase, or each week of design, things have to become clear and focused, like turning the camera lens into sharpness. It is always - always - like you are walking through a fog, and in the blurry haze the building appears. At the initial moment of design "conception" -- all things are possible. Nothing is real, and everything is UNCLEAR. The object is at its infinite potential. THAT is the moment to seize your chance, to take risks, to dream boldly. As the clock runs down towards construction opening, your vision becomes clearer, the opportunity horizon closes - and you, the designer, have to start making concrete decisions. You have to start eliminating options and be courageous in your decision-making. 

In Schematic Design, the form and logic has to be settled. In Design Development, the pieces have to settle into shape, and the scale shifts from the global to the local. In Construction Documents, the scale devolves into individual components, and the building must come to life, from a simple line into a gyp wall, or an I-beam. In Construction Administration, you must build and coordinate the thing -- to respect the original intent of the first sketch.  

Out of the blurry haze, and out of the muddy clay, something is emerging. And that something has its own internal logic and ambitions. It has a mind of its own. The task of the designer, and then the architect and manager, is to maintain the vision, and walk through the fog. In the fog, there are traps and obstacles -- roadblocks that prevent you from achieving your 20/20 vision. In most cases, the object at the end, when the dust settles -- is not what you have imagined. Actually, it may suck quite a bit. BUT it is the mere act of meditating - sometimes for decades - on this great thing you are to draw and build, that manifests into a habitable dwelling, with all its faults and ambitions, its wrongness and right, and all the things you've learned on the way, that makes the process worthwhile. And, hopefully, the next time you do it, you learned from your greatest mistakes. 

And, when the building is completed, and the first inhabitants move in, it must feel effortless. 

 I'm a big believer in self-improvement. I think it is very difficult to solve many of the world's problems on your own, because many of those forces are out of your control. But you are the master of your personal behavior and destiny. Change in the world starts with you. 

Whether it is becoming more courteous, conscientious, or even more assertive, you can always change your relations towards others -- and your immediate environment. A clean desk, room, or car, can reflect a peaceful state of mind, just as a cluttered house or workplace indicates disarray -- or just a work-in-progress. A healthy body, with regular exercise, can improve your mood and thought process.

One of the biggest internal conflicts I've had, and that has stuck with me, is balancing drive and mindfulness. When should we healthily pursue our goals -- with our full focus and intelligence -- and when should we feel content in the moment, and enjoy what is in front of us?

I am not a patient person, I think. I can be very neurotic and temperamental, and quick to judgement and emotion. These are the qualities of myself I have to accept and adapt. But along with these emotions, I am always trying to find what's next -- what is the next big goal, what is the next big thing, et cetera. I end up chasing many avenues; once I become settled with one skill, or goal, or type of work, I tend to become tired of it, questioning its logic. It's not a fun exercise, this cycle of chasing and wanting -- but I think, deep down, I am very afraid of stagnation, of not being able to prove my worth when I am not "achieving" some external goal. I was afraid that, if I am not creating something interesting or exciting, I am not growing as a person. 

I think I am more grown-up now, having understood that maintaining relationships and practicing self-care (eating, exercising) are just as important as work and learning. There is a fine line between "following curiosity" and "burn out from chasing." There is only 24 hours in a day, and of that perhaps 10-12 productive working hours. We can be in love with our work, and driven by passion -- but we cannot forget about the everyday world, with its messy beauty and random street people and glorious sunlight through trees. We need to go on that lunch break walk, to reconnect with real life outside the cubicle. We need to take a breather - to understand that while there are big goals, and dreams, every small moments still count. In the larger worldview, the "break" can actually help us reach our goal.