"PEOPLE DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT UNTIL YOU SHOW IT TO THEM"

I was reading this Forbes article on America's history of recessions.  This quote stood out to me:

Steve Jobs.  Image courtesy of
Matthew Yohe via Wikimedia Commons.

“Gilder showed that the problem [of a struggling economy] has always been a lack of supply.  And here’s the key: not a lack of the same supply; rather, a lack of a new, inventive and entrepreneurial supply that meets consumers where they live and takes them to new heights.  Focus on the supply-side entrepreneurs, who will deliver these goods, not the demand side, said Gilder."  
-- George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty 

And another:

"It's really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them."
-- Steve Jobs, BusinessWeek, May 25 1998

SUPPLY

The architectural design ideal is a building that is both timeless and timely; both universal and client-specific; born of its site and its program, a memorable place.

The problem: WHO'S GOING TO PAY FOR THIS?  The number of potential clients who can afford the luxury/risk of trusting an architect to give them this ideal are few and far between.  Clients will instead deliver a laundry list of stuff along with a budget and then try to bargain for more expensive finishes than they can afford… because that’s the model they’ve been given.

What if we could “show it to them” not just with plans and sketches and models in a language they do not really understand… but with the language of architecture?  What if we could give them a walkthrough? 

Would a virtual walkthrough do it?  A completed building "model home" like developers do? A high-end store at the mall?  I don’t know.  Just sayin’.

-ally