Combining Art and Engineering: Charlie Haas, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD + C, CDT

The origin of new ideas can be mysterious. Ideas repeatedly ricochet around, break down, intermingle, and build back up. Disparate notions and thoughts combine to form new and creative ideas. Many times, the process and the subsequent outcome of idea generation are abstract and obscured from the view of others. But sometimes, the creative process emerges from behind the curtains, and the end result is apparent to all.

A prime example of this, in my mind, is architecture, a field that embodies the delicate mixing of art and engineering. When things go right, architecture is where ideas combine, and creativity and function coexist to form tangible landmarks that embody the melding of different thoughts.

But we know that this balance of art and engineering, of form and function, isn’t always achieved. We’ve all seen spectacular buildings that look totally impractical, knowing that we would never want to live or work in them. We know that their beauty masks an unwieldiness that would cause confusion and frustrate any inhabitants. On the other hand, we’ve been in structures that seem practical but fail to elicit any whisp of emotional connection. Being in these beige boxes of blandness feels sterile, emotionally draining, and demoralizing.

So how does one establish the right balance between form and function? How do you combine the right ideas to come up with a beautiful and useful product?

Charlie Haas, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD + C, CDT

To find an answer to these questions, you have to know how an architect thinks. So, I reached out to Charlie Haas, a project architect at Integrated Design Solutions. Charlie and the rest of the firm have worked on a variety of projects, ranging from K-12 schools to science and engineering buildings to stadiums. They strive to creatively meld aesthetics and function to develop meaningful, user-friendly structures that form emotional connections with their inhabitants.

As a whole, the firm’s ability to find this balance occurs, in part, from the presence of a strong team with diverse talents. Integrated Design Solutions – a large Michigan-based architecture and engineering firm – embodies the cross-pollination of ideas to produce meaningful structures, stemming from the expertise that each of its over 140 employees brings to the table. This collection of different viewpoints allows the firm to act as an idea incubator, allowing ideas to bounce around and combine to produce novel solutions to unique challenges.

On an individual level, Charlie is also a living combination of ideas and experiences that allows him to generate unique ideas. As we’ve seen before, our life experiences combine to give us unique views and skills, and Charlie is no different. As a kid he enjoyed working on models, and when his parents built a new house for the family, Charlie got interested in the process. In high school, Charlie attended a summer camp at the University of Notre Dame’s School of Architecture, which sealed the deal on his plan to go to architecture school. He attended the University of Detroit Mercy’s architecture school, where he earned his master’s degree. Graduating during the Great Recession, Charlie found a job working in marketing and business development at a general contracting firm, honing his graphic design skills. During this experience, he worked on projects involving the installation of automotive equipment in factories, where he learned to quickly process new information, before being moved to the construction side of the firm. In this position, he was in the field and learned to value how the customer and end user experience the final product. He took these lessons, especially the last one, with him to his current job at Integrated Design Solutions.

To Charlie, truly understanding the customer’s needs requires an emphasis on active listening in order to understand what is needed and how the final building will be used. This purposeful listening helps build trust between the architect and the client. When design issues arise, clients are more open to new ideas proposed by the architects if there is an existing trust between them. The best projects are a collaborative exercise between the architect and the client. Without the trust, the collaboration breaks down, the client starts to question things, and the final building ends up much less than it could have been, a monument to missed opportunities.

Every project has different needs and constraints. Sometimes these are design constraints. On other occasions, there are tight budgets that pose challenges. In both situations, conscientious listening to the client is paramount. To illustrate this point, Charlie highlighted a project for the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance. The project was a renovation of the Moore Building, a mid-century modern structure built in 1964 and designed by the famed architect Eero Saarinen. The university emphasized the desire to preserve Saarinen’s design ethos, so Charlie and the firm, in conjunction with their national design partner Ennead Architects, were tasked with modernizing the structure while still maintaining its connection to architectural history. By listening to the client’s desires, Charlie and his colleagues were able to successfully complete the project, respecting the past while still being able to update it to make it more functional for today’s students and professors.

Clients also have different budgets. Even big projects can be constrained by budgets. Charlie mentioned the history of the Fisher Building, a prominent art deco skyscraper in Detroit, and how it was originally designed to be a complex of towers before budget concerns during the Great Depression reduced the design to a single tower. In Charlie’s experience, K-12 school districts often have tight budgets due to the involvement of public funding. These types of projects can be challenging, because the architects often try to include additional features beyond simple classrooms to better serve the school, students, and teachers – features like contemporary STEM facilities and vocational training and alternative preparatory resources. Such design elements can be statement making, a physical manifestation of the school’s belief in training its students for whatever their future may hold. But this presents a challenge to the architect: how to make such a point with a limited budget? These types of parameters, when fully embraced, can force the emergence of creativity and problem solving. Charlie mentioned that the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has an award for small budget architecture, noting that the awardees are impressive and proof that tight budgets can still be used to produce amazing buildings. In Charlie’s mind, if you can’t design within a budget then you haven’t been successful for the client and you haven’t challenged yourself enough to figure out how to solve the problem. Challenges breed creativity.

So, from this we can learn that establishing trust and embracing constraints to foster creativity are key to successfully melding form and function. But, according to Charlie, there is another element that is absolutely vital for successful architecture, and yet it is often underappreciated.

Empathy.

While we may not immediately think of empathy as we talk about inanimate buildings, Charlie and other architects need to appreciate how people will use a building. This means that Charlie has to put himself in the end users’ shoes. Sometimes this means incorporating unique engineering into a building’s design. Other times, it may mean including an artistic detail to show appreciation for what the end user does. Empathy has proven to be a major influence in how Charlie combines art and function to find the perfect balance for his projects. 

Integrated Design Solutions was working on an engineering building for the University of Michigan. Recognizing that the engineers who will work in the building are performing delicate tasks that are sensitive to the smallest of movements, the team had to design a unique heating and cooling system, one that didn’t cause vibrations within the lab spaces. This was achieved by designing panels on the wall that would adequately heat and cool the space through radiant methods instead of forced air. In another example, the firm worked on a science building at Michigan State University, needing to take into account the unique needs of scientists to ensure that the building worked in a lab setting. But also, understanding that everyone should feel appreciated and celebrated, small tokens of recognition were designed into the floor: models of cells were laid into the terrazzo, giving character to the building and providing an emotional connection between the structure and its scientists.

Providing dignity to the end user could perhaps be best highlighted by Charlie’s example of designing an at-risk center on an educational campus. Charlie and his fellow architects recognized and appreciated that the people who would use the center would need to feel safe and welcome. So, the firm created a place for people that offered a respite from their daily lives and offered inspiration without making them feel any different from anyone else. Charlie told me that anyone can design a homeless shelter that meets the basic needs of a homeless shelter, but it takes empathy to design one that treats its users with dignity.

Trust, creativity, and empathy: the ingredients for creating new ideas and the foundation for finding the perfect balance between art and engineering. The interplay of these concepts can be found in Charlie’s favorite design experience so far: the renovation of the locker rooms at Notre Dame Stadium.

From 2014 to 2018, the University of Notre Dame undertook a massive expansion and renovation project of its football stadium, constructing three towering structures on the east, west, and south sides of the stadium. The north end of the stadium, where the locker rooms are located, was also renovated, and Charlie and his firm were tasked with this update.

For Charlie, a lifelong fan of the Fighting Irish, this was a dream project. His appreciation and understanding of the team and the stadium, as well as their histories, allowed him to establish immediate trust with his colleagues and collaborators, who felt comfortable knowing that a such a fan would be receptive to the overall vision and also mindful of tradition.

While understanding the history helped Charlie build trust, it also provided a constraint. The renovations had to modernize the facilities, while respecting the underlying character. Playing within these guidelines, the designers found inspiration in a simple and specific brick. This brick, standing in a wall from the stadium’s original 1930 construction, drove the design – a combination of brick, metal, tile, and wood. Reclaimed wood bleachers from the stadium were repurposed as design elements. An art deco-inspired theme was chosen as a link to history, with modern touches to feel contemporary. The end result was a stunning update to a facility that elicits such emotion from legions of fans.

During this process, Charlie and the architects embraced empathy, too. They ensured that the benches in the locker room looked good but were also able to support the weight of an offensive lineman. Knowing that players mentally prepare for games with pump-up music, speakers were carefully incorporated and positioned to help the players get into their best competitive mindset. For the fans in the stands, being connected to the online world during games has become a priority, the University knew that they would appreciate a strong Wi-Fi network in the stadium. So, IDS designed handrails with built-in Wi-Fi units along the stairs in the stands, boosting the fans’ stadium experience. A clear example of form blending with function, all stemming from taking the time to understand and appreciate how the end user will use the building.

This is an example of successfully cross-pollinating different thoughts – old and new, form and function – while emphasizing trust, creativity, and empathy to produce new ideas and great design. Charlie is reminded of what a successful process can produce every time he sees TV camera shots of the stadium on gameday: the perfect balance of art and engineering. In other words, architecture.

Special thanks to:

• Charlie Haas, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP BD + C, CDT  Project Architect, Integrated Design Solutions (chaas@ids-michigan.com)

• Qiagen and Todd Festerling, PhD for sponsoring the blog