Maintaining

Over many years and hundreds of clients, I have never had a single one who asked for a project that required maintenance. Busy, busy people who panic when their dentist says they need to brush for two solid minutes and then floss, or when the recommended exercise program suggests they walk a mile three times a week. How is it possible to find the time?  And keeping up with maintenance? No one wants more.

Nevertheless, there’s a paradigm change afoot, for architects and architecture, and landscape architectural practices will lead the way. The dynamic characteristics of a garden full of living plants always require some attention: watering, pruning, replacing spent plants, and generally responding to changing uses. Martha Schwartz said a garden is like a pet, if you don’t want to care for it, get a stuffed animal. In some projects with rigid clients, she used plastic elements that gave the desired look, but required no human attention. Other than such artificial designs, gardens and landscapes have always needed maintaining, and offered the reward of fragrant flowers, screening shrubs and shady trees in a life outdoors that is closer to nature.

For the new sustainable guidelines for architecture, many aspects are predicated on monitoring high-performing equipment for optimal performance and minimal energy consumption. This is called commissioning, and it is designed into the project and is confirmed once the systems are fully operational. It will also have to be repeated over the long life of the building because performative standards will degrade without vigilant maintenance including annual filters replacement, seasonal cleaning, and replacing silicone-based sealants that wear out about every five years. What if the person who cared for the building landscapes did this work? This expert in storm-water collecting and distributing systems, green roof management, bio-swale functions (that absorb impervious surface run-off), and even the flower gardens would have someone who maintained their healthy operations along with heat pumps and air chillers.

The word ‘maintain’ comes from the Latin: manus or hand + tenēre or to hold. To hold in the hand, that is, something that is handy, is not just a thing. It is also an approach. Gardens have always been hand-crafted and then hand-worked. Homes rich in dwelling are too. However the rest of our buildings, where we work, learn, shop, worship and amuse ourselves, are often of an impersonal scale devoid of human touch. Perhaps the new sustainability requirements intent on zero-carbon energy operations can embrace an interior gardening mentality. This means a person can open a window, adjust the shades, direct their waste in the appropriate direction, harvest their lunch, and generally live in ways that are closer to the forces of nature. Self-sufficiency is part of the American character; a right to fully-controlled, air conditioned places, even when they are wastefully unoccupied, is not. Let a new sensibility of comfort evolve from holding at hand designs that respond to our world and let us manage our contribution. Less engineering and more maintaining.