Marianne Loof column
No, I am not going to discuss ‘the’ notable copyright dispute with which architects are currently preoccupied, following the legal proceedings brought by Hans Ruijssenaars. The risk of being overshadowed by an already polarised debate is too great. However, the relevance of the subject is easily explained.
The fact is, we are engaged more than ever in the transformation of existing buildings. Young designs are increasingly being given a new lease of life. Sometimes as a new monument, but also through ‘simple’ recycling of a building or framework. In the case of these young buildings, the original architect is not at a safe distance of 200 years, but an associate architect or heir has intellectual property rights. That is awkward and takes getting used to, because what does that ‘intellectual ownership’ actually represent? The original architect as a creative artist, or as someone who has economic ‘ownership’, or as someone who has ‘emotional ownership’ as the person who best understands the design? It becomes very complicated when it concerns a renovation of a renovation. Do you still follow?
A hawker of ideas and images
It is therefore understandable that emotions run high when it comes to these projects in particular. At the same time, there is increasing resistance to the concept of copyright and there is a growing practice in which copyright is completely eliminated and the design outlawed from the first sketches and the architect no more than a hawker of ideas and images. Thus, the baby is thrown out with the bath water.
Copyright is essential in protecting the integrity of the designer(s). This protection enables designers to develop the ‘value’ of the design into an end product. However, it becomes a great deal more complicated after completion, certainly when a building changes considerably every fifteen years. As far as I am concerned, the ‘design quality’ of the renovation supersedes ‘intellectual ownership’. That serves a collective purpose: the quality of our built environment.
Unselfish
In the 05 Forum edition that AetA devoted to this topic of ‘Working on someone else’s work’, there is a wonderful quote by architect Piet Tauber about the renovation of his town hall in Doetinchem. He describes his anger and disappointment when not being commissioned as the architect. Eventually, commenting on the work of architect Ivan Ezerman, who was commissioned, he says: ‘Freer than I would have responded to the design brief, he applied his creativity and skill in a way that ensured the building will meet the demands of the age for decennia.’ An unselfish appreciation of the ‘value and power’ of design!
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