Architecture in The Experience Economy

DesignIntelligence® February 2006 www.di.
net
Architecture in the Experience Economy

—B. Joseph Pine II
Those who read the pages of DesignIntelligence already know

what is going on in the world of business: as goods and services
everywhere become commoditized, we’re shifting to an economy
based on experiences — memorable events that engage each
person in an inherently personal way.
B
ut many readers may not have com- Second, we must go from designing inte-
pletely thought through the impli- riors to designing stage sets. While goods
cations for architecture itself. Let are manufactured and services delivered,
us do so now. experiences are staged. We, therefore,
must use theatre as the model of design.
First, we must go from architecting build- I’m not advocating theatrical flourishes
ings to architecting environments. A build- or structures that look like playhouses; it’s
ing does not an experience make. Any edi- not theater — the physical environment
fice — whether an office, hotel, stadium, — but theatre — the drama enacted with-
home, or other structure — merely pro- in that environment. Our designs, then,
vides the container for the experience that should not focus merely on the static im-
is staged inside (and outside) its walls. The age of one’s initial view, but rather set the
actual experience, after all, happens within stage for the dramatic structure that lies
the individual who encounters the building behind every compelling experience. As
and interacts with it and its contents (in- David Rockwell, most famous for bring-
cluding both physical artifacts and conviv- ing theatre to architecture, recently said,
ial people). Therefore, to enable your cli- his aim is to “make the world a stage set
ents to stage a compelling experience, we where magic things can happen.” Every
must concern ourselves not only with the building, not just the themed restaurants,
building but with the entire physical and hotels, and retail establishments in which
especially the social environment of every- Rockwell specializes, deserves the same
thing that happens within (and without) opportunity for magic to happen. We
that building. As DFC Senior Fellow, Nor- must be theatre — not merely theater —
man Foster, said, when accepting the AIA designers.
Gold Medal, “I have always believed pas-
sionately that architecture is a social art.” And lastly, we must go from creating
We must be social architects. space to creating place. Space is amor-
1
DesignIntelligence® February 2006 www.di.net
phous; place is specific. Space is generic; Whether or not you like HOK’s end re-
place is personal. Space is context; place sults as much as we do (authenticity, af-
is encounter. And space is contrived; place ter all, is personally determined), you can
is authentic. Concomitant with the eco- learn from their approach and figure out
nomic shift to experiences is the personal how to go beyond buildings, interiors,
shift to authenticity as the new consumer and space to architecting environments,
sensibility. People no longer want to buy designing stage sets, and creating place.
the fake from the phony; they want the to do about it?
real from the genuine. We must therefore
render our environments and our stage
sets to be perceived as authentic by those
who encounter them. As architecture pro- —B. Joseph Pine II is a co-founder of Strategic
fessor Michael Benedikt wrote in For an Horizons LLP; the co-author of Infinite Possi-
Architecture of Reality, “in our media-satu- bility, The Experience Economy, Updated
rated times it falls to architecture to have Edition, and Authenticity; and author of
the direct aesthetic experience of the real Mass Customization. He is a Senior Fellow of
at the center of its concerns.” We must be the Design Futures Council
creators of authenticity.
Every year my partner, Jim Gilmore, and

I hold an event called thinkAbout, which
we conclude by handing out the Experi-
ence Stager of the Year award. This past
September, for the first time, we gave the
EXPY to an architecture firm: HOK Sport
+ Venue + Event. We did so precisely be-
cause they represent the best of what ar-
chitects should be doing in the Experience
Economy — architecting engaging envi-
ronments for its sports clients, designing
dramatic stage sets that enable compel-
ling events, and creating authentic places
at each of its venues. (The fact that they
exemplify these principles in their very
name was just a bonus.)

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DesignIntelligence® February 2006 www.di.

Architecture in the Experience Economy

Those who read the pages of DesignIntelligence already know

Every year my partner, Jim Gilmore, and

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