If you’ve ever wanted to learn more about architecture but you didn’t have the hundreds of thousands of dollars, or the years upon years that it takes to study and earn a degree, then you’re probably disappointed by how difficult it is to find enjoyable, educational material on the subject.  Most architects publish to either to win clients (resulting in biased information) or to share information with other, highly-educated architects (resulting in jargon-filled mumbo jumbo).  This means hardly anything is ever created to communicate with you.

Architecture affects everyone, every day, all day yet hardly anyone talks about it!  A population that knows more about architecture can make more informed policy decisions, they can drive demand for better design, they can support architectural experimentation, and they can navigate the ethical issues of the built environment. Learning about architecture doesn’t just lead to practical benefits either.  Great architecture is sublime. Louis Kahn famously said, “The sun never knew how great it was until it struck the side of a building.” After I began studying architecture more seriously, I found myself standing in buildings, captivated by breathless moments of awe.

Place Exploration started as a testing ground for communication techniques that work better for the general public.  Inspired by the massive rise in popularity of science within the last half-century, it attempts to do for architecture what, for instance, The Science Channel has done for science.  When I began this blog, I wrote a weekly post about architecture using communication techniques developed for the popularization of science.  I write about my adaptations of these techniques in a parallel blog, Popularizing Architecture.

I hope that you provide feedback, share if you like the content, and tear me apart if I’ve gotten something wrong, but most importantly, I hope you find joy and wonder in the world designed around you.