Charles Renfro: Humor In Architecture

Last week I went to see Charles Renfro speak at MIT as a part of their lecture series. Honestly, one of the best lectures that I have ever been to.  I have been to quite a few, and this was by far the best. He was a very nice, humorous and light hearted guy. Very well spoken, and definitely knew what he was doing. I have tremendous respect for this man. 

Anyways, after the lecture, I went up to talk to Chuck about some of his designs and concepts. Due to the fact that he was so light-hearted, I thought to myself, does humor play a part is their designs? So that's what I decided to ask him... His response was something that pleased me because I like to think I am pretty funny... He mentioned that the firm was looking for an architect a few years ago, and they put an ad out that simply said, "5 years experience. Funny". He talked about how somethings that seem impossible, they make possible through design. Chaz also said that, yes humor does strive them to create something beautiful and something that may not be seen by everyone else. Very interesting. 

An example of this is the Blur building expo. He said that there are so many buildings concerned with facades ad oriented to certain views, and they wanted to do something very different: No Facade. No views from the interior. you walk onto the lake to see nothing but mist. 

I was looking at some of their other stuff trying to find a little bit of humor and the first thing that I came across was this: A light sock. Full of crystals. Taking the place of a chandelier. In the shape of genitals. Balls.