Ethan Kaplan , Vice President of Technology at at Warner Bros. Records made an intriguing comment in the Mahalo Daily video 95 - at 2:32.

"Everything of value digitally is about the value of experience, not the value of the artifact."

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLKf8diwqls] In a time where the Recording Industry Association of America has been pursuing a policy of suing those who would argue they increase the value of the experience by sharing the artifact, this is certainly a novel and progressive statement from someone within a major record label.  How does this apply to architects?

What do architects design?

Pierre Jeanneret called them Machines for living.  Architects design spaces in which occupants will function efficiently and effectively - museums to house art, but more importantly, to house the appreciation of art.  They design the experience - the flow of spaces and activities.  A sequence of rooms designed for efficient industrial processes, a family of spaces to support family engagement, an office building to encourage easy communication and collaboration of knowledge workers and departments, a shopping mall to provide optimum flow of engaged consumers to retailers.  Why do so many malls keep adding amenities like family restrooms, daycare facilities, movie theaters, expanded food courts, daylighting?  It is so that these facilities will be come enjoyable destinations, entertainment venues as well as shopping centers.  It is increasingly the social experience that draws us to these places.  This is what architects design.  The experience as well as, perhaps through the artifact.

Do you focus on the experience or the artifact?