🏗️ 10 YEARS LATER: THE ARCHITECTURE OF EXPERIENCE
- Gueston Smith
- 22 hours ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 35 minutes ago
A Design Manifesto Addendum (2015-2025)
"Architecture deserves to be felt. If it’s not felt, it’s just background." - Gueston Smith
A decade ago, I made a bold prediction:
architecture needed to break free from its traditional constraints and embrace the methodologies of brand identity, product design, and popular culture.
In 2025, we're not just proving that thesis, we're developing it.
What started as an academic exploration at USC with the Nike + Basketball Rover mobile branded experience to bring together commerce, community and movement has evolved into Spatial Entrepreneurship, a comprehensive framework that designs, deploys, and monetizes adaptable environments that generate real emotional, cultural, and financial returns. The mission is to develop spaces that inspire and deliver value.
13 PRINCIPLES RESHAPING ARCHITECTURE
I. ARCHITECTURE AS PRODUCT, PLATFORM, AND PERFORMANCE
The built environment must evolve, fast. Architecture now needs to act like a product: adaptable, desirable, and performative.
II. SPATIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP OVER BUILDING DEVELOPMENT
We reject the outdated idea that architecture must be either temporary or permanent. Architecture can be agile, responsive, and ROI-driven through strategic deployment to complement not compete with fixed development.
III. DESIGN FROM CULTURAL DESIRES, NOT DISCIPLINARY DICTATES
The Air Jordan XI sneaker proved a more potent architectural precedent than conventional building typologies. We design from what people love, not what institutions expect. We are designing for freedom.
IV. DECOUPLE ARCHITECTURE FROM LAND OWNERSHIP
Mobile architecture democratizes spatial design, creating premier experiences in locations where traditional development is impossible culturally, economically, politically, or temporally.
V. THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY DEMANDS ARCHITECTURAL INNOVATION We've fully entered Joseph Pine's experience economy where he argued that experiences, not goods or services, are the next economic offering in the evolution of commerce. Architecture must optimize for scalable, multi-sensory engagement, social interaction, narrative progression, and personalization.
VI. BRAND METHODOLOGY OVER ARCHITECTURAL METHODOLOGY
Nike doesn't design shoes, the brand creates emotional connection through product. We don't design structures, we create spatial expressions of cultural desire & connection.
VII. MERGE DIGITAL AND PHYSICAL FROM INCEPTION
Every physical design decision must consider how the space will be captured, shared, and enhanced digitally.
VIII. FORM FOLLOWS EXPERIENCE, NOT FUNCTION
Louis Sullivan’s “form follows function” no longer speaks to the needs of our time.
We assert that form follows experience, where emotional impact and intentional design shape how people feel, remember, and connect.
Evoke emotion. Design for memory. Create transformation.
IX. ARCHITECTURE AS DISTRIBUTED NETWORK, NOT SINGULAR ICON
Impact comes not from one iconic building, but from a network of accessible, adaptive spaces.
X. DESIGN FOR MEMORY FORMATION
If it’s not remembered, it never existed. Architecture must embed itself in memory through peak experiences, multi-sensory cues, and moments worth sharing. Space should create place. Experience should create memory. It’s time for architecture to stop serving as the backdrop to culture and start becoming a part of the moment itself.
XI. EMBRACE TRANSIENCE AS STRENGTH
Temporary architecture often delivers more cultural impact per dollar than permanent structures. People are drawn to what feels rare, fleeting, and unrepeatable. Novelty creates urgency. Ephemerality creates memory.
In a world of static buildings, the unexpected becomes unforgettable.
XII. THE PUBLIC DOMAIN IS THE NEW FRONTIER
Mobile architecture unlocks new forms of public life, accessible, democratic, and fast to deploy. It bypasses the red tape of traditional development, transforming empty lots and overlooked corners into pop-up cultural moments. From gatherings to activations, it turns space into shared experience without the weight of permanence.
XIII. MEASURE SUCCESS THROUGH IMPACT, NOT AWARDS
Success means lives improved, communities strengthened, conversations catalyzed, profit made and joy generated.
FROM CONCEPT TO PRACTICE: SPATIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN ACTION
Through Guesscreative's growing network of mobile architecture projects, we're proving that mobility isn't a trend, it's a transformation.
We're enabling entrepreneurs, artists, and communities to own their spatial presence without the burden of traditional real estate.
THE FUTURE IS MOBILE, MEMORABLE, AND MEANINGFUL
The Architecture of Experience isn't an aesthetic style, it's a strategic methodology that recognizes architecture's true power lies not in permanence but in its profound ability to shape how we feel, interact, remember, and build businesses.
We're not just designing spaces. We're designing the future of how architecture creates value in our society.
Visionary founders, city leaders, or global brands: if space is draining you, let us help you turn your space into a stream of returns.
The movement is already in motion.
The question is: Will you move with it?
Ready to turn space into your competitive advantage?
Let's build something that moves literally and emotionally.
Read the Movable Asset Advantage to learn more.
GUESTON SMITH
Founder, Guesscreative
Los Angeles, California
May 2025
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