Developing a Meaningful World through Architecture
Dana Cuff, in “Architecture the Story of Practice”, describes the architectural office as a unique cultural environment that allows architects to work together in order to establish meaningful worlds for themselves and their actions, where they can forge and express a coherent professional identity. This environment is bound by practiced routines, but in fact is very dynamic as a firm grows, adds and loses members, gains new clients and changes, as the broader context evolves with changes in the economy, the building industry, and technology. Over the course of the fall term we have looked at mainly practiced routines, such as contracts and agreements, procurement methodologies, risk and liabilities, fees and services. We have had lectures from architects, engineers, project managers, lawyers and builders. As an architect, you will be working within a studio and practice environment that may be small, medium or large in size. In no more than two pages this assignment asks you to consider if you were starting your own practice, what type of a cultural environment you would want to develop in order for you to establish a meaningful world for yourself.
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Developing a Meaningful World through Architecture
As a student architect, I’m conscious of the socio-economic, political, and environmental factors that are critical to the practice of architecture in the 21st century. The greatest architectural challenges of the present times include designing and building affordable houses, environmental friendly structures, and promoting sustainable development in the building industry. Therefore, architecture must solve these challenges so as to remain relevant in a fast-changing world, pushed by technological innovations, changing lifestyles and globalization (Cuff 57). Of course, the ability to achieve these goals hinges on the degree of freedom that architects have during the designing phase. However, such an opportunity is hindered by outside interference in the form of clients who like to be involved and to have a say in every step, complying with building codes, fulfilling legal requirements as well as adjusting to budget constraints. As Robert Gutman once observed in “Architecture: The Entrepreneurial Profession,” “there is no other major profession that is so often seized with worry about its own future as is architecture” (Gutman 55). Unlike any other profession, architecture as a practice has to contend with tension between theory and practice, technology and art, autonomy and compliance with legal requirements on a daily basis.
These challenges notwithstanding, I would aim to create a meaningful world for myself by developing a cultural environment that that addresses client expectations whilst meeting environmental challenges such as scarcity of land and other natural resources (e.g. water), urban sprawl, urban congestion, global warming, and economic hardships.
Resource scarcity is one of the most serious challenges in the building industry. Rapid urbanization in the world’s major cities and the growth of the suburbia in the industrialized world has led to the overexploitation, and near...