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THE ARCHITECT'S DILEMMA

As much as we are driven by a passion for design and construction, the underlying current in all of us is the need to make a living. The balance of being able to live a sustainable lifestyle and infusing quality design into the world market is a beautiful and delicate balance.

One of the greatest hurdles that our profession currently faces is the increased narrowing of our responsibilities in the act of building. As mounting concerns of liability have begun to create a chokepoint for creative problem solving, a generalized acquiescence of control has been handed off. While the architect was once a hub taking on a responsibility for the cohesion of all aspects that compile a project, tangential disciplines have grown into a position of greater influence on the architectural process. This shift is liable to complicate or dilute a centralized, cohesive decision-making process.

The dispersion of responsibility and liability within the construction ecosystem has also lead architects to the current job market (Fig. 1). There was a time when the architect was a master craftsman, a problem-solving hammer-toting builder with direct focus on the holistic vision and a means to get there.

The architect’s role has been compromised as we sometimes overinvest ourselves in the decreased role that we play within the greater realities of a project (Fig. 2). Maybe this energy could be better spent in positive influence on other aspects of the way we build. There is only so much capacity in our economy to support our ability to productively participate (Fig. 3). While some architects are facing a difficult financial reality, the compromised status of some building practice also draws concern. Is it possible that our profession can successfully marry these issues into a symbiotic relationship?

I am not advocating a regression to old ways of doing; we have gotten to this point through many iterations of practice and it is a proven and refined path. The architect as a thinker and not a builder was a pivotal shift in the potentials of our construction. To this we can simply point to our most complex contemporary works. In lieu of this elegance is the stark fact that most of what we build is devoid of the finest qualities of architecture. It is worth pondering that the architect’s role can influence a deeper breadth of all our projects than we currently stake claim to (Fig. 4).

Our existing approach to the construction ecosystem is deserving of reconsideration. Perhaps instead of returning to our hands, we have reached an opportunity to dive deeper into the undercurrents that drive our building culture, to refine our intellectual understanding of the reasons we build as a society and the methods we use to get there.

I strive to grow in helping to explore our abilities and how they can most effectively define us within the building culture. (Fig. 5) I want to understand where our profession can most effectively evolve in a changing ecosystem, to question the path we have laid for ourselves in the culture of building, and to ask more of where it leads.