So, I have to define something that has been on my mind, and I have come to the conclusion that I would define what it means to be an architect or what is an architect. We all have an idea of what an architect is and all have knowledge of what they do for a living, but how did we get these beliefs? I guess I’ll start with what the internet defines as an architect, because sadly Webster’s defines an architect as “A person who designs buildings”.
RAIC – The most basic definition of an architect is a professional who is qualified to design and provide advice – both aesthetic and technical – on built objects in our public and private landscapes.
Wikipedia – An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings, and is licensed to practice architecture.
Arch Careers – An architect serves in a leadership role to bring together the design and budgetary requirements set by the client, restraints of a site (where the building will be constructed), needs of the building’s users, and the limitations of materials into a unique and balanced design solution.
These give the role of what we in our present society think of what an architect does, but if we look back to antiquity we see that they where much more i.e. sculptureres, artists, craftsman and in the dark ages laymen. So I dug a little deeper and got to the root of the word itself . Architect derives from the Latin architectus, itself derived from the Greek arkhitekton (arkhi-, chief + tekton, builder), i.e. chief builder.(Wikipedia). Not only did they have to have the knowledge of how things go together, but also had to have the ability to know how we as people would use them. Being an artist or a sculptor gave them the ability to understand how the human body was going to interact with the buildings or monuments that were being built, that is why even to this day we still in design school, we study the human body. With this bit of knowledge we can now deduct that the architect is not only a builder, but a designer of the environment around us. To me the architect is a story teller, telling the story of our culture during a spacific time in our history, thus refelcting our ever changing environment. Unlike the artist and writers telling their stories on canvas or in books we use the living breathing environment as our backdrop.
Architecture is involved with the world, but at the same time it has a certain autonomy. This autonomy cannot be explained in terms of traditional logic because the most interesting parts of the work are non-verbal. They operate within the terms of the work, like any art. Thom Mayne
This quote by Thom Mayne, chief architect of Morphisis, talks on his idea of architecture and in so give us an idea of where modern architects are headed with our craft. That our story telling is more than just a narrative of what is going on in our society, but some how is separate thus giving an un-biast view. Whilst it may be some what of an autonomous entity it still has its finger on the pulse of our vibrant culture and in doing so keeps up with our ever changing cultural climate. To me this is what we should strive for as an architect to understand how to relay what is being felt in our culture into the built environment. An example would be the Seattle Space Needle or the old air traffic control tower at LAX, both built in the 60’s and relfecting our ideas of going to the moon and further space exploration.
These definitions and quotes give a good idea to what an architect is and why we have come to revere this profession. I also know first hand what a rigorous programme a person has to go through to become an architect. I’m currently a student at UTSA’s school of architecture and the one thing that every one here has for got to say it that and architect is passionate. You have to be passionate about design and architecture to endure the long hours that is expected of you at school. So I have come up with a definition as to what an architect is. I define an architect as a person that is passionate about building buildings that interprets a societies cultural values with out loosing site of its relationship to the environment around it, thus creating a link where life flows between the built and natural environment.
architecture411 