INTRODUCTION
ARCHITECTURE EXPOSED, IN 6 QUESTIONS.
There are always more questions than answers. An answer to one question leads to another question, which leads to another answer, and so on, in a chicken-and-egg endless chain. This is a good thing because it fuels progress, and without it, there would be no science, no art and certainly no architecture.
With architecture, things get complicated, because between the chicken and the egg, there’s the architect. The architect asks the chicken: Are you sure you want an egg right now? Wouldn’t you like to improve your living environment first? Now, turning to the egg, the architect wants to know: Will you really find fulfillment as a chicken? Have you considered a turkey or a duck? There are always options, but options only emerge when the right questions are asked. Enter the architect. Asking questions is the basic tool of architecture.
It’s generally accepted that architects are the ones who design buildings. In fact, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) offers, as its first definition:
A master-builder. spec. A skilled professor of the art of building, whose business it is to prepare the plans of edifices and exercise a general superintendence over the course of their erection.
Wikipedia is a little more forthcoming, noting that architects “provide services,” design spaces and create “buildings that have human occupancy or use as their principal purpose.” This is more descriptive, reasonably accurate and brief enough to be memorable, but not informative.
It’s becoming more obvious, and more worrisome, that people are not sure what architects do and why they do it. The dictionary definitions of architect and architecture are a bit misleading, and even the “official” definitions don’t help. According to the RAIC website, “Architecture is the art, the science and the business of building.” From the Ontario website, (citing The Architects Act, R.S.O. 1990,c. A26) we learn that “‘architect’ means the holder of a licence, a certificate of practice or a temporary licence.” Why is it so hard to find out what architects actually do? Two well respected architect-writers describe the situation this way:
We are continually frustrated at the lack of understanding of architects by the general public. ... We are convinced that our risks would be less if everyone better understood what an architect is and does.
– James B. Atkins, FAIA, FKIA and Grant A Simpson, FAIA. Managing Project Risk
So, architects would be better off if people understood what we do. But what about everybody else? Wouldn’t a broader understanding of architecture and its potential be good for everyone?
The profession faces many new challenges and responsibilities that complicate things even more – technological, theoretical, philosophical, ecological, climatological, sociological, etc., etc. But there’s one big problem that keeps tripping us up: If people don’t understand what we do, why we do it, and what we’re capable of doing, how can we be expected to do our best work – and keep our profession from sliding into oblivion, which would benefit no one? Atkins and Simpson put it this way:
The operative word … is “communicate,” since who people think we are is greatly determined by who we lead them to believe we are.
– Atkins and Simpson, op. cit.
One sure-fire way to communicate is to ask and answer questions. Architecture is created by asking questions. So a good starting point might be to formulate some simple, meaningful questions – questions that people might not think to ask – that get to the heart of the matter. Here are a few questions that may provide some architectural insight, and with any luck, will lead to more questions.