I am not a lecturer or professor or neither close to an architect. But based on many current issues and also observations on what other says in public lectures and hence by analyzing them. I think I could summarize this up. I am stating that you “don’t learn” this in school because I personally don’t think school education framework highlight the studies of outside project critically. No offense to any school.
1) Past, Present and Future
I don’t really like to overuse the word of sustainability.But if there are terms of heritage and memories, then let’s preserve it. As an architect, it’s our ethics to respect the past and future of what the building may offer. How does the present of the building offer the sense of heritage or significant memories to some end users? And how does the building respect the future surrounding and technology? This field is a challenge itself, but let’s fact it that today’s world is all about speed and money that most architects often just miss out the point of creating an end product that is meant to last.
2) Building and Surroundings Relations across Time
Most of us when we design, we picture the building in a frozen time. And yes we could have done climatic analysis etc but I think it has much more to offer we don’t see. As buildings, we shouldn’t create a controlled environment sometimes till the point of isolation. Many aspects including rain drainage are often being left to engineers to deal with, in which we know a little. A truly “green” building takes in aspects and is effective in what it suppose to do at all time. We have known a little as time changes and how our product may relate to it.
3) Respect Users and Functions
Users vary across the world. In the west, you have a body mass of different size and differently in the east. One thing mainly on what Architects lack today is the point of not respecting culture and habits of the locals. Often when we engage overseas project, we think we could go along with the design of globalization, postmodernism buildings. Indirectly, we just killed local cultures. Also respecting function, we need to be more focus on specifying the functional areas and just not simply placing with the prioritizing of form and space design.
4) Build a brand dynamically
This applies to every career. How do you want the product to be distinguished from others? Architecture means Marketplace for many others too. How do you want to brand this building and making it distinctive from others? The top 3 characteristics and all, or to say the highlight. It’s like having an advertisement and knowing how your building design would react in providing this attention. The marketplace is realistic, real estate agents would tell their clients on what they admire of your condos or houses. It’s what developers want to see.
5) Be humble when you should.
I think this is the hardest. When we are meant to design buildings that are humble to the surrounding. so be it. There is no point building a condominium higher than a cathedral which is meant to be the center of town planning. That’s why there are urban planning rules. But be proud in other aspects, on finding the strength and opportunity on what your design can offer. All in all, it’s all about respecting others while finding your edging point.
Just my 2 sens. I just love thinking
