I Want to Face the Challenges of Architecture
When you drive home from work, do you ever explore? Sure, it might take longer than usual, and there may be unpleasant stops along the way, but occasionally you will find an unexpected surprise. By casting aside strict conventions and routines and by taking risks, we can achieve things we never considered or thought possible.
I find that many people in our religiously capitalist society only seek the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient route. While some industries hire to increase diversity and thereby innovation, many dare not attempt anything new. In particular, many established architects and developers fear taking chances and fear the risk of failure inherent in untested methods. I, on the other hand, believe that architects must not feel constrained by the past but must follow-up on promising possibilities.
Exploring undiscovered methods and paths requires self-criticism, self-assurance, and courage. In my junior year in college, I doubted the teaching style of my instructor in my first design studio class. I felt as if he pushed his own rigid ideas into the students' creations and did not allow the students the opportunity to pursue their own original designs. Fearing my intellectual growth might be stunted by his lectures and dissatisfied with his teaching, I basically taught myself design by researching and combing through hundreds of architecture books. Through my own studies, I came to realize that architecture should be learned, not preached. That semester, I further challenged myself by working on a design of my own creation, a design not assigned by my instructor. While it would have been easier to accept the instructor' s lessons and just follow his ideas, I realized that I could never take the easy way again now that I discovered that the beauty of architecture lies in learning it myself. That semester helped formulate my approach towards architecture and influence my design decisions to this day.
Although self-motivation is extremely important, seeking the guidance and critique of others is essential to good design since others can find what I may have overlooked. One critic who has been particularly crucial to the development of my work is Craig Scott, a Progressive Architecture Awards Winner in 1996,who worked together with Homa Fardjadi and Sima Fardjadi. Craig was my studio critic during the spring term of 1997.
“The architect’s role and their intellectual responsibility is to fight to maintain their vision and little bits get chopped off all the time, but if they’re only little bits, it’s not too bad.’’
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. 4th ed. Oxford: Architectural Press, 2006.
The bourgeoisie are particularly important because not only did they modernized society but industrialized it as well. They took revered occupations and turned them into paid wage-labor, for example being a physician or poet. Marx’s view on the bourgeoisie is that they emerged after numerous revolutions involving modes of production as well as exchange. They create the world according to their image, which strips society
Lawson, Bryan. How Designers Think: The Design Process Demystified. NY: Architectural Press, 1980, 2007. Massachusetts: NECSI Knowledge Press, 2004.
When an architect is influenced they create. They make what they see in their mind. But people could always improve what they’ve already created. Homes at one point were only one story houses. But suddenly to someone’s mind they thought homes should be two stories or even three. Back in High School, most of my classmates wanted to become architects and they’d be asked how they were influenced to draw a blueprint like the one they had. Some would respond with “I saw this house that had this this and this and I really liked it so I put it into my home.” Meaning they would be inspired by a home that was already
Malcolm traveled to Chicago to meet Elijah Muhammad and there, he became assistant minister of Nation of Islam’s Detroit Temple. Suddenly and without warning in 1961, Elijah Muhammad got violently ill. Malcolm does everything that he can to help the situation, but he knew deep down that he liked how the Nation was growing. Little did he know another hardship would be coming his way. People start getting mad and saying that he was trying to take credit for what Elijah was trying to teach and making money off of it. Although he denies all of the allegations, the news gets around and Malcolm states “What astonished me even more- a telegram had been sent to every New York City newspaper and radio and television station.” This would ding his reputation for a long time, because it was everywhere and that makes him go crazy. He was offended at all the remarks, but this would help him reevaluate his views on white people and people of different
That desire to go where no one has ever been before is inside of all of us. All of us enjoy exploring new teritory that we have never been on before. It’s that thrill and excitement that fills our heart and soles.
For example Malcolm X wrote that when he was in his United States seventh grade history class he said that the teacher had covered all black history in one paragraph (213) of the text book and would make rude comments and jokes to the class during the discussion. In today’s society it’s not really the teacher that makes the comments anymore because they could get fired, now it’s the other classmates in the class that makes the slide remarks. Malcolm X also mentioned that Elijah had spread his teachings to many other black people in different parts of the United States and other black people saw that what Mr. Muhammad was teaching was that most of them did not know anything from a black person that actually lived what happened in the past, all they know in what they learned in history and sometimes what is in a history book is not always what’s true. After considering all of this Malcolm went to the library and checked out a bunch of different books that would give him some insight from other black authors to hear their side of black history. Some examples would be Story of Civilization by Will Durant, Outline of History by H.G. Wells, and Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B Du Bois (213). After looking through all of the comments and remarks Malcolm still decided to find out more information on his
The southern way of speech had yet to have been captured skillfully until Twain’s writing. Twain went into detail in L...
The success of architects is defined not so much by the problems they face as the act of their creative and practical responses.
In order to create innovative public architecture, considered to be the most civic, costly, time intensive and physical of the arts, the project holds a degree of risk, strife, and negotiation . Overcoming these tasks and creating worthy public architecture is a challenge designers try to accomplish, but are rarely successful. The people involved in a potential public building, can be larger than the building itself. Public architecture tries to please all, even the doubters and critics, but because of the all these factors, a building is closer to failing than succeeding.
Over the last four years of studying architecture, I have seen the power that it has to shape communities, shape lives, and to create new ways that people interact with each other. The way architecture can help enhance living and allow for creation of new interactions of people is one of the reasons I find the subject so interesting. The way architecture can shape a whole culture and the way that the culture then in turn shapes the architecture is fascinating to me. Architecture is also not a static subject, it is constantly evolving and adapting with time to take on new forms, create new spaces, and to provide commentary on the history of our time on Earth. The depth that architecture has, and the evolution of the subject is something I have fallen in love with through my study of it. However, when I first started out studying architecture, I had no idea of the depth that the subject had, and it was an incredibly daunting realization; however, it was as equally exciting. I have always had a love for learning and architecture has just fueled that fire. Even after completing my bachelors degree, the learning has not stopped. I get to learn something new about architecture daily, and getting to say that is an opportunity I am thankful to have. It is not just about the learning however, its
gotten inspiration from each place he has lived. Daniel started his career working as an architectural theorist and professor at many universities worldwide. In the mid 80’s, he began entering architecture competitions. He designed
Meijenfeldt, E. V., and Geluk, M. 2003. Below ground level: creating new spaces for contemporary architecture. Birkhauser
There are 25 major specialties in engineering that are recognized by professional societies. In any one of those 25 specialties, the goal of the engineer is the same. The goal is to be able to come up with a cost effective design that aids people in the tasks they face each day. Whether it be the coffee machine in the morning or the roads and highways we travel, or even the cars we travel in, it was all an idea that started with an engineer. Someone engineered each idea to make it the best solution to a problem. Even though engineer’s goals are similar, there are many different things that engineers do within their selected field of engineering. This paper will focus on the architectural field of engineering.