Sir, - Further to recent letters under the title "Architects Alone" it appears that one could easily misrepresent/misunderstand the role of architects and the value of architecture.
All architecture is building but not all building is architecture. Architecture is building at its best, the art of building. All buildings have a common foundation namely "designs" which are usually conveyed by drawings, models and specifications. The production of these documents do not by themselves constitute the architectural process. They are mere by-products, echoes of the architectural thinking process; the communication of ideas.
Architecture occurs when these ideas are promoted by a collaborative act involving architects, builders, clients, economists, engineers, surveyors and society as a whole. Architecture occurs when it is allowed to occur. There are no quantifiable rules by which this unique event occurs, merely evidence that it has happened before. It is the echo of previous cultures. One cannot imagine Egyptian, Greek or medieval culture without their architectural achievements.
Today the opportunity for architecture is restricted by events, often alien to the process of architecture. The value of architecture as place maker, an expression of community, evidence of our noble spirit, selflessness or generosity is undermined when buildings become mere boxes providing minimum standards or dimensions limiting air quality, day lighting and environment. Architecture seeks to transcend the limits, of material to provide for the immeasurable, the sun, shelter from the harsh and an embrace for the pleasant.
Architects thrive on competition, wishing to find an outlet for their explorations, experiments, ideas or solutions and at its most fundamental level wish to present their gift to the world. However in the world of business the problem for architects is balancing between the science/cost of building and the art of the environment. Wittgenstein believed that architecture is the most difficult profession because of the conflicts that an architect must endure as part of his/ her professional career.
While architectural activities such as drawing, models, specification appear as self evident expressions of the process, it is their thinking that remains a mystery, even to their clients. After a comprehensive five year professional programme architects are again at the start of their education. Their training is a preparation for continuous education which seems them travel the world, reading, studying, thinking about their profession, seeking a greater and more precise understanding of their craft. Architects are not defined by drawings, models or specifications but by the meaning embodied within. Building without meaning, without ideals, is not architecture. An architect is not a qualification, it is a state of mind. Current architectural training is about preparing that state of mind.
The EU considered the training of an architect and the title of architect so important to society that it is defined and protected by a directive setting down the basis for architectural training throughout the union (Ireland is unique in not having registered the profession). The architect should be supported not because of some archaic professional tradition but because the role is essential for the continued development and improvement of our environment for all of us. The real goal is architecture and we all have a different role to play in its creation. - Yours, etc
Lecturer in Theory and Design, DIT School of Architecture,
Lissenfield,
Dublin 6.