A tale of Three (Capital A) Architects
Yesterday I wrote this other post. You might want to read it first. But you don’t need to. In fact your ignorance of that discussion (amazing comments by the way), might help answer the riddle below.
A tale of Three (Capital A) Architects
Three Architects are walking down a road. They have just been asked by the Wealthiest Man in the Land to design the Greatest Building Ever. Each is lost in thought, contemplating the most important question.
The first asks himself “How could it be built?”
The second asks himself “Why will it be built?”
The third asks himself “What should be built?”
A week later they return to the Wealthiest Man in the Land and introduce themselves.
The first says “I am the Builder-Architect. I will give you a Building of the Greatest detail Ever.”
The second says “I am the Philosopher-Architect. I will uncover the secrets that make your Building the Greatest Ever.”
The third says “I am the (fill in the blank with one word)-Architect. Here is the design for the Greatest Building Ever.”
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What is that third architect? All three answers are right. All three answers are valid. All three answers are a legitimate starting point for design. All three answers get to the core of what we each contribute to the profession. The sickness and rot within our profession is when the balance of the three is out of alignment.
What is that third one?
I don’t know. I but I need to find out.
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Update 03/14/13 – I found my answer.
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Atonio Tort
Listener.
In spite of most of the people think, the higher value of an Architect is his ability to listen to his clients.
(Obviously his knowledge about designing and building is given formerly)
Jared Banks
interesting take on it… but couldn’t any of the three be good or bad listeners? That is an important quality of a good architect (and needs to fill a few dedicated blog posts), but not what I sense separates the third from the first and second. Thoughts?
However that does provide a clue. What is number three listening to? Or how is number three listening to the client’s needs in a different way from number one and two? Or perhaps equally (more) importantly: how is he interpreting what the client says? Through what lens?
Jay Zallan
The third is a “Working” Architect
Larry Fredlund
Architect’s Architect. Only an architect would only ask for the “look” of the building. Every other client will need the Why and How answered first. Also goes back to “Form follow’s Function”…..if function must conform to the “right” design then that design is Art not Architecture.
Larry Fredlund
Arrogant Architet??? lol
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Lena
(fill in the blank with one word)-Architects are driven by their personal needs maybe? I figured out that it helps a lot when designing. (Be aware that I’m still in college, I don’t know how the architecture works in a “real world”.)
Jared Banks
I think our personal needs and desires are definitely a factor. How that relates to our clients wishes often determines the success of the project.
Mark smith
Visionary architect. Or in other words “artistic” because what they vision they can easily sketch.
Jared Banks
In the follow up post, I settled on artist. In this context I don’t see this term as relating to the ability to sketch or be visionary. All these architypes can design great architecture and this can be accomplished in a variety of ways.