“In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.” – Charles Darwin
Everything in the universe has been changing and improving itself since the beginning of time. Everything has been exposed to various wonders of technology for more features to be added to its basic fundamental body. Whatever additions have been made, have either proved to be beneficial for human civilization as well as harmful and catastrophic for us and our environment.
But what about the creations we have given birth to? Technology, Biotechnology, Philosophy, Art, and Culture have all been given existence due to the concept of evolution. The architecture created over the eons and centuries has always been for the primary user: humans. Now, in the lightning-fast world, what kind of form will architecture take? Will it be a scene out of Blade Runner or will be like a jungle along with the humans?
Architecture as a Pendulum
Since the eras of architecture have been established, like modernism, post-modernism, brutalism, etc., we have always looked up to them as examples and epitomes of the perfect representation of standards. The Greek or Roman style of high volumes with tapering columns has become the symbol of power, stability, and strength. Hence, now huge institutional buildings like museums, banks, libraries, schools, universities, government buildings, have taken up influence from them and started adopting the same appearance.
But still, architects are now pushing towards innovation and technical designs which would be sustainable all around. This thrust we keep putting on our talent and years of study knowledge forces us to come up with more new ideas and transformations for the better future and new tomorrow.
But what happens when the pendulum moves towards, inspiration? The line between innovation and inspiration becomes blurred. We start copying these styles and produce the same style of buildings that lose their original charm.
a. The Actual Innovation
Why is there a difference between a building built by the colonials and a building built by Zaha Hadid? The language and the feelings tied to the building are completely different in both cases. The colonial-style building has a history, struggles, power representation attached to it while a building built by Zaha Hadid is a symbol of the future mindset of the people.
The language differences throughout diverse locations have caused the predictable thinking of a person’s perception of architecture to completely change and cross boundaries!
Now the speed of architectural development has to reach the speed of communication. That includes the amount of hard work done to produce a design and its implementation on site.
Due to the growing population as well, people will now grow vertically or reclaim the waters and create shelters that would sustain themselves yet not disrupt the sense of community.
b. Architects over Environmentalists
Now that the computer age and AI technology have taken over the world, everything will be decided and designed by the creations themselves. AI-generated design along with self-sustainable environments to grow food and materials is what the world will see in the future.
The question of the hour then would, do we need architects at all? Due to such environment-critical approaches, biotech engineers, social anthropologists, and environmentalists will play a major role in designing and proposing elements to architecture.
These designs would further be checked and evaluated by specialists and computers but nowhere would the architecture have a very major role involved.
What to expect and envision?
Our expectations may not be fulfilled completely but our visions would be achieved and may even go beyond them! Road transits may become non-existent and air traffic would become a major point for transportation problems. We may expect a communal and close-knit architectural response due to indifferences prevailing over us but what we would get is sky-high skyscrapers with eco-systems and artificial habitats.
The time and effort surrounded by architecture may be forgotten along with feelings and emotions tied to space.
Adaptability will become a feature of human civilization. Creating housings and other facilities with artificial ecosystems will become the most important goal of future designers and environmentalists. How tall can it be? How much energy will it consume and save? How much capital would be used in construction? These three questions will become the most common questions in the future.
In the end, adaptability, evolution, and mass capitalism are what would one see in the future of architecture.
