Have you ever wondered about that isolated corner in the street that you reminisce about when finding your way or that specific corner in your house that reminds you of your grandmother? It is strange that elements of architecture anchor our memories and reconstruct them when thought about the things associated with them. While architecture and spatial experience might be self-evident, how it is encountered differs from person to person. As the visual sense is the most dominant one, it never fails to assess the visual inputs of the surroundings into the eyes and mind of a person.
Architecture has knowingly or unknowingly a great impact on everyone’s lives. Right from the minute, you wake up in bed till the moment of your encounter with different spaces throughout the day, architecture is present everywhere around you. Sometimes the spaces might feel subtle as if they hardly exist while the other times the enclosure could be extremely overwhelming around you. But despite all that, the architectural influence of public buildings, houses, communal spaces, monuments, and urban spaces is quite magnificent.
How Does An Architect And A Common Man Perceive Spaces?
The way common people perceive architectural spaces as opposed to architects and designers is different in numerous ways. Gaining a professional education in designing and analyzing different spaces develops a knack for architects and designers to discern architecture around them in a unique yet organized manner. An architect would never fail to indulge an image of proportions, symmetry, composition, functionality, aesthetics, and experience of space in his mind that he is intrigued or encountered with. At the same time, a common man would be generally more focused on the aesthetics of the space rather than the functionality.
The Present State of Architecture And Its Impact On The Future
| Impacting Lives
Currently, most of the architecture is influenced by global design trends and works of famous architects. The progression towards globalization has accelerated significant social, economic, environmental, and individual shifts for the Architectural community. These challenges have resulted in a type of architecture that is inspired by trends rather than the local context. At the same time, sustainability is something that all architects and designers are moving towards. A lot of architecture is even inspired by climatic changes and cultural context. The perception of architecture has greatly changed with the increased exposure to knowledge of buildings around the world.
Another aspect that has greatly shifted the perception of architectural spaces is photography. With the advancement in social media and digital software creating architectural real-time renders, people are more exposed to a huge spectrum of architectural photography and renders which affects their view of natural spaces. Often the way a spatial architectural element or detail feels is not the same as how the image or a 2D dimensional photography depicts it. The conversion of a 3D space into a 2D image distorts the space from various angles due to which the essence of the experience is lost.
The Current State Of Architectural Education
Another factor that is affecting the perception of architecture is architectural education itself. Previously, architectural education was primarily focused on creating sketches, drawings, and understanding the different elements of architecture which helped in decoding any given space. With the technical advancement, architectural education has become holistic and multidimensional which has allowed architects to learn multiple skillsets and undertake different career paths. With an increase in knowledge of the multiple facets that make architecture, it has changed the way people view and experience spaces.
The pandemic situation has given further rise to a distinctive opportunity that has melted the boundaries of different countries and made resources accessible to everyone globally. This has led to an increase in the consumption of resources online which has further challenged traditional and in-person architectural education. While most architectural education does benefit from having in-person site meetings, inspections, architectural tours, and workshops, the online system has eliminated the restrictions due to the physical parameters. It has both a positive and a negative side to it when it comes to architectural education.
Impact – Positive Or Negative? | Impacting Lives
The positive aspect is that students and professionals in the architectural community can interact, share, and learn from each other’s experiences while the negative aspect is that the in-person teachings and real-time learnings from experiencing and viewing physical spaces are lost. The future of architecture lies in the holistic understanding of the climate, context, and sustainability. Architectural students are required to be more aware of the global architectural issues and gain an outlook from their own and other’s experiences in the architectural community.
Thus, it can be concluded that architecture has an immense impact on everyone’s lives in very distinct ways. Just like any other experience, an architectural experience can never be the same for any two people which is what makes it very interesting to design spaces that could cater to the wide range of people and users of a particular space. Architecture has always been for people, and so the main essence of it is to make the people experiencing the space have a very special escapade.
