Architecture has been a novel concept in my family for a long time. As a first-generation architecture graduate in the family, having witnessed how new this field was to my immediate family and relatives it was noticeable how their understanding was shaped over time.
Initially, during the perusal of my first year in architecture school, at any family gathering, the conversation surrounding was what this subject was about, whether architects followed the same study structure and life as a civil engineer, if an architect existed why do civil engineers exist, basically what this new major “architecture” is about. My responses to these questions were quite deranged. Having recently gotten into architecture school, my perception was budding, that is how the answers used to revolve around the aesthetics of a structure.
Civil engineers are responsible for building the structures, but architects are the main deal, you won’t have a good-looking building without us. I tried to justify my response to which the relatives would nod their heads, but the clarification for their queries at that time wasn’t there. but now if you ask me what architecture is about, my response will be not just aesthetics.
Shaping of Perception in Architecture School and Work
During my first year of school, our professor asked us to pick an architect we liked the most and write about the influence it had upon us. Looking up these exact words on the internet “the greatest architect of all times” you could guess the list of names that were found in my search list: Le Corbusier, Zaha Hadid, Frank Llyod Wright, and many more. Among these names, my eyes especially led me to Antoni Gaudi, the one with an ancient picture. After exploring his works, profound astonishment followed, the extent that could be reached to shape a building and the entire experience it offers shattered my initial views on architecture. Going through years of vigorous rituals of studying and assignments related to construction details, sanitary and electrical details, and not just “aesthetics” the realisation hit, there was a revelation as to how vague the foundation of my perception was.
With my profession later as an architect, many more different views and perceptions came to me regarding what architecture is about and how it affects us. What humans could have been without it, the big question, can humans exist without architecture? Reflecting on a saying by Frank Lloyd Wright, an iconic American architect “The mother art is architecture. Without an architecture of our own, we have no soul of our civilization.” Architecture is not merely about creating aesthetically appealing structures, the focus is more on functionality, sustainability, and the impacts a building has on individuals and communities.
How architecture has impacted us over time
Let’s look back in time, to where it all started for us as human beings and civilization itself, there has always been a concern about our shelter, the place to live, work, study, and everything humanly possible that can be done, having sought buildings for safety, living, and expression of our own. With this concept in mind, consider hundreds of years of civilization and how every different civilization had art and architecture of its own. With years of development and modernization, the world around us is a world where architecture is very much capable of shaping us considering our personality, lifestyle, and even our health and well-being. This concludes how architecture is not just about physical structure, but it’s more about creating an enriching human life.
In light of this, let’s delve deeper into our everyday lives where we can see our everyday activities like walking, talking, studying, working, sitting, etc. being shaped by architecture. Consider walking on the way to work on a lovely Monday morning, the roads, the pavement on the sidewalk, the trees planted around, everything is planned by the human mind. When reaching home, the welcoming yard, the entrance door, and the change of environment once being inside our own space, they all have been pre-conceived in someone’s mind. In our work, the space, the things that are put around us, the carefully selected and arranged chairs, and even the way our bathroom functions, everything was imagined at some point in time before it came into existence. These all things combined are what architecture is about.
Co-existence of Human Life and Architecture
The experience and views developed over time have led me to believe from the finest detail in a person’s life, moving to a community, then a country, and finally the whole world existing in harmony is what the grand scheme of architecture is about. There is art in all of us, and the way of expression is different, architecture comes hand in hand to express our form of living and our future. Needless to say, humans and architecture co-exist, one is impossible without the other. As civilization evolves, architecture will evolve alongside, reflecting our stories of failure, progress, culture, and our vision for the future.
