The prophecy is always under scrutiny by everyone in every way possible, be it a personal level, be it about a particular area, or a global level. We always wonder what our future would be like and how we can shape it in a way that we want or how we imagine it should be.
Throughout history, architecture has represented society as a reflection of the values, successes, and eventual downfall of civilizations over time. Be it the ancient monumental structures erected to display the great achievements through the timeline to the modern residences and buildings that make up the fabric of a city, we understand about the people who inhabited these structures long before our existence. By studying the built environment and practices of the past architecture, combined with modern-day technology and research on the psychology and environmental changes, we conclude as to how architecture affects people and the environment in entirely new ways.
Therefore, the prophecy of architecture comes into the limelight as we try to predict how the future will be like, making each one of us an oracle who tries to make their prophecy as to how they think architecture would be practiced further on.
Varying Prophecies of Architecture
“The architect must be a prophet… a prophet in the true sense of the term… if he can’t see at least ten years ahead, don’t call him an architect.” – Frank Lloyd Wright, ‘Truth Against the World’.
Architecture being a professional field does not have any specific way it has to be practiced and has always been a creative field where every structure or design produced is unique in one or another way, be it the style of architecture, materials used, construction methodology, etc. Therefore it was, and never will be defined in any way. So we can predict that it will keep on evolving indefinitely in the future, as well with each user and the architects who design structures as per their vision and needs.
Every area or part of the world develops at its own pace and requirements, and so does the architecture practiced there, hence different areas could be foreseen to have their prophecy of architecture. Consequently, the architectural style is closely related to its context, specific geographical features, and the cultural aspects of the surroundings. The vernacular style can be prophesied as being in continuous practice in every part of the world, where there is a requirement for the use of local or regional construction that uses traditional materials and resources from the area where the building is located.
Contemporary architecture being the architecture of the 21st century, is not any particular style and varies greatly now and can be seen in the prophecy of architecture as viewed by us. It has no clear definition of what it constitutes. It comprises a range of present-day building styles that often look radically different from each other and sometimes new altogether.
The most talked about in current times is the upcoming practice of Sustainable Architecture, which is the need of the hour to battle against the increasing needs of the human race and to maintain a balance in nature and minimize the overall impact on our surroundings. Sustainable architecture uses design strategies that reduce the negative environmental impact of a built environment. We take the site landscape and topography, energy management, stormwater management, etc., into consideration during the planning and design stage, and then use environmentally friendly techniques and materials during construction.
The recent trend of movies, sci-fi series and the comic digital world has allowed people to open their minds to a lot of new designs and ideas and encourage them to pursue what felt impossible earlier. The sci-fi architecture practice ranges from object-shaped, cloud-shaped, cake-shaped structures to futuristic interior designs that are inspired by imagery scenarios. The sci-fi architecture examples are the opposite of traditional practice and ideas and are always pushing the boundaries with complex and sophisticated design ideas and nearly impossible structures. They also invite some of the world’s most sophisticated technological inventions.
We are also being thrown at the recent pack of entertainment and 3D gaming. We tend to experience all types of games and the environment that the games allow us to explore, which becomes a great initial platform for us to see how space and interiors come up and later on develop them if we decide on the design.
In a few years, we probably will not call ourselves an architecture practice; it will be something else entirely. In the prophecy that we all have about architecture, there are many different views about its future. It has not been feasible to conclude them into a single clear picture, nor do we expect to. However, we have tried to touch on each trend or style we feel likely to be most influential, to be practiced in a wider global context, and to consider what this means for the upcoming industry as it is currently being structured.
