Architecture is a system that takes things and turns them into new ones. Anyone who has studied architecture can build something, but the challenge is integrating all of the disciplines (politics, business, sociology, geology, and geography), that all have a role in what the architect must do and must come together to inspire the architect’s creations. It’s critical to consider philosophy when designing a structure.
Architecture is about rights, resources, and equal access to the necessities of life. How do we give form to the future world? How do we want to inhabit it? Will it determine the future of architecture? As a consequence, it is critical to consider both the past and the present. We need to ask questions such as, what are the current advancements? What impact will they have on society in the future? How will people live? Will they be living in cities, or will they be able to escape from energy consumption grids and move away from this centralized order?
Architecture’s Past, Present, and Future: Where did it all begin, Where have we been, and Where will it lead?
The Past:
Architecture has been around since the first few humans have been on Earth. First in caves, then in buildings, in prehistoric times, people would use sticks, logs, stones for shelter, a farmer plowed a plot of ground, a shepherd erected a fence, and the practice of land usage, land planning, and architecture began. People banded together to protect themselves from the weather and one another. They formed a group to engage in hunting, farming, and trading together. Before the 1800s, people built buildings with pillars, stones, bricks, and many other things to make them look like the style of the time.
The Present:
Cities grew out of people, and cities grew out of protective barriers. The walls were renovated on occasion, and new layers of walls were constructed. Cities began to become more vertical. Buildings have recently become skyscrapers, and skyscrapers have piled up. Paths turned into streets, which turned into expressways, and rivers, which previously supported ships, turned into sewers, accumulating pollution. Creating a modern style is about designing a building or house that looks like a style. Even though the design of the 1800s is still used today, it does not mean they are no longer being built. People nowadays employ concrete and I-beams to construct their homes. Bricks, stones, and pillars are still utilized on occasion. Architects are today required to run enormous businesses, to construct, landscape, and many other things.
And to put it all in perspective – What will be the future of architecture?
If there is so much limitation and restriction on resources today, imagine what it will be like in the future. The future of architecture will be trendy (technology-based) or traditional (custom-based) based on external factors.
The Future:
We’re living in this period of extreme urbanization. The urbanization of our planet has led to an insatiable appetite for developing buildings. The biggest problem that we are facing is the issues of division, the issues that come out of inequity. Architects, urban planners, and engineers are looking for answers to some of the most pressing questions of our time: how can we as citizens of our planet live together happily in the future. The question of how and where we will live in the future inevitably leads us here to the city. Once upon a time, the city and its structures were a world; now, the world is a city. It was always a location with possibilities. The city incorporates the entire planet, as well as all of our modern living notions. Cities are condensers. It is a place where we can gain anonymity. They don’t carry the baggage of any social dislocations that you might have experienced. The lights of cities draw us far and wide even today.
More than half of us will most likely be living in cities by 2050, it will be around 70 percent of the population. The global population grows by 80 million every year. The issue of overpopulation is an urban problem. When a significant number of people dream of the same place, the space for dreaming becomes sparse. Every condenser has a threshold limit of how much it can produce productively, both in societal cultures and economic conditions. Cities are no longer monofunctional; around 100 things happen simultaneously, so they are incredibly complex in terms of the aspirations they are trying to accommodate, so design becomes even more critical since that resolves the conflicting aspects, and space is integral to this process. However, urban identifications in the modern era have typically resembled a dense cluster of high-rise residential buildings crowded into a small geographical region. It’s a classic urbanization image.
It will become evident in the future that architecture will become increasingly sophisticated in its pursuit of material comfort: Automatic heating, energy conservation, house automation (i.e. Automated consumption management), equipment built into walls, glass with liquid crystals that change transparency when an electrical current passes through it, lighting controlled by voice commands, and “intelligent” entrance doors are just a few examples (with information such as voice recognition, etc. It’s debatable whether this is the only option to enhance people’s living conditions in urban areas. Another possibility, however, appears to be emerging. There is a trend toward investing in man, his emotions, and finding ways to adapt the environment to his psychological and emotional demands.
Trends of Tomorrow
It is clear that architecture around the world and the people who design it, is changing enormously. Innovations help us to overcome the challenges we will face in the future. However, when it comes to buildings, we are still not innovative enough to ensure we will even have a future. Few trends in terms of technology are mentioned.
- Collaboration will make the conventional ‘Architect’ a step ahead
- Augmented World will be the tactile Futuristic Architecture
- Parametric design will be the next moment in architecture
- BIM modeling is an old concept, but it is gaining traction in the architectural community.
- Prefabrication has altered our thinking, but robotic construction and 3D printing will have a more profound impact.
- The concepts of interconnectivity, smart design, vertical cities will redefine the way we create living spaces.
Green buildings and climate-responsive buildings will be classic trends in terms of custom-based treads. The future of architecture will increasingly focus on providing a sustainable habitat for all living things on Earth. Staying true to one’s roots while spreading branches far and wide appears to be shaping our future.
Creators’ Obligations
Every project has challenges about which we are unaware. We decided to make architecture a stand-alone entity. We merely follow the client’s instructions, while we also have a social responsibility. We owe a duty to our patrons because they support us, and we also owe a duty to society because we will have an impact on them. The role of architects is to broaden the topic, be astute, respectful, and honest about it. Pedagogy may help us do so. We need to teach and demonstrate this to aspiring architects.
We must start thinking about tomorrow, today and act now for the sake of our future. We are part of a generation that can reimagine architecture for the next 100 years. Isn’t that astounding? Planning how the spaces will be used in the future has never been more crucial. It’s a difficult task because so much is at stake. Architects, urban planners, and engineers will not only decide how and where we will live in the future. However, they can also do their part in making sure that these were and how to exist in the first place. One of the responsibilities of the future architect, in addition to conventional technical characteristics, is to set quality standards to qualify color schemes, gradations of bright or opalescent light, acoustic qualities in spaces, tactile aspects of textures, thermal ambiance, and so on. Building’s modern and historical elements will almost certainly coexist in the future. There will also be updated construction methods to be developed. We must adapt and evolve!!
References:
- Ponsford, M. (n.d.). How nature’s ancient technologies can inform today’s cities. [online] CNN. Available at: https://edition.cnn.com/style/article/natural-design-indigenous-architecture-lo-tek/index.html.
- TMD STUDIO LTD (2017). Emerging Trends That Will Shape the Future of Architecture. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/studiotmd/emerging-trends-that-will-shape-the-future-of-architecture-356ba3e7f910
- www.architectureppf.com. (n.d.). Architecture: Past, Present, and Future. [online] Available at: http://www.architectureppf.com/
- www.youtube.com. (n.d.). Flexible Buildings: The Future of Architecture | Free Documentary. [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw9zpH717ts.
