Architecture, in all its developmental stages, must have an origin in the earliest efforts for protecting their bodies against wild beasts, weather disruptions, human enemies, etc. The imagining of the world without architecture leads to a common conclusion that architecture has always been the core of human civilization since time immemorial. The present world in its full grandeur is filled with marvels of architecture. The architecture complements and prioritizes the superiority of extraordinary minds possessed by homo-sapiens, or more specifically, by architects.
The world is an amalgamation of human civilization and architecture. Since the very beginning of time, the major needs for humans have been sheltering and security. Without architecture, man would have never flourished and had died and become extinct due to various factors like extreme cold, heat or diseases, etc. With no shelter for people to live in, it would have been very difficult for them to carry out the day-to-day basic nature tasks. Therefore, we can say, architecture and human existence are two sides of the same coin. This article will further talk about present world problems that would have emerged without architecture.
Considering monumental structures such as the Colosseum, the Taj Mahal, Notre Dame, Guggenheim Museum, Sydney Opera House, etc., every building reflects the story of the time. Architecture also persists through our infrastructure from bridges to public spaces and even in the layout of our cities.
A world without architecture is basically a world without hierarchy. No beauty, no humanity, no heights, no passion, no divine, no vision, and no awe. The intangible world would have led people to live on barren lands with zero knowledge about technology. Privacy would have been an unknown expression.
What would have been the status of tourism without architecture? A lot of problems would have come to light ranging from tourism to the economy. It is a common fact that the cities and countries like the Maldives, Bahamas, Thailand, Fiji, etc., depend solely on architecture and tourism for their survival. To answer the question, the economy would have been affected on a large scale and obviously, there would have been no mark of tourism or its counterparts. No tourism means no income from secondary sources like employment opportunities that arise from the need for transportation, accommodation, maintenance, guided tours, and other related services.
The Covid-19 pandemic has kept us locked up inside our places of shelters or homes for almost 2 years in several parts of the world. Without architecture, everyone in the world would have gotten infected with the virus and eventually would have died. During those tough times, everyone just merely wanted to be under a roof with four enclosing walls from all sides. Thus, the importance of enclosed spaces was deliberately felt during the lockdown of Covid-19. Moreover, the need for hospital architecture is also increasing day by day. Hospitals have separate, clean and germ-free spaces for sterilizations, surgeries, etc. With the absence of such architectural places, humankind would have faced serious health threats that would have led to a continuously decreasing population.
Architecture not only includes buildings but structures like cars, ships, cruises, airplanes, etc. also come under the scope of architecture. Further acknowledging, nobody would have been able to travel to different places. People would have been stuck in a single city or country and the discovery of the world would have been impossible. The places for gaining knowledge like auditoriums, libraries, schools, institutions, colleges, universities, etc. would not have existed and the world would have been lacking in innovative minds and awareness.
Every single aspect that we can think of is somehow related to architecture. Sanitation architecture like sewer systems and drains also plays an important part in our lives. Other structures like bridges, roads, petrol stations, etc. come under architectural planning. Architecture on a greater level also focuses on planning a city. City planning recognizes carefully placed building blocks into organized patterns. Such patterns are inclusive of architectural aesthetics. Without architecture, the planned cities must not have been existing today.
Architecture is the frame of human existence. We must dedicate this existence more to beauty. For if poetic principle has deserted us, how long are we going to last?
FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT
All things considered, mankind would have still been living in the prehistoric ages, either in natural caves or under some trees, or anything of that sort. The architecture of all the stages of civilizations reflects the traces of civilizations that have become a part of history now. Nobody would have known their existence and the concept of architecture would have never been developed. It can be said that everything that humans do today either in their homes, their places of worship, their places of knowledge, or any of their places, all of this is possible just because of the architectural existence.
