Key Elements

"If built environment is an organism, it is so by virtue of human intervention; people imbue it with life and spirit of place. As long as they are actively involved and find a given built environment worth renewing, altering, and expanding, it endures. When they leave off, the environment dies and crumbles, pulled back down to the earth by the ineluctable force of gravity."

Are architects really as important as we think they are? Sure, they are educated on the technical aspects of a building, how things function, and safety, but aren’t the people that occupy the space really the life forms that are the key elements that make a space successful? People are the ones that make a house a home. Maybe the architect does play a role, but in reality it is the people that are the main factor. They are the ones that keep a place lively and establishes the essence of it. Without the key component, how is it possible for the built environment to stay alive? 

Once you take away the people, the most important part of the equation, the space turns into just that, a  space. It’s no longer a boisterous bar, functioning office, or a lived in home. The space is now an empty shell of it’s former self and it will eventually die and crumble. I think architect should try to design in a way that the build environment should alway have a function; maybe even become a adaptable for the many years to come and for the many residents that will eventually use that built environment. It is important to always keep the user in mind.