Private Desires or Public Virtue

"The dilemma for every architect is how to advance our profession and our community with our talents rather than our talents being used to compromise them."

"People and place matter. Architecture is a continually developing profession now under the influence of consumer-driven culture"

After reading Samuel Mockbee's article "Rural Studio" it made me think about the importance of an architects role in our society today. With our world continuing to develop in every aspect, the architects role becomes even more important  in finding ways to solve real world issues. What is amazing about the Rural studio's work under Samuel Mockbee is its honesty (as Mockbee mentions in the article) of the architecture to its place, people, and its time (when it was built). Even though the work is simple in the way it is constructed, with locally recycled materials and construction methods, there is a certain unique quality to the architecture that can't be removed.

In today's society, we have used technology to advance our profession in many ways, always trying to make buildings that continue to be different and defy the norms of our society. While I think technology can be helpful in many ways, it sometimes removes us from what we are trying to achieve. Maybe if we can find more ways to use architecture to connect with the people/communities we are designing in today,  we can make architecture that is relevant in its context and serves a need for the people who use it. I'm not sure what the answer is but there are some things we can learn from the simplicity of Samuel Mockbee's Rural Studio architecture and how architecture can connect with people.

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