Saving the World
This story comes from a lifetime ago, way back in 2014, when I was taking "Modern Arch II: 1900-Present" The first class began with the professor introducing the course, stating that the class would move quickly through material everyone should be familiar with already; Modernity, Bauhaus, etc, ("what's a bow-house" mutters a young William) and focus on his passion, global urbanism and the socioeconomic impact of the international business of Architecture. Over the course of the course we covered projects and urban situations ranging from the favelas of Brazil and the cable cars of Medellín to ghost cities and holdout development in China (see previous blog post "Nail House" by Matthias Kelly).
It was during one such lecture that a classmate asked a question we have all heard before, asked ourselves before: "What's the point? When we graduate we'll be working for clients and businesses, not the public at large. We can't change politics. Yeah, it sucks, but what can we do?"
Professor Bow-House paused, and in a singular eloquent moment replied, "It will never be your job to save the world, but it will always be your responsibility to try."
I agree with your professor! We can't take on the responsibility of every problem with the built environment, but we can make small changes. Some of us may have our own firms one day or become partners in existing firms, at which point we can have a lot of influence.
ReplyDeleteThis was lowkey pretty inspiring, and I think you make a great point that just because something isn't necessarily "required" from us as architects, that we should still take the chance or opportunity to make better designs that can positively impact other people's lives.
ReplyDelete*gently wipes tear from eye*
ReplyDeleteAlthough from ancient times to the present, architects are indeed a service industry. It seems that there is nothing wrong with customer service. But since the influence of architecture is so big, why can we not be able to save the world as we can within our power?
ReplyDeleteI came back here after a month just to comment that this was the best post I've read on this blog ever!
ReplyDelete*insert emotions*