The Non-Architect

(This is something that's been tumbling about in the back of my head for a while, so if it reads as the mad ramblings of my unhinged mind, I do apologize.)

Throughout the semester, the phrase "non-architect" has been thrown around quite a bit in our lectures and discussions.  The non-architect is the originator of the culture, history, methods, and vernacular upon which we rely.  The non-architect is the everyday.    The non-architect  is a source of insight and purpose, but also a source of frustration that must be properly managed.  If the non-architect is need, the architect is direction. 

If the architect is defined by the education, training, and specialized knowledge of the profession, what defines the non-architect?  The little old lady who has lived in a neighborhood her entire life, borne witness to its triumphs and tragedies, painted with all the colors of its wind, how does she compare to the architect newly arrived from a firm downtown?  What of the vagrant who spends his day in the 8th St. station, knows with extreme intimacy the wall and columns of the space, which are best to sleep against, which garner the best profit when he needs to beg, is he architect to his environment?  Even contractors, engineers, and others share some of knowledge of the architect, does that make them demi-architects, pseudo-architects?  

We, the architect, make decisions everyday which affect their, the non-architect, lives in ways that could never possibly be fully expressed.  We try to determine how they live their lives, direct their movements, frame their sight, and it's ever a wonder why the architect is viewed as the height of arrogance?  Even the we refer to them speaks volumes; "non-architect" not us, the others, different, separated by what?

How can we, as a profession, a community, justify viewing those not us as both a vital necessity and an inferior inconvenience?  How can we have such a fascination with the everyday yet regularly overlook those that produce it?  

(TLDR: William went chasing the dragon and got on a tirade)