Architecture's People
De Carlo expressed his thoughts in Architecture’s Public nearly 50 years ago. I couldn’t help but
wonder what he would think of the profession of architecture and the education
of architecture in the present day. “In architecture new ideas are at least 50
years old.” If that thought still rang true, we would be studying the
architecture of the 60's as if it were still new.
Our communities today are filled with architecture of the fast
world. Affordable housing has still not been solved, yet developers continue to
plan land usage based on how many upper-middle class homes can be built. With
all of this being said, it takes me back to the fundamentals of architecture
and an idea we learned in Productions and Assemblies. Firmness, commodity, and
delight will always be applicable in both the profession and education of
architecture. But newness - innovation - is where we are now. It is not about
inventing anything new, because most things (architecture) has already been
done. Rather, it is how we make the already successful even better. If a
building provides firmness, commodity, and delight, there is no reason innovation
cannot be worked into the equation.
I like how you pointed out that most architectural ideas have already been done. I think that some students get caught up in the originality of it all, when it's probably been done previously. School is for learning about successful architecture (history/theory) and pushing our creativity in problem solving to create a more innovative future.
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