Real vs Ideal
In this week's readings, I particularly enjoyed when John Habraken addresses the dichotomy in architecture between the profession and academia.
I'm still trying to understand what this means exactly but from what I can tell, it's that the professional is always trying to reach this ideal that was proposed when they began their journey in academia. But because the nature of the practice of architecture is a business, sometimes these ideals fall short and must be compromised for the sake of paying the rent. On the flip side of that, academia has all the freedom in the world to create these ideals, always aiming for them to hypothetically be implemented within reality. But rarely do they ever get a taste of reality, which ends up pushing them farther away.
I think it is easy as students and educators to make a broad claim about how we expect our projects to work in reality. It's easy when there's no actual repercussion and we can rely on the "it's never going to get built anyway," argument. We don't have to make the same compromises in our bubble as professionals do and that's something we take for granted. Similarly, I think it's important that the bottom line for professionals be less about money and more about a service to the community. But that's a hard line to draw. Maybe that's why the Community Build program is so compelling, it shortens the distance between the real and the ideal.
I'm still trying to understand what this means exactly but from what I can tell, it's that the professional is always trying to reach this ideal that was proposed when they began their journey in academia. But because the nature of the practice of architecture is a business, sometimes these ideals fall short and must be compromised for the sake of paying the rent. On the flip side of that, academia has all the freedom in the world to create these ideals, always aiming for them to hypothetically be implemented within reality. But rarely do they ever get a taste of reality, which ends up pushing them farther away.
I think it is easy as students and educators to make a broad claim about how we expect our projects to work in reality. It's easy when there's no actual repercussion and we can rely on the "it's never going to get built anyway," argument. We don't have to make the same compromises in our bubble as professionals do and that's something we take for granted. Similarly, I think it's important that the bottom line for professionals be less about money and more about a service to the community. But that's a hard line to draw. Maybe that's why the Community Build program is so compelling, it shortens the distance between the real and the ideal.
I love your image at the end. It is always hard to explain to people exactly what we do, and people can't truly understand unless they are architects as well. I also really liked your quote "Similarly, I think it's important that the bottom line for professionals be less about money and more about a service to the community". When we talk in class about architects, most if not all of them are well-known and most likely make a lot of money. It seems to me that the architects who are truly implementing user participation and are making an impact on their communities, are most likely not going to be well-known and in the spotlight. They aren't doing it for the fame or fortune, they truly believe in creating architecture that will improve the lives of the users and their community.
ReplyDeleteThis is all good stuff. There is also a special place in my heart for these memes. When I read your post I think of those 6 realities in the picture spinning around like slots. Like a sick game, anywhere you stop throughout your post could land you on a given reality - for better or worse.
ReplyDeleteIn our own reality. I think to some extent...even though our 9-5's will inevitably be the "what I actually do" for most of our existence; we do get to live out all 6 in doses. Winning a project, completing a building, explaining a project to your Mom, bad days at work, and details that make it through design are going to send you through all of the meme's realities. I would like to think its up to us which one we want to live in the longest but unfortunately we do not always get that luxury.
It's a sad picture you paint. A Sisyphean episode where we are always striving to attain something that is perpetually outside of our reach.
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