Final Thoughts on the Architect

This thought has been on my mind for a while, essentially since we talked about it in class about 2 months ago and it is the role of the architect and if we should be the know-it-alls. After recent discussions in class as well as the conversation with Luis Pancorbo it seems that this perspective seems to change based on nationality and the culture we come from.

Personally, it bothers me to hear people say that architects should have all the answers or should be the ones people turn to to solve their problems. I think this is quite ridiculous. It is impossible for one person or profession to have all the worlds solutions in their back pocket. However, yes, it is nice to think that maybe we may have a hand to play in solving these problems but odds are the majority (if not all) have no answers at all. There’s no way we can solve every social or political issue, all we can do is design a space that we believe can foster a better relationship/dialogue that may then lead to something, but all in all we are just designing spaces not solving the worlds problems.

Obviously this is a horrible way to think about it and of course we can in fact make a difference in the spaces we design, but it has been on my mind and it seems that a lot of people assume the arrogant architect mentality that they know it all which is impossible.