Oftentimes when I begin a new project I will look up key words in a dictionary and reflect on what I find as a starting point. Why should this project begin any differently?
According to the Oxford English Dictionary "architecture" is...
"noun
1) the art or practice of designing and constructing buildings.
2) the style in which a building is designed or constructed, especially with regard to a specific period, place, or culture."
Is architecture "the art or practice of designing and constructing building"? Yes. Is architecture "the style in which a building is designed or constructed, especially with regard to a specific period, place or culture"? Absolutely. I will not argue against those points, rather hope to expand upon them without turning this into a manifesto.
While straightforward, I find the OED definition to be very limiting in breadth and depth of what I would consider to be architecture. To open up a can of worms, architecture is many things to many people, but let's not go there just yet. What is architecture to me?
Architecture is not only the design and creation of buildings (both new and old), but rather the affect of the spaces created upon the people who experience them. These affects can be positive or negative, but it should be the responsibility of the architect to create them nonetheless. While not always possible to completely control a person's reaction because of culture, personal history and memories, the architect has the potential and I would argue duty to strive to make their building memorable for architecture is a daily presence in people's lives.
In brief architecture is potential. It has the potential to affect people's lives or not. It can be a work of art. It can be a science. It can be garbage.
Something that I find particularly interesting and motivating about architecture besides it's ability to affect people in the present is that I believe architecture is a story that stretches back to our very beginnings and is left open for future installments. Since arguably architecture has been around since the dawn of man, it has grown and changed throughout history and the bits and pieces that remain from ages passed can give people today an idea of how our ancestors lived. In the same sense architecture can tell stories not just about individuals but about society as a whole and how it has changed over time. Architecture is a mirror within which we can see the past and oppositely architecture has the potential to mold and direct the future.
These few measly paragraphs only touch the tip of the iceberg but I will end with one semi-nutshell thought. Architecture is more than just a building, it is also people and the lives they live.
