An architect

An architect

Education

The subject is architecture, my profession. I went to study architecture with the modest ambition of becoming a competent professional architect, one who designs and produces decent buildings. Achieving greatness or fame, changing the history of architecture or other lofty ideas weren't even remotely in my thoughts. Understanding how to design was what motivated me and getting accepted by fellow professionals, clients and users was probably all that mattered in terms of success.

My teachers told me about this or that landmark in architectural history and however clever, beautiful or inspiring they were, I couldn't really tell what made them so important or more important than other buildings. Quite often it was just a first: the first block of flats in reinforced concrete, the first steel frame construction, the first open-plan office etc. They also told me of this or that prominent local architect and I would visit their buildings but, although there was something to be learned from practically each one, once again I couldn't tell what made them more significant than the building next door.

I soon realised that inspiration and beauty could be found even in anonymous, humble architecture (and by this I don't mean the vernacular buildings so patronisingly and sometimes hypocritically admired by great architects and critics). So, maybe because of my inability to perceive greatness in architecture, I ended up becoming more interested in other sensibilities, for which there were few ready solutions. When it came to functionality, architectural textbooks taught me enough to be cleverer than most lay people but how people (the users) might relate to a building aesthetically was far from clear.

Research

Opportunity and curiosity turned me into a researcher (with teaching becoming more and more a consequence of research). Looking back at my career, I've designed little, constructed even less and the last thing I did as a professional architect was a long time ago. Still, by training and interest I remain an architect and persist in looking at the world from an architect's perspective, with respect to what architects know or ignore. I'm still delighted by buildings that appear to work well; they make me feel proud of my profession. I'm also irritated by things that don't work, buildings poorly designed or constructed, instantly keen to understand how I might be able to rectify them or generally improve an environment or the processes leading to it.

Research is not about publications, projects or grants; primarily, it's a great way of learning. One has first to understand what is already known. This means a lot of critical reading (literature research), accompanied by attempts to synthesise what one learns from reading. That's what every academic should be doing. Teaching without it is merely repeating what others have said or presenting arbitrary, untested opinions. Unfortunately, there's a lot of ideas one gets from reading or just thinking, without ever managing to process it through reals research. They end up on scraps of paper, in journals and all kinds of notes to oneself. The purpose of this blog is to collect them and see what emerges then. So, bear with me while the plot hopefully thickens.