UNIT 2: THE ARCHITECT TODAY

1. WHAT DO YOU THINK?

During the introduction of the unit the students were asked about what they thought an architect was. There where various interesting answers very different from each other, such as the following:

“Who plans and develops a construction”, “A professional dedicated to design”, “One with sufficient capacity to shape spaces, taking into account human needs, economic and functional parameters”, “Who designs a project to improve the quality of life of the human being”, “An artist, a creator”, “Who is able to see needs people to materialize it in real life”, “Who knows how to channel sensations, feelings and needs of the environment and people and, with the help of technique, is able to represent them in an environment, space or building”, “Profession that improves the lives of others”, “Organized, creative person who works together with other people in a team”.

If we look at the definition of an architect in a dictionary it is a slightly different, much more formal. According to the RAE (Real Academia Española) an architect is a person legally authorized to practice architecture.

2. TRAINING

An architect during his career is trained to learn a wide variety of skills, but above all an architect must learn to see, to think and to create.

In the first place, as for learning to see he/she must: 

  • Delve into what we look at in order to turn it into thought 
  • Get used to analyze what surrounds us
  • Learn that drawing is a process of interpretation of reality
  • Travel, cause it allows us to acquire new points of view
  • Read, cause it allows us to travel where we cannot and deepen ideas
  • Know photograph, understood as to create a unique gaze among the infinite possibilities
  • Watch films that are composed of light, space, movement… like architecture

In the second place, as for learning to think he/she must:

  • Know how to express his thoughts and find the language and tools to interpret our ideas
  • Be critical, to be suspicious, to be curious
  • Practice collective thinking, continuous dialogue with colleagues

In the third place, as for learning to create he/she must: 

  • Understand the materials, their compatibilities, their technical characteristics and the possibilities of use (traditional and heretical)
  • Understand the compositional rules of architecture from antiquity to the present day, in order to practice with them before finding one’s own way
  • Understand the traditional and modern construction techniques and how the architectural elements that surrounds us are constructed
  • Understand the needs of the users
  • Find technical solutions to his ideas. Constructive viability

3. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Text and images: https://prezi.com/view/7jvWkiIwsqBAs8FZrUN2/