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By ZacharyKuntsman
From the moment that many aspiring architects step foot in their first studio, they experience professors stressing the likelihood of their success and through the undergraduate studios, students see many of their peers change majors or struggle through the curriculum with a loss of interest. In my experience at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, we began with nearly 150 students all stuck on designing the next big thing. During our last semester together, the remaining 25 of us worked towards graduation with half continuing to graduate school. The other half were not sure what they wanted to do or were looking at other areas in the design world that called their attention. Was this the right thing to do? Was their architecture education going to help them in their future endeavors? Is this happening at other schools? Will architects have a future in design? Do I want to be an architect? These were just a few of the thoughts racing through my head. My peers all had their plans and ideas of how they would put to use their architecture education, myself included. Those who were seeking alternative career paths in design were just as influential as those seeking licensure. For instance, in a hospital, one would hope their doctor is more passionate about getting the patient to full health than he is about the design of the machine they are using in surgery. With that said, the person creating the tools of medicine are just as important. In our case, those with the knowledge of an architecture education can use that information in other fields to better our society while creating developments to progress our practice. In a time of employment uncertainty, the architecture profession is seeing a change in licensure and itself as a whole with many questioning the future direction and the importance of our past.
Parker Ombre getting critiqued at the end of the semester by an upperclassman, Cathryn Corea. Photo: Zachary Kuntsman
Architecture is a passion of critical thinking directed towards complex, multifaceted problems in the built environment. In thinking out these complex issues, we have been trained not to look at just one part of the system but instead the whole thing. In doing so, we try to understand better the tectonics of the whole system and how the pieces we have control over will integrate into the bigger picture. As aspiring architects, we see this as an opportunity to have some say in how the built environment interacts with people and the way in which it adapts to their needs in a consistently changing society. Preservation can be one pathway to this opportunity but does come at a price. Today, some clients would rather cut costs or start new to ensure the space is precisely how they envision. Why are these buildings from our past important you may ask? “Preserving the built environment records culture,” Kayla Rutherford, Assoc. AIA, explained to me when I asked her the importance of preserving our past. With some of the buildings of the past, an architect's role is to present the positive aspects of protecting architecture history. Successful design much of the time examines our history to build upon and blend what we have learned simultaneously into a new creation with functionality. In speaking with Kaitlin Gerson, Assoc. AIA about this she said, “I love walking around [New York City] and seeing all of the older buildings and how they have either been adapted on the interior to fit new program. They are continually being kept up and adapting to modern times while maintaining the physical character that they have always had.” The buildings of our past are just as important to the character and culture of the built environment as are the designs of the future. The built environment and how it may effect the user is important; designers consistently put themselves in the user’s shoes to come up with solutions to multifaceted problems involving many companies, agencies, and people. When this blending of history and information is done successfully, our work may help others see these connections in a whole new light and find importance in new aspects of a project then realized before.
This exhibit proves that architecture firms are becoming design firms. At the “Beach” are some of the National Board Members of the AIAS from Grassroots Leadership Conference in Washington D.C. Photo: Zachary Kuntsman
The world is still feeling the effects of the 2008 financial crisis, and aspiring architects are finding creative ways to use their critical thinking education in new ways to contribute to society. Many have argued the role that architects may have in the future. Some believe that there will be no need for our profession due to technology while others see the importance of having a trained builder of the built environment. With the population increasing each year with a majority of that populous moving to urban areas, we designers will have to adapt. A designer’s role is transforming, like a studio project, from traditional architecture to an ever changing morphing practice moving towards interdisciplinary focused creative and strategic project planning. In this changing environment, organizations like the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the American Institute of Architecture Students (AIAS) must also transform. Over the past few years, the collateral organizations have been working together to adapt to offer more services for members and better advocate with the voices of members on behalf of all architecture students and professionals. Students are getting more experience working with the collateral organizations such as the AIA, NCARB, and NAAB, which provides crucial insight and direction of the profession. Students alike see the power that our profession has and the ability it has to change the way the world communicates to the individual or group. The best part is that many of us want to be a voice for this change. Professionals and students will play a pivotal role in this shift as we creatively push for the government to advocate on behalf of licensure, the profession, and good design practice. The future of our profession is seeing an exciting transformation and as designers, we have an obligation as molders of the built environment to transform ourselves, our methods, and roles to advocate good design on behalf of the people.
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