U2. Who is the architect?

The role of the architect

  • An architect is (different points of views):

-A professional devoted to design that has enough capacity to give a shape to a space, having in mind all human necessities

-Someone who creates designs for new constructions and is capable of remodeling buildings

-An educated person and opened to the new purposes of society

-Someone who thinks and calculates a building but also provides beauty to the building.

-A visionary that is organized, creative, and works with others in a team

-Someone who interacts with almost ever field like music, society…

  • Training

-Learning to see:

If you want to learn to see you will need to analyze what surrounds you and delve into what we look at in order to turn it into thought.

Drawing will have to become a part of your life and it will help you to interpretate reality.

 To acquire new points of view, you’ll have to travel but sometimes you will have to read if you want to go beyond traveling. Photography and filmography are also an important part of the learning because it’s a visual representation of your reality and others with its own light, space and movement.

-Learning to think:

The best way to learn how to think is by learning how to express ideas our thoughts with the right language and tools. You will also have to be critical, suspicious, curious… Also developing collective thinking, sharing your ideas and having conversations with your colleagues will help with the learning process

-Learning to create: If you want to project or create an idea, you cannot simply create something based on a thought or an idea, you will also need to understand the needs of the people, of society, as well as understand the compositional rules of architecture from antiquity to the present day, the materials and their capabilities, traditional and modern construction techniques…

  • Views

“Designing is a continuous process of findings. I choose several different elements and organize them according to the clients wishes, the terrain conditions and the ideas I may have myself.

I put these elements together in a system and try to move forward to the design phase”

“I’m considering how people can use the building once its finished. Obviously, people can move differently within a given architectural space. I try to consider all the variety of forms that these movements will generate “

-Kazuyo Sejima

  • Definitions

-Alfonso Muñoz Cosme :

“To be an architect is to know how to recognize and interpret the reality that surround us, but also be able to dream and imagine things that doesn’t exist yet. The architect works with the sight, by perceiving and interpreting the piece of world he is immersed, but also uses his hand t define and shape new objects, to change his environment. Eye and hand are united in a single mental process that connects what exists with what is dreamt”

-Alberto Campo Baeza :

“To be an architect is to be able to turn a house into a dream. And at the same time being able to turn a dream into a house. I repeat that an architect, what it does Is build ideas, dreams, materialize ideas. Or make dreams come true”

  • The profession

-Regulation in Spain

The profession is regulated by the Ley 38/1999, de 5 de noviembre, de Ordenación de la Edificación. Its deals with the regulation of the building process.

-Common forms of employment

Own office or work for architects or other companies

-Main areas of work

Buildings, urban planning, landscaping, interior design…

  • Tips

-Architecture is a passion, not something people do for a living

-Think about the why of the things

-Study every detail and don’t make assumptions of beautiful or ugly.

-Get used to the analysis

-Think simple. Order from the general to the particular

-Its important to enter into practice with maturity, otherwise you’ll never grow as a real architect