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A friend said to me the other day. Architecture is a great profession and a horrible business.
At times, I tend to agree. Whats great about the profession is what architecture is in
history, what it aspires to be in the future and most of all what the training & doing
exposes one to in life. Architecture is about many things. As Ive said before its about
making form, story, music, and inspirationÉ its also about illuminating ones life with
philosophy, sociology, psychology, material science, engineering, mathematics, history,
construction, and in the end making something out of nothing. These are the reasons architecture
is a great profession that can enrich your life. That said, Ive heard many complaints
that the business of designing buildings, running an office and keeping an architectural
firm solvent can simply be overwhelming. This can also be very true. From my experience
the education of an architect prepares one to become a designer, but it may be that you
simply do very little design work as an architect. The truth is, design is really a very small
part of what the architect does and unless your in a position where you can dictate that
design is what you focus on most, your in for a quite a shock. As Ive discussed in other
videos the job of an architect involves doing a lot of technical drawing and writing as
well as research. It also involves an incredible amount of coordination and organization. Being
an architect may also require real people skills. The architect can work with large
numbers of subcontractors and consultants and should be able to work well with other
people, particularly contractors in the field. Not to mention their most important job, Managing
the client. The architect also needs to be able to manage the business and employees
if Theyve got them. In fact all these jobs can be exactly what an architect does with
no time for design at all. This why the business of architecture can be so different from the
profession and in the end a bit unfulfilling. So understand, architecture is many things
not just design.