Architecture: Celebrating creativity

Architecture What does its future hold? Is it still going to be relevant or de facto deemed
obsolete, replaced by other professions or disciplines? Are we watching the hour glass with
architectures time almost run out?
In the 19th century the study of architecture was also pursued as a course of liberal arts or
humanities studies. We certainly do not live in the romantic era anymore, for our times are
undoubtedly very realistic and technocratic. Architecture and its design are now widely used as
tools for driving innovation and economic growth. They change peoples lives and hopefully for the
better, whether focused on fulfilling a need as yet unmet or mapping out the path for a world yet to
come. All architecture in a sense is rhetoric which was developed some 2500 years ago in Greece.
It suffered a stormy fate in western culture. It has both been admired and despised. It may be
repressed, ignored, reprimanded but it cannot be eliminated because it is an integral part of what it
means to be human. It takes millions of years for rocks to get their natural texture. Architecture
cannot wait that long because it is in the process of attaining its maturity fast. Twenty years ago,
any claim that architecture as a matter of importance was an assertion apt to invite skepticism.
There are major drivers today in the field of architecture. One among them is technology. The
advent of it radically changed the idea of work and office underwent a massive automation. The
computer has unveiled previously unimagined possibilities to the architect, the designer or the
builder Design has been a household word in the developed world, as attested by countless glossy
magazines and television shows devoted to the subject. Design is everywhere yet we fail to grasp
its true depth. The social basis of architecture today is frowned upon, neglected, not a fad, or, at
best, not in the limelight. Gone are the sixties where such issues were popular, with the architect
optimistically marching under the banner of the urban doctor (True, today we hold a more realistic
and holistic view of the urban ills).
Changes in architecture also influence design. Design has to support any architecture than to
complete it. Simplicity, flexibility and functionality should be modified so as to flow within the
spatial structure and allow the building to adapt to changes over time.
It is interesting to imagine any other discipline which can take over the baton. Indeed, the training
of an architect is very idiosyncratic, with the cerebral and philosophical conceptual approach being
his forte. Although architecture has been around for centuries, the role of the architect has
diversified, as a result of technology and ecology, amongst other factors, that have emerged during
the last two centuries. The disciplines of art, architecture and landscape design straddle as projects
and converge places of beauty, pleasure and sustainability. People, technology and architecture-
along with their interaction, will be where the action is for some time to come.
Architectural products are rich mans passion and poor mans necessity. The architect attempts to
persuade, to put across a way of seeing or living in space. Architecture belongs to the common
world of objects. Ideas about architecture also belong to the same world. It is known that man
preoccupies himself with the arts after his basic needs are met. Try telling a hungry man in Africa
about SANAA winning the 2010 Pritzker Prize. Or, not going that far, try engaging him in a
discussion about architectural styles. Architecture confronts challenges of the 21
st
century as the
mankind has to change their patterns of behavior and make thoughtful choices in every aspect of
their lives.
Architecture is a continuous dialogue between its product and users, object and space, practice and
teaching, technology and design and above all among architects themselves. As long as this
dialogue continues, architecture will remain in the public sphere with deepening and enlarging
perspectives transcending time and space.
To sum up, the future architecture would be organic architecture seeking superior sense of use
and a finer sense of comfort expressed in organic simplicity.