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Abdicating Responsibility, part 2 |
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in the good old days…Some 2,000 years ago, Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Roman architect and engineer said that architecture was composed of the triple essence: strength, utility, and aesthetic effect (often seen as "commodity, firmness, and delight"). He also said "An architect should be ingenious, and apt in the acquisition of knowledge. Deficient in either of these qualities, he cannot be a perfect master. He should be a good writer, a skilful draftsman, versed in geometry and optics, expert at figures, acquainted with history, informed on the principles of natural and moral philosophy, somewhat of a musician, not ignorant of the sciences both of law and physic, nor of the motions, laws, and relations to each other, of the heavenly bodies." The curriculum at my alma mater didn't match up too well with what Marcus had in mind. Even though I don't know what is offered at other schools, I suspect they are similar. High school English, or perhaps another year in college seems to be enough for good writing. The college believed that sketching still lifes and nudes was more valuable than producing working drawings (I know; I was refused permission to substitute a drafting class at a local vo-tech for one of our required art classes). Hard sciences were, well, too hard for architects, so we had only minimal requirements for math and physics, followed by engineering for dummies. We did have a brush with history, but only of the architectural variety. It wasn't until years later that I learned about the social and historical events leading up to and surrounding the Bauhaus movement and Art Deco. I haven't been around long enough to say from personal experience, but from what I've heard, architects were respected people well into the last century, when they were thought of as "master builders". They knew a lot about the products they used, and how they were to be installed. They probably had hands-on construction experience. And when they visited the project site, the contractors feared the words, "Take it down and do it again - right!" or "Stop the work!" Those days are gone. Today it's more common for the visiting architect to be ignored, if not sneered at. Owners don't trust architects as they used to; they now feel the need to hire construction mangers, owner's representatives, and commissioning agents, each of whom assumes some of the architect's traditional responsibilities. Next month: Giving away the store © 2002 Sheldon Wolfe, RA, CSI, CCS, CCCA |
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