A new definition of architecture

The 20th-century definition of the architect, framed by the drawing process, was unable to provide a living process in so many ways. There was no natural way (intrinsic to the way the profession is defined) to bring people (users, clients, owners) into the process, there was no natural way of controlling money, there was no organic way to permit unfolding to occur, no natural way to incorporate feedback by building in what works and eliminating that which does not work.

In short, the sequences of action which defined the architect and his activities in the 20th century had little to do with the needs of living structure, and they only rarely followed lines that could embellish or sustain the use of living process.
Within the 20th-century definition of the architect, architects were largely impotent to make living structure, or to help it to occur.
What is still worse, in very many cases, the definition of the architect, and the definition of the processes which define the concept and activity of the architect in today’s society, actively work against the formation of living structure, make it, indeed, more difficult, sometimes impossible, for it to occur.

#book/The Nature of Order/2 The process of creating life/21 The role of the architect in the third millennium#