The architect

In essence, the present view of architect as the only “designer” of the building — is far too remote from real building process altogether. What governs the shape of the environment, what can create living structure, is the whole system of sequences and processes by which buildings are made. This system includes money, contracts, financing, loans, construction details, engineering, timing, user involvement. It is the process which, in England, is called procurement. The process of procurement, the process of getting the environment, and its structure, is a huge process extending over many thousands of people.

The obsolete 20th-century architect, making drawings, but otherwise standing outside the procurement process, might be compared to an (imaginary) designer of the moon-landing project in 1969 who might have said: “I am a designer. My job is to decide where on the Moon we are going to land. How we get there is someone else’s problem, not very important.

The profession was collapsing towards the end of the 20th century, because architects too often failed to do good work, would not pay attention to the creation of living structure, and did not know how to take responsibility for or direct themselves towards the really hard work, the content, the significant points which matter, the human heart.

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