What is the role of architecture in world where time and space collapse?

[unclefarkus]

My professor asked us this question today and it really got me thinking. Mainly sad thoughts due to my professor's attitude that architects are a dying breed on their way to extinction largely due to the digital world growing exponentially. It almost seems that architecture is the last hope of keeping humans 'human' through traditional interaction and socialization that isn't done as we are doing now via digital means. I haven't been able to draw any conclusions and it is starting to bug me. What are your thoughts?

[shy]

Architecture evolves just like all other aspects of our life. No matter how it's delivered, architecture will only ever be relevant if it's responsive to people's needs. Architects are interpreters of humanity, and the good ones will always be able to respond to changes in the way we interact with buildings & spaces. Although technology is certainly changing how we work & communicate, I can't see a day as humans we don't crave physical social interaction and somewhere inspiring to do it. A beer with friends 'in the cloud' would be just plain sad...

[Cyberstyle]

If time and space where to collapse 'our entire Universe' would cease to exist. So what's the point of asking the question specificaly in relation to architecture?. It is a question that has no answer as nothing would exist.

 

Maybe your professor is actualy reflecting a bit of himself into the question. He's starting to doubt his own relevance in an evolving society and possibly realising that his knowledge and teachings are becoming out of date and obsolete within a digital world that he knows nothing about and can not relate. ???

[leoA4D]

The profession of architecture evolved out of the master craftsman of the european guild tradition, i.e., the trades of construction, and seems to be returning to that universe. The computer is only a small, but not an insignificant, part of the change and the momentous steps in the change can be tied to the 1970s, before the pc. Today, the obstacle course an idea must traverse, from conception to fruition, is far more crowded and with few or no means to escape. We are challenged to accept the camel; the public is told it is wonderful and it applauds.

 

Architects and the profession have played a huge role in this evolution - "benign negligence".

 

2 cents, IMHO.

[Devin Johnston]

my professor's attitude that architects are a dying breed on their way to extinction largely due to the digital world growing exponentially.

 

I have to admit I don't fully understand your professor's question, there are arguabley more practicing architects in the world now than ever before partley thanks to the computer. Maybe he's afraid of newer technology like Paul said and he's being left behind because he can't adapt, if that's the case then he's the cause of his own extinction and not the computer. I suppose he could be saying that eventually computers will do all the design of our buildings and when that happens we'll loose any human connection to buildings that we currentley have. I partley agree with this idea, I think it's obvious that at some point in the future computers will be powerful enough and smart enought to design a structure on it's own with little or no help from a human. That's assuming that the computer can be programed to be creative and artistic on the level of a human, those are things I don't know if a computer will ever be able to do. I have no idea why he'd be talking about time and space collapsing, if that happens nothing would exist so who cares about architecture in that event.

[hockley91]

I disagree with your professor's statement. I'm wondering if he just said that so you all would think about it. In hindsight during architecture school there were really only a handful of professor's that I really liked. All the others were so ego driven and into their roles as professor's they just bloviated most of the time. Trying to fill our heads with all of these ideas and theories....yada yada yada...

 

Anyway, what I've seen are people in this undustry moving into other areas related to architecture. Such as 3D visualization. We all have a love of architecture and this is a branch of it that is evolving. I am also getting more immersed into the BIM world which just expands the role of architecure and building construction. Even Production Designers, some musicians and directors have architectural backgrounds.

 

The new Tron movie is directed by Joseph Kosinksi who has an architectural degree from Columbia for example.

 

In any case the whole BIM world is going to require architects with technical know how. So, I don't see us dying out anytime soon.

[Jim Mann]

Architects or rather architectural tutors have been re-hashing this kind of thing for decades. 15 years ago at the Bartlett you had the likes of Neil Spiller and Stephen Gage disappearing up their own nether regions trying to formulate some sort of philosophical approach to architecture in relation to Cyberspace or Algorithms. I often wondered if my peers that at the time worked so hard to learn about algorithms got jobs after graduation? William Gibson was revered as some sort of high priest of cyberspace at the time but even he writes about real stuff now - his latest has a plotline that involves twitter! (I love William Gibson books by the way).

 

Time and space haven't collapsed, just some things have got easier without having to leave the comfort of our own homes but we still go out to meet friends, have a drink, watch a movie, eat in a restaurant, see the doctor, workout, have a snowball fight. Friends in foreign parts still get up in the morning when we might be going to bed at night, have sun when we have snow but now we can have a chat over skype or send them an e-mail...nobody ever talked about the end of the world when we had the phone and the fax machine!

 

So, what is the role of architecture in world where time and space collapse? Obviously its to provide venues to prove that we exist and actually do have real friends after all.

 

Jim