Architecture - the Unavoidable Art.

A philosophy of practice

Architecture is the Unavoidable Art. Architecture begins as a service towards fulfilling a practical purpose; it ends as a communicative "event" manifested in constructed form. (see def. of architectural event in Paragone). The act of building offers a pretext for critical considerations about life in general. While thinking about an architectonic detail, one quickly establishes a system of expression and a context for signification where architecture achieves meaning in peoples lives. As a byproduct of the natural development of the mind, the ability to understand space and spatial relationships and to attribute meaning to those relationships is found in young children. To that extent everyone is an architect. On the other hand the self-conscious production of architecture and the intentional structuring of visual order has become a specialized domain. In addition to performing professional services, the practice of architecture is above all a process of negotiating meaning between architect and client.

In confronting such apparently mundane questions as: Where should it be built, how much will it cost, and by creating facts out of a mutually agreed imagination, the client and architect achieve a high degree of shared knowledge about the design and construction of a project. As they mediate the meaning of each part, imbuing it with the necessary metaphorical and material properties they construct a scaffolding for symbolic representation by transforming an utilitarian activity into a cultural artifact. That is the definition of architecture as art. The practice of Architecture finds its ultimate fulfillment when an act of construction becomes a source of insight into the human condition. (See "Factors other than price", Locating the ethical blind spot of a profession in search of its soul.) These beliefs guide our work and define our practice.