What a year has it been! Unofficial/anecdotal figures show that more than 50 percent of all architects in Charlotte are without work (with a similar number probably reflected in the other building-related trades like engineering and construction).
I dont know if architects have ever felt so forsaken or unloved in recent memory.
So, why dont we emerge from the fetal position just long enough to wish for a better tomorrow? After all, what is the holiday season but a license to dream big powered by excessive eating and eggnog to lose oneself in fantasies about things that otherwise we might be too realistic to hope for?
I wish, oh I wish, that this stupid recession would end soon, and that people would start building things again. (What wouldnt we give to get back to doing those things that we used to constantly bitch and whine about for years ...)
I wish that people would stop hyping green building and just start doing it. After all being green is the path, and not the goal of architecture. (Well, what is the goal of architecture or any art for that matter? Hmmm ...)
I wish that the media would find some other role model other than Howard Roark when they try to idealize (idolize?) architects. (Maybe architectural achievement can be other than an unsubtle show of manliness and heroism ...?)
I wish that innocent architectural elements wouldnt become the victims of cheap political games.
And finally, I wish my Mom and Dad Academics and Practice would get back together again. Then maybe someday, American architectural practice would once again have a sense of purpose and a moral compass, and academic exercises a better grounding in reality. I hear that in many other countries where the families are together, kids like us have a less conflicted/guilt-ridden life that they actually belong. (Well, they might still wear black, but guess thats a genetic condition.)
Well, this is my quick, not-too-well-thought-out, highly incomplete list. What is yours? Whether you design livable structures or not, share it with everyone.
All buildings start as shared fantasies.