Why do we even need Architects?

If you look around you, there’s a pretty high chance that the building you’re in right now was NOT designed by an architect. In fact, majority of the built environment we see around us is not designed by them. Heck, architects don’t even design their own homes. We all know they are professionals who design spaces and places, but a significant portion of them are live on the periphery of their very own community looking inward, being exploited by others, having their opinions scorned at, and left in the cold doubting their very existence.

Most middle-class families looking to get a new house built feel that the architect is just a middle-man standing in the way of them achieving their dream house. When an architect takes up the design and supervision of the construction of a house, he/she warrants a 7 to 10% fee of the entire construction cost from the client. Most lay persons see that as unnecessary expenditure, and are of the opinion they if they just cut those fees out, they would be able to spend on their marble flooring or their ambitious garden fountain. What could possibly go wrong, they think. The result? A horrible mash up of clichéd modern elements (have you seen those horrible stone-texture cladding tiles?) and a messed up services network that requires constant patch-up for years to come. This ignorance has given birth to a new type of profession known as the ‘AutoCAD Architect’… people who learn drafting software and 3D Modelling and take up designing without any formal training in architecture.

In the work field as well, while a good portion of established architects are well-off, it is the young architects that are left to face the brunt of the profession without much returns. More often than not, junior architects are reduced to a cog in a machine, made to draft elaborate plans and reduced to just a ‘presentation drawing’ expert in their respective offices. Several times along the way, they stop and ponder over their futile existence in the architecture community. Surely, they didn’t invest so much in their education for this.

Granted, it is all part of the learning process and maturation period required to be a well-rounded architect, but on a certain level, even the best of the architects in the world will admit that we aren’t as respected as we ought to be.

A recent forum on Archinect.com (https://archinect.com/forum/thread/118433850/why-do-we-need-architects) discussed the same question: Why do we need architects? Rather comically, everyone participated. Some of the replies were:

‘Without the architect, the contractor doesn’t have anyone to blame when they’re on-site with the owner every day’.

‘To keep those who produce coffee beans employed’.

‘Architects are for status. The more recognized the name of the architect you hire, the higher your status. Just being able to afford one at all puts you in a more exclusive category’.

Others think that architects are pseudo-intellectuals who go to fancy conferences and talk about supposedly ‘important’ things. The humor soon bordered on mockery which might have made many architects look deep into their soul and question their very existence.

Which makes us ask ourselves: Why do architects even exist? In India, the architect is not considered important to get your building plan approved. Most lay people suddenly remember the architect only when they need his signature to get their drawings sanctioned and there is no other choice. This is unlike the situation in some countries in Europe, where it is mandatory to get an architect’s signature for construction approval.

Are architects only for the upper class sects of society who can afford to hire one? What are the rest supposed to do? It is quite ironical that while the primary duty of an architect is to provide his humble service to man for the betterment of his daily life, the common man cannot afford to hire him, and his rich counterparts are commissioning architects for their luxurious dream projects, leaving the remainder of professionals dishing it out among themselves for work and struggling to make ends meet.

There requires some serious analysis to be done to ‘level the playing field’. There is no doubt that an architect is a highly trained individual who designs for human-specific needs, shaping their living environment and daily life. They sculpt mundane building materials into functional and beautiful works of art, and deal with the hopes and aspirations of the inhabitants of a country. In short, they design for us the optimal setting for the everyday scenes of our lives.

While we architects are usually confident in our abilities, we do have our moments when we feel dejected and insecure. Some architects pass their entire lifetime thinking about how their country could be a much better place to live in by conceiving workable ideas on how to address pressing issues, but these unfortunately are never realized because of again, a lack of respect towards them. People should be made more aware of the important role of the architect in society, and hopefully one day we will get the recognition we truly deserve. In the words of St. Theresa of Calcutta, when opposed on one of her help-missions… ‘I may not be wanted here…but I am needed’.