TRUTH in ARCHITECTURE

Hey, why are you nodding your head? It’s not politically correct. Didn’t you pay attention to Reagan and his cadre of etiquette and right-thinking acolytes?

Ahhhh, you say your nodding head isn’t really a sign of approbation. Of course, you don’t agree with this headline. No siree Bob. If it weren’t for that neck injury you got playing tennis over the weekend, you would be adamantly shaking your head in contempt.

Don’t look now, but say hello to your wife standing next you and looking at your computer screen. Hope you have a comfortable couch. I sure do.

Stay with me here. Unlikely as it seems, this is not an oddball diatribe. It has a purpose. TruthInArchitecture.com is about you. About breaking down barriers, eliminating myths and ultimately, about your success as an architect. Strike that. It’s about your success as an Architect (with a capital “A”). New ideas from BIM to Sustainability take you off your game. You used to be so confident. He (she), with the coolest design wins. Well, this is not your father’s profession anymore. Someone didn’t just move your cheese, they replaced it with a steaming plate of Rocky  Mountain oysters. Your head is spinning with questions (mostly suspicions). that lead you to thrashing ideas around until (with luck and admonition), the truth comes out. Ultimately, this is about your success as a professional.

Back to today’s diatribe, er, story.

Do you get the point? We’re more sophisticated than what this picture promotes. At least we think so. We tell ourselves that any mature being with higher brain functions and a basic sense of social acceptability would never say, much less think, such a thing. This is, after all, the post-Alan Alda era. A woman’s place is in the home. Abominable. Sexist. Disgusting. Yo, woman, get me another beer! would never cross your mind, much less cross your lips (unless you wanted a fat lip).

We tell ourselves how sophisticated we are. Yet, we are surrounded by similarly repulsive ideas in our personal and working lives. Sometimes they resonate just a little bit. We may accept an idea. We might also suppress them, push them away and down deep. But mostly, we accept them as the status quo.

What is it about us? Why are we so accepting? Why is it that only a few of us ever stop and say “Hey, wait a minute! This isn’t right. This could be better. We should change this.” Why do we tolerate mediocrity?

Today, few of us would allow a 1950ish attitude to dominate our thoughts. We no more believe “A woman’s place is the home” than we do “Rock and Roll is just a passing fad.” We progress. But, we also know how close such attitudes were — how close some are today — to being not only perfectly acceptable, but normal and expected.

Cheer up. I now present you with a few interesting and hopefully amusing videos to illustrate my point.  They demonstrate where we were only a few decades ago and  how absurd it all seems into today’s world. (Keep saying it: This is absurd. This is absurd.)

Leave it to Beaver (no pun intended)

Be satisfied with the vote

The proper way for women to behave.

Family Guy goes retro

As architects, we are incredibly well trained to look at a situation and find a way to improve it. Why limit ourselves to the built environment? Frankly, I believe it’s a problem with our education. It puts so much emphasis on building design, that we forget our intrinsic skill is analyzing situations and finding solutions to improve conditions. Problem solving. Or, maybe it’s not that we don’t realize our skills, it’s just that our education has us believe that only through contributions to the built environment can an architect every hope to achieve success and be fulfilled.

When I look around at the world today, it’s obvious that there has never been a better time to put our skills to work in areas other than design and construction. Sketchbooks don’t just have to describe creative solutions to buildings. Leonardo da Vinci understood this. He didn’t simply sit around designing spaces. He put his creative spirit to looking at all sorts of ways to improve the human condition.

Personally, I had a successful career as an architect in a traditional practice. I’ve enjoyed “Howard Roark” moments. After more than 20 years playing that role, I’ve realized that I can contribute more to changing our world than by an artful arrangement of bricks and mortar. It’s not that I don’t love architecture, it’s just that there’s more to the world than assembling sticks and stones.

Tags: architecture, home, myths, truth, women