What questions would you ask an architect?

Answer 1

"How do you plan a building? How many stages goes into planning and making a building? How do you get the ideas for buildings? How long did you go to school to become an architect? Have you always wanted to be an architect? What was your first building?"

Answer 2

perhaps every architect would give a different answer to this question. i am an architect and i think that in the broadest sense, architecture is enormously powerful in its ability to influence the mood of humans. imagine spending your life in a setting of suburban sprawl characterized by never ending traffic, big box stores, strip malls, fast food joints, gas stations and pharmacies on every corner, and cloned fast food restaurants everywhere you go. this setting often promotes a kind of depression or at least a certain amount of lack of excitement and zeal for day to day life.

contrast this to the feelings of enthusiasm and joy one experiences when walking through the streets of paris or Boston or georgetown or the french quarter or New York City or any other number of vibrant atmospheres.

on the scale of individual buildings the same can be said. imagine going to work every day in an office with ceilings that are harsh grids of white tiles and fluorescent lights, with all humans closed off from daylight and each other by mazes of cubicles and walls. perhaps with an occasionally tacky artwork. contrast this with an office with exposed structure and huge open volumes flooded with daylight and minimal (if any) artificial light. it lifts your spirits to be in a more pleasing well thought out space - even if on a subconscious level.

architecture is the profession for people with the passion for influencing the stage we all live out our lives on. how we do this greatly impacts the quality of our lives.