When you’re an Architect

Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely love being an Architect. I’ve been an Architect almost as long as I haven’t been an Architect (don’t try to do the math, please) and at this point I really can’t imagine doing anything else. Actually, I can’t imagine “being” anything else. It’s become more than a profession. It’s become part of the definition of who I am. But, no one really told me it would change every aspect of my perception of the world. No one told me it was going to get under my skin.

No one ever told me, that when you’re an Architect:

  • You won’t be able to afford your own taste
  • You’ll notice everything that is even slightly out of alignment
  • You’ll never look at a building without “reading” the architecture. You’ll only analyze a space, you won’t just experience it. You’ll be a bystander…
  • You’ll be endlessly fascinated with natural light and shadows
  • You won’t be able to let anything go, your brain will spin, you won’t sleep
  • You won’t be able to talk to anyone about what you do. No one will know what an Architect does
  • You’ll be weary and content at the same time
  • Your back will hurt
  • You’ll be less respected than you thought
  • Your shyness will be interpreted as arrogance
  • You’ll be working on your craft for years, you’ll never feel like you’ve mastered it, but you’ll keep at it, everyday, again, again
  • You’ll remember every single thing you did wrong on a project, and that will keep you from seeing everything you did right
  • You’ll want to put everything in order, always… But, you may choose not to do that
  • When you’re young, your heros will be irrelevant. You’ll figure that out when you get older
  • You’ll know a lot less about construction than you thought you would
  • You’ll mark the milestones in your life by the projects you were working on at the time
  • You’ll come to know a little about everything, you’ll know a lot about just a few things
  • You’ll begin to see the built environment as a continuously evolving form, built piece by piece by generations of individual efforts. You’ll begin to see balance between individuality and community
  • You’ll often have an opportunity to be the center of attention, but, you won’t know how to take advantage of that
  • You will be interesting….

eventually

Cheers { Coffee with an Architect }

.

photos are from ^riza^’s photostream on flickr (used under creative commons license)