Why did you become an architect?
ARCHVOICES publishes responses to "Why did you go to architecture school in the first place?" Some favorites:
A) It is not as anal as engineering school; B) it is more grounded to earth than art school, and C) I thought Johnny Cash got his fashion sense from architects.
...
(a) I saw a photograph in the school of architecture brochure of someone wearing the school t-shirt, which read, 'Rising from the slag heap of gutless conformity,' and thought that's where I want to be. (b) It seemed to be the only field that combined art, technology, philosophy, etc. with an insane optimism about actually affecting the world.
...
I didn't. I studied history.
...
To become an architect (subconsciously to provide work for my contractor father).
...
I didn't. It never occurred to me.
...
I was interested in the artistic aspects of engineering, art, and sculpture. Never intended to be doing what I'm currently doing--teaching, managing designers, publishers.
Favorites from the "What is your 'idea'?" question:
"[Nothing really crystallized--not enough to describe with any clarity]
...
Get a job and enjoy it.
...
It's not emerging right now; I'll have to get back to you.
...
Designing for the 98%.
...
To positively influence people's lives with or without their conscious understanding.
...
My idea today came from buying a coffee this morning on the way into this conference. Can you believe that Dunkin Donuts uses Styrofoam cups still? I started to think about how many cups they must sell daily. Unbelievable numbers, probably. I'm going to find out they use Styrofoam , production costs, and environmental impacts. I think it would be great to have reusable cups that you might drop in the mailbox to go back to Dunkin Donuts to be reused. The costs saved from new production could be used to pay the postage on the cup return, and the environmental degredation would be greatly reduced.
And for "What are you going to do differently tomorrow?":
Think differently about the Princeton Architectural Press.
...
Ask my officemates if they feel like CAD monkeys.
...
Keep going.
...
Tomorrow, I will call the Dunkin Donuts headquarters and start to find any current financial information on production and any environmental impact information about Styrofoam cups.
* Ray, 11/21/2003 10:10:04 AM
