in architecture...everyline counts

Almost everyone knows what an architect is and does. In the engineering and technical terms, it is called design; an architect designs a space that is comfortable to the user, in more than one sense. In the layman’s terms, it is a scribbling of lines, which, to my utmost amusement, I have heard several people to this day easily say “That’s so easy, even we can do it!” Whether you’re sitting in the hallways of your university campus from morning to evening producing sketch after sketch in first year, or sitting in the studio in third year all day long scribbling designs and concepts, shuffling between creativity and standards and trying to find common ground between design and the client’s conditions, or whether you’re staying up day and night for two weeks before the final date for submission finalizing and polishing your work till you’re satisfied; to the world out there, all an architect does, as the world sees it, is draw lines.

What’s funny is not that people ridicule our work and efforts like that, but that they close their eyes to the effort and work that has actually been done in the backdrop of those “lines”. Undermining the efforts of an architects work like that is the same as ridiculing an artist for his paintings that “never make sense”, or a doctor of medicine for prescribing medicine that “anybody could prescribe”. No work in the world can be measured on a scale of easy-hard or good-bad in comparison to others. Every work has its own essence. A fireman may not be the most wanted job for people, but do those who have never come across this profession realize the danger firemen put themselves in every time they are called to put out a fire and have to walk in it? Even the most basic of mannerisms requires that a person polite to another, no matter their background or status. Rather than demeaning and undermining the work and effort that has been made for the achievement of architectural feats, its best to leave each profession to be critiqued by its own experts who know the backstage as well as the back of their hand! Making jokes makes the whole scenario even more interesting; After all, architecture is a fun job and fun comes in all forms. Most architects make jokes themselves regarding their profession, yet on a closer look, those jokes are rather harmless and creative. After all, injecting a syringe into a patient may seem like the easiest task a doctor has to undertake when giving medicine or taking blood, yet a slightest mistake in it can cause the patient a lot of pain and bitter memories. A small mistake on the architects behalf can bring about chaos in the form of loss of life or collapse of design. Conclusively, whether its an architect, a doctor, a fireman, a clerk or a simple mailman, no job in the world is simply “easy” or “not really needed” or something that any other person of another profession can perform.

As the wise say; “If you seek respect for yourself from others, give them respect first!”