Posted by  Paul Malo on March 31, 2002 at 07:13:34:

In Reply to:  Re: Vers Une Architecture Nouveau posted by Jacques Pochoy on March 30, 2002 at 10:42:25:

We may speculate about how advancing technology will change buildings of the future, but there's another way of looking ahead: what will be the architectural practice of the future? Will it be much different?

Basically the architect functions to add value. That's why he or she gets paid. Does that sound crass? It's fundamental.
Until value is provided to others, there's no architecture. It's the tree falling in the forest with no listeners present--no sound (as we define "sound," but these paradoxes tend to devolve to semantics). One may amuse one's self by painting on Sundays, but is the Sunday painter an artist? At what point does the amateur become professional? At what point does the hobby produce art? The Sunday painting becomes art at the point that a work has value to others--which means that someone else appreciates it significantly--it's value becoming tangible in terms of fetching a price.

This is an important reminder when we tend to become fixated on things rather than the value of those things. Designers can envision all sorts of things, many of which have dubious value to others. Designers may lose sight of value (to others) because of a myopic fascination with the thing itself, supposing that one's own interest (value) may be shared by others. We learn from experience that what often intrigues us as a designers isn't recognized as providing value to others.

I'm wary of the sort of futurism that assumes that if something is possible, we ought to do it. The high-tech fetish tends to be thing-oriented, supposing that technology has inherent value--or is valued by users to the extent that it may fascinate techies.

What probably will not change about architecture is its essential function of providing value to users. We need to remember that the value is not determined by us as designers or critics, but ultimately by the users. It's those who pay that determine value. They will buy our propositions or ignore them, depending upon whether with off genuine value, in their terms, not ours.

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