Thursday, August 9, 2018

Can Architects Kill?

The other day an intense discussion on rate analysis led to Sai asking us a very interesting question - Can architects kill? The answer seems quite obvious. We all answered No. It's possible to kill someone in a doctor's job but how would it be possible for one to do the same in an architect's job right?
But it's possible. Not always in the literal sense, but it's very much possible. A simple calculation on Excel proved to us the same. Consider calculating for reinforcement in a beam. Mess that up and you could literally be the cause of loss of life and limb. Under-reinforcing could be dangerous, but over-reinforcing can be even more disastrous. One has to be precise to get it right. This was a very literal example of the responsibility of an architect. But how about miscalculating in terms of the cost. Most people save for years before they can reach a point where they can build their dream homes. Imagine quoting a wrong price in this case. The client who had believed they would get their dream home in a set budget would then either have to set aside more time to arrange for more money or compromise on things to be able to finish the project. Either way they would not be able to live the life that they had envisioned in this dream home.
As young architects we often don't understand the kind of responsibility that comes with what we do. Any oversight on our end could result in many issues for the client who is the end user of the building.
Its strange how a simple exercise to calculate the amount of block work for a certain area led us to this question. But then again if we don't practice architecture responsibly, simple errors could eventually  become major problems too!


-Mannat

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