Architecture as a tool

 The hidden potential of man is to visualize and architecture to make it real. Once in our lifetime we all dream about that perfect world we could live in. To fantasize is to be human. To build is to be a creator. Architecture is a powerful tool that tells us how our world used to be and how it can be. It is the fiction of the real world and has to potential of turning fantasies or dreams to concrete reality. And that’s the true beauty of this art.

People often say “if you don’t like something, change it’. Architecture has the strength to change reality as we see it. It improves lifestyle. Develops society. It has the power to bring people together and reflect the people around it. A city has a beginning but it has no ending. It is always evolving. New building and elements are always being added or the old ones being subtracted. If one has the skill of visualizing the expansion of the said city then through architecture one can turn his “vision” or “dream city” into a reality.

Though a mighty tool, architecture just like any other organism, has evolved over the ages. And just like the society it has evolved for the best. In the book A Theory of Architecture, Nikos Salingaros has examined the idea of Darwinian selection that might apply to architecture. Though his ideas of modernism may be quite extreme and controversial it is something to think about.

The modernist style of architecture, otherwise called the international style, has been the overriding building style form the 1920s until now. The style is instantly recognized by its geometry of cubes and rectangular slabs, flat plain surfaces, use of steel, glass and/or concrete panels. The said style has not only made architects generic but is ruining the personal identity of a region. In my opinion it is very important for Architecture to have a metaphor or a story behind it a meaning instead of a modern box filled with bare minimum elements and polished surfaces. To integrate nature and the context of the site. To build for the people instead for machines.

Less may be more but as started by Robert Venturi, it is also a bore. It may be easy to adapt an idea that is simple and understood widely but it is also important to evolve. Architecture should be more about Evolution. It should vary from place to place and complement the region. The relationship of places and their communities is mutually influential. Places grow out of the needs and actions of their communities, and in turn shape the way these communities behave and grow. We need to make a smart growth developments and design humanist, contextually sensitive design. Those who have a privilege to know have a duty to act. We have been handed all the tools and technology of the 21^st century all we need to do is excavate and lay the foundation of our future. As architects we may have the ability to shape the world but we also have an obligation towards it.