EM – Among the 7 traditional branches of art, I think architecture is the only one that has an applicability between artistic value and use value. And so the architect is both an artist and a craftsman?
It’s like Brenda Laurel once said, “A design isn’t finished until someone uses it.” Ba Nha must have Tu Ky, but an architectural work is easier to see valuable than Ba Nha’s version: if you don’t find it beautiful, at least it’s usable.
Architects are not people who only know how to draw well. Even though one of the exams for Architecture is drawing, the architect’s results are just stacks of paper drawn with horizontal lines. Because if it’s just beautiful, maybe it’s just a picture. The design of the work should be based on understanding of the structure, dimensions, techniques, materials, etc. and Law of Construction.
Architects do not just draw a description of a house for the builder to realize it. The architect must be the one who grasps the needs of the investor, the personality of the people who use each corner of the space in that building; who chooses each chair and table; and someone who understands in which direction the light shines to place a tree properly.
Architects need to be visionaries. An architect’s vision is not just from the living room to the kitchen, not from the bedroom to the balcony. An architect’s vision is both short-term and long-term. A family with children in primary school, in 10 years will need to change the space according to age, a family with parents who are about to retire, should design more elevators or keep the room on the first floor, etc. Sometimes, architects have to guess even further than fortune tellers!
When it comes to spirituality, architects are sometimes feng shui masters. Art has principles of art, of course. Understanding the climate and environment in the place where the architecture you design will be located is of course essential for clever choices to take advantage of natural elements, and also to avoid if those are the dangerous factors. But not all investors are knowledgeable about art and climate, sometimes a persuasion based on the principles of feng shui is more effective than interpretations of beauty?
An architect – an artist or a craftsman? I used to think of architects who look stylish, look “artistic”, work inspired and sometimes scratch their heads because of their absolute belief in creativity. But it was their end product that held me back. Applied art needs to be persuasive and useful. Not every work will become a work of art for a lifetime, to be proud of and to be able to bring designs and finished images to architectural competitions. There will be architectural works designed that do not show a creative symbol, an architectural style, simply a house to live in to fully meet the needs of the investor. Is that the reality in Richard Rogers’ point of view: “I believe that we – architects can affect people’s quality of life.”
Art is far away, but I believe architects are contributing to a social infrastructure with a better quality of life. And whoever the architect is, architecture is always a great art and they are always respected artists.
