A Changing profession : the role and function of the master builder in the practice of contemporary architecture

Abstract

What will the role of the architect be in the twenty-first century, as there are greater and greater challenges in the present building industry. The architect, in the late twentieth century has developed skills to handle these complex problems of the future, becoming an administrator and, in the change from a production to an information society, an information administrator. The architect has lost the hand- on skills of the craftsman, but is skillful in delegating tasks to a multi headed team to bring information from hundreds of components. The architect is as adept as an assembler of manufactured parts. As the twenty first century approaches ,it is important that the architect, who become an administrator, delegator, and assembler of parts, recognize with trepidation the erosion of the profession's essential being, that of the designer. The architect is the one professional component who can act the part of humanist with regard to density of site and scale for the pedestrian, who can envision great site composition, who knows what ceiling, floor, and mechanical system can yield real integrated quality, and who chooses the color of the motar of the brick joints, the joints of the precast, the shape of the hand rail, and the proportion of tread to riser. The architect, who walks in to the twenty first century, or the twenty-second century for that matter, should give up these choices with great reluctance. It is imperative that architecture retains its important heritage and ascendancy with pride and conviction as the profession uniquely qualified to build the peaceful civilization of the future.