I picked architecture on a whim when I was forced to make a decision during my second last years in high school. I never knew who Hadid, Foster or even Gehry were before I stepped foot into the world of architecture - rather I went in with a mindset that I was going to create structures and shelters that would allow me to look after people indirectly with my creativity. This ignorant thinking was carried along with me throughout the first semester of my first year of university, and soon it developed into having a desire of wanting to know more ways in shaping and making a difference to the community through architecture.
So here I was, spending my first two and a half years studying architecture with being quite idealistic and with the way I was approaching my designs. Though I acknowledged that anything we created would never become a built form, I still carried on designing with a heroic ideal. In fact, this ideal was still carried on till my final semester of my bachelors when we were thrown into urban design coupled with understanding various kinds of urban planning strategy that we were to understand and apply at the same time. The idea of designing on a completely different scale was daunting at first, however it proved to be a greater challenge for me when I was faced with designing waste systems as my main semester project - the application of theory along with the additional in depth of analysing statistics to make my design more plausible was not something I was mentally prepared for. The more I dwell upon my landfill design project, there were more doubts that grew as I continued my research in order to solidify my ideas, the more I thought about it, I became more anxious about the future comments and discussions that would be brought upon during my final review, in particular how realistic my project would be if it would ever be taken into action. In other words I was not prepared to be battling with the real world that would become my actual clients in the future.
This year, during my internship in Hong Kong, I was fortunate to meet a couple who are both architects. Amongst our discussion about the structure of the course I was studying, the studios that I was working in, they told me about Norman Foster’s latest memorable quote “‘I have no power as an architect, none whatsoever” - there is something defeating about this comment however it is also a reflection of how many of us would like to think. Having studied three years so far has taught me a few things about growing up with a stubborn society: we are told that we are learning in order to push people into advancing for the better, albeit we are still unaware of where our influence and our power truly lies.
Sometimes I’d like to believe that we would have accepted that it would be budget and circumstances of the context we are designing for would be the main obstacles of our thought processes. However, delving into the darker areas of the unknown we are facing the subtle yet ruthless sides of hidden agendas and politics depending on our clients and also of who we know. No matter how hard we push for something to become real, multiple factors will lie there waiting to surprise us - reminding us that heroism will need to be approached in different ways. I guess this is something that we will need to come to accept as we continue to grow and mature within the world of architecture.
It sounds quite defeating really to realise that there are many factors that will be imposed upon later in the future. Yet I guess this is why our ideals are still being treasured during our education. Sure, innuendoes and agendas are laced within wherever we go, however we still need to believe that what we are being taught will eventually lead us to somewhere correct - and that is something that we need to battle for now. After all, designing architecture is to some extent a self reflection of not only ourselves but how society is shaped - it is no different to other occupations for every action will eventually snowball to something unstoppable.
On a different note, I believe that it takes a combination of idealism and naivety to establish ourselves firmly within this field. Though what I have been writing sounds rather pessimistic about my own future, I want to be optimistic and idealistic - I still want to be the girl who boldly declared on the phone to her interviewers why she wanted to create architecture, I still want to be that person who is able to leave something for the society to remember her indirectly. But - there is still a lot of growing and treading within this field that I have yet to accomplish in order to fully achieve that ideal.
A response to:
Norman Foster: “I have no power as an architect, none whatsoever”