Recently, all my Saturdays are ruined because of the site visits arranged at an interior site in Powai. But what bothers me more is what I am going to discus in this blog. I sometimes wonder how much an architect is supposed to know. The scope of knowledge is infinite. There was a point after I finished graduation when I thought that there is so much to know still. But over the last 3 months I have realized that one cannot fathom the whole universe. Moreover, my juniors at office (trainees) say that there is just too much to know and one can not know everything. I commend their realization. For the first few times I questioned the fact. But after some time, I accepted it.
All human beings are subject to personal inclinations and therefore, each one chooses what he/she wants to do. However, Georg Simmel in his lecture ‘Metropolis and the mental life” says that functional specialization was a feature of the modern century. This was the phase when ‘specializations’ in fields started. He portrays this as a negative attribute. But a parallel thing is also to understand that the database of knowledge has also started increasing. Earlier, there was less to remember and now there is so much – machine, technology, politics, medicine…..architecture unfortunately delves into everything….and that’s when I wondered as the client spoke about mechanical details of an air conditioner on Saturday.
I said in mind…hold on dude….i am a designer. How and why am I supposed to know about this stupid machine, which is just a piece of graphic for me. I am supposed to put it such that it looks good in your house. Bloody you get the ac consultant and still want me to be there, you call the electrician and still want me to instruct, you call the civil person and want me to detail out the joint, you want me to tell the plumber the way to take the pipes, meet the building engineer, co ordinate with every damn person and the client. While that is only one part, you need me to convince you about the design, where I apply my brains and you still want to argue over it…
Well, now I see why architecture may not be for me. I simply may be interested in detailing out the graphic that will go on the wall…well that’s what I want to do….not 100 things at a time….those are jobs of supervisors. I want to think over a simple thing for hours and exhaust it out…that’s what artists do…right? And that’s why I like art…so is architecture art? Rather, I am inclined more towards the arty side of architecture. I think if I remain for some more time with it, I will surely find out what I exactly want to do in life. Now that’s called a dark cloud with a silver lining!
