Reality vs. Reality

Decay is alive and finality has sunken in. Chaos has a new meaning and students are working again.

Another year end is within easy sight. No more distorted visions! Hip-hip! At a glance my study looks like Santa’s workshop (not far from the capitalist china factories) as the last finishing touches are being steadily applied in order to achieve the best results possible. Well trained hands draw the final lines under the night sky and the smell of burned wood from laser cutting models and glue hangs thickly in the air as the eyes of students tighten from working late night shifts. All is perfect...for now. Next Stop = Who knows?

This crescendo of year end shows would normally be classed as “brilliant” and I’m sure if the Daily Mail had their say like they do on movie posters and books, we would get a better twist on this classification. The array of concepts, processes, drawings, models and free thinking on display are pure and remains true to the future architect’s aspirations. However there is a twist to all of this...as always.

Would the proud owners of their work still be happy and smiling when they move into a paid job, should they be so lucky. Now in the real world, meaning those who are already working within the profession, I would think that most of you look forward to the majority of year end shows, possibly as an escape from your own reality.

“Reality leaves a lot to the imagination…”~ John Lennon

I've found university as a breath of fresh air but I have also found myself caught up between the

boundaries of the professional environment and that of the make believe world...namely university. I have also seen many newly qualified architects coming and going. More than a few struggled to design anything of merit that actually works. Those that have heroically tried to form a design didn’t know where to start and ended up with a “Willy Wonka” booklet made up of “googled” architectural details and photos found on architectural websites. There was no concept, no real beginning and therefore no real end, but there was something. The final something was read by professionals as a miss-mash or should I say “miss match” of other architects work stuck onto facades...is this really happening to architecture? This is not what architecture is about and surely this is not what universities have been teaching their students.

I suppose the reality are that those midnight shifts and the polished end products that we all put so much hard work and effort into...as if it was for a sacred or religious purpose, just isn’t working as a transferring platform from one reality to the next.

Robert Brault once said that one should: “Question reality, especially if it contradicts the evidence of your hopes and dreams”…and this is exactly where I am with this article when I say that reality indicates that... If I was to present work in my portfolio to the equivalent of the real world, I most probably won’t pass or just scrape through and the flip side of this foundation is that, if I did approach my professional career, concepts and designs as expected at university level...I’ll most probably won’t last long.

As the profession remains in a state of recovery (aiming not to sound like a broken record here) and the new architects to be, dare I say...is about to go out looking for work soon... what are we missing whilst being caught between two realities? Then again what you see as real is only defined by your perception of it.

“We see the world, not as it is, but as we are...” ~ Talmud

Chaos has a new meaning and reality is now leaving...but where does it leave you?