“Louie Kahn said,” Even a brick wants to be something… a brick wants to be, something… it inspires. Even a common ordinary brick wants to be something more than it is… and that is what we must be (“Indecent Proposal”)

The Expand program discus’s that mathematics, coordination, idea generation, implementation planning, speaking, product inspection, active listening, and visioning are all skills a person must have to be a successful architect (“Architect”). Being an architect is very contradictive; architects are artistic and creative which uses the right side of the brain, and they are also very technical and mathematical, which uses the left side of the brain.

Many of the abilities that associate with architecture are things such as visualization, written expression, deductive reasoning, fluency of ideas, and oral comprehension (“Architect”). To be a successful architect you must find a job that illuminates an architects best abilities, look for a job where you get what you give. Explore the jobs where you can get the feeling of accomplishment (“Architect”). “Architecture must learn to see brick as brick, learn to see steel as steel, see glass as glass,” (Rifkind 29) Frank Lloyd Wright stated, who is one of the most well known architects of our decade… if not this century.

While being employed as an architect, some of the important work activities include thinking creatively and coming up with new ideas, drafting and specifying technical devices for the buildings, etc. Also getting information needed to do the job correctly, and evaluating information against standards, communicating with people other

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than the organization, etc. (“Architect”).

In 1996, employment in the United Stated for architecture was 94,000, of which 26,000 were self-employed (“Architect”). “It is projected that by the year 2006 employment in this occupation will grow by 19.6%, an increase of 18,000 positions. In addition 21,000 openings (22% of Current positions) will become available due to employee turnover,” adds the Expan program (“Architect”). The average wage for architects in the United States is around $43,430 annually (“Architect”). “Both client and architect play for high stakes in the design of a house. The effort requires an intense collaboration between two parties whose differing ambitions and anticipations may pull them in opposite directions” (Rifkind 3). It has been estimated that our increasingly complex society requires some 270 different types of buildings, including such intriguing examples, such as an airport terminal, public garage, convention center, fast-food stands, and also the sports stadium (Rifkind IX). We have to design culturally rich cities, not just bedroom suburbs. Land and manufacturing are definitely essential to architecture because we must be parasitic, every community needs the arts and performances, otherwise they are just survival machines (Russell 99). As different as they are from each other, the architects who worked in an expressionistic mode shared common ideas, as well as a common interest in creating an emotional response; enjoying the contrast of boldly articulated geometric forms, exaggerating light, space and mass… and exploiting the sensual quality of materials, especially those close to nature (Rifkind 29). “Aiming for a total break with the past, modernist vowed to strip architecture of every obsolete vestige

of “style,” totally reinventing and rationalizing it in forms of function,” (Rifkind 6).

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There are three broad principles to help identify the great technique of architecture referred to as post-modernism (Russell 30) “First there is allusionism: the positive attempt to define the use of the building by its design. This was expressed in the regional flavor of Venturi’s vernacular beach houses in Martha’s Vineyard, similar in scale and appearance to the existing fisherman’s shacks around them,” (Russell 30). The second is contextualism: the careful observation of the buildings surrounding a proposed new structure and an effort to integrate the new with the old without being precisely faithful to existing history,” (Russell 30). The last one is ornamentalism: the layering of meaning onto an exterior or interior with familiar references in texture or color. A typical Venturi building could be constructed of different-colored brick or have a façade of colored tile. In interior, the rule “White is Right” was discarded in favor of colored hues of paint, stenciling, and even wallpaper,” (Russell 30). The architectural tricks such as illuminated waterfalls, glass-enclosed elevator pods, atriums, etc. used in city after city gave a sense of déjà vu after being used so many times by architects (Russell 100).

Bibliography

A perfect research paper.

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