Throughout history, architecture seems to have been defined in multiple different ways and expressed through very different concepts. Some believe that architecture is simply expressed through buildings and that is all. While others find that many engineering processes, that include cars, ships, and planes, are also architecture. Strangely, there doesn’t seem to be a clear answer, so we must decide personally what we think architecture is and what makes an architect an architect. What makes an architect stand out from an engineer, but also the other way around. In the book Refabricating Architecture, the authors talk about the opportunity to make an Architecture with a capital A. The authors believe that Architecture is, in sense, a process that includes not only the architect but everyone in between when creating a structure, space, or mass.

To me, architecture is not only a building, or even the designing of a building, but the experience through a space. Architects work hard on explaining why they’re doing something because they want to make people realize the back story and feel integrated in the project. Architecture is everything that goes into the final project regardless of what that project may be. Architecture is the reasoning and the meaning behind each detail and the specific intention of a detail. Architects don’t typically add something for show, so I love the idea of knowing what they’re thinking and the processes that they had to use to get there.

In Refabricating Architecture the authors claim that Architecture (with a capital A) means that the design and process is not only the architect, but everyone that is involved in the construction and design of the project. That means that the clients, the engineers, the contractors and the architects are included in this process. With many structures, I feel like it could be easy for an architect to get a big head and just expect to tell everyone else what to do, but in reality, there’s so much more that we need involved in architecture. We need more for less and Architecture can provide that. We can have everyone working on a central goal and working as one. With all the skills that these people can contribute, any project can be done more efficiently and simply better. The amount of systems that currently go into a single building are overpowering and can easily be divided and conquered through many department. 

It seems that architecture, is simply the art of being an architect but Architecture is the process and if we were to employ Architecture we would be much better off in the field. The idea of using everyone to create the final result would change the process as we’ve seen it and improve it greatly. Taking and building large portions of the final product off site simply makes more sense and will completely transform the scheduling enterprise. We must design a building to not only accommodate the floors and walls, but each system that it encompasses. And we must accommodate every person that can change the spectrum of architecture to Architecture.

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