Your Favorite Architect?
Student survey — University of Genova, Italy
Among architects of all eras, I like Guarini, a Baroque architect. Among modern architects, I like Aalto and Mies van der Rohe. Among more recent architects, I like Aldo Rossi. In terms of structural aesthetics in architecture, I like Santiago Calatrava, because while solving complex structural problems, he creates something beyond a mere structure or the solution of an engineering calculation — a kind of poetry. The bridge that Calatrava designed is not just a bridge solving the problem of crossing a river, but an architectural statement. The bridge recently built over the North Sea, although it has broken all records for height and span, has merely solved an ordinary engineering calculation. This bridge evokes no feeling in a person, except admiration for breaking the record of length.
I like Aldo Rossi for his reference to distinctive forms and Platonic volumes — volumes that possess an independent existence. One criticizable feature in Rossi's work stands out, and that is his attempt to express the symbolic essence of every function through architectural form before attending to the programmatic details of each project. With this design approach, he has been forced to overlook many issues.
I like Frank Gehry. His works seem interesting to me, especially the Bilbao Guggenheim. In terms of feeling, I can say that I am drawn to the particular expression he gives to a project, the distinctive forms he creates, and the overall structure of his work. I also like the materials he uses.
I like various architects, and at the same time, I do not fully like any single architect, because I have a specific idea about architecture that does not completely align with any one architect's vision. Of course, I do like some of the works of Gehry, Siza, and Herzog & de Meuron. I admire quality wherever I see it. In any case, I think architecture should not be preoccupied with showing off strange forms. On the contrary, it can be simple. I must say that I did not used to like Gehry's work. But after seeing some of his works up close and recognizing a special quality in them, I was impressed. For example, the American Center building in Paris is very interesting. But when Gehry tries to apply the same artistic language to smaller projects, the result becomes artificial and irritating.
In addition to Renzo Piano, I also like many of today's architects such as Tadao Ando, especially for the Eastern quality he brings to his work. No single architect fully satisfies me, because I like things from different architects. Renzo Piano is more attractive to me than all the others because of the apparent simplicity of his technological works. Regardless, the most attractive of all is Piano's work. If you asked me to name only one architect, I would choose him. I don't mean to exaggerate — the distinctive quality of his work is the apparent simplicity, where if you look closely, you realize it is very complex architecture. And also because of the collaboration of engineering and architecture in Piano's office — his architecture is not just form; it is something more than form. The first time you see Osaka Airport in Japan, it looks like a technological object because it is a platform over the sea. But up close, you discover its architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright is also attractive to me. If you asked me to name just one architect, I would choose Wright. His truly distinctive quality is that his work is organic. He is one of the rare architects who has been able to establish a strong, entirely natural relationship with the surrounding environment. Compare him with Le Corbusier, for instance: Le Corbusier is a master of architecture whose works engage in dialogue with their surroundings, but this dialogue occurs behind the scenes, and the relationship with the environment is less evident. Therefore, Wright is more appealing to me.
Architecture: A Career-Making Profession
Ann De Milo Waldrop · Translated from Architectural Record, 01.98
By reading this article, you will observe that architecture being a career-making profession is not merely about the nature of the field and its inherent capacities. In Iran, too, it is no different from America. That is, in Iran as well, some architecture graduates enter architecture proper, while others enter related fields such as urban and regional planning, urban design, interior design, landscape architecture, architectural photography, construction management, teaching, and writing. What differs is this:
- The demand for architects in our country, due to housing demand from the rapidly growing population and the pace of urbanization, exceeds that of America;
- The current ratio of architects to the population is far lower than in America;
- The enthusiasm of young people for architecture, as the first choice of the mathematics-physics track, is a natural societal response to compensate for this shortfall;
- The establishment of new architecture schools is a natural response to the enthusiasm of young people and the needs of society;
- However, due to the lack of use of architectural engineering services in construction, an equivalent number of engineers also do not receive sufficient job opportunities;
- An insufficient number of architecture schools lack qualified teachers and necessary educational facilities;
- Architects lack associations and institutions that, through proper activity and advocacy, would convert society's need for engineering services into effective demand.
If a young person who wants to become an architect were to ask your opinion, what would you tell them? Would you encourage them by enumerating the positive aspects of this profession — the possibility of improving society's quality of life by influencing the built environment — and in addition, the creativity and diversity of fields? Or would you highlight the negative aspects — five to seven years of study, at least three years of internship, the daunting licensing examination, and enduring long hours of work with low pay?
As someone whose job is managing education, I encounter enthusiastic architects every day. By providing the statistics and information they need for making career choices, I wholeheartedly encourage them. I tell them that for the experienced architect, there is plenty of work. Architectural education is a springboard for a variety of careers.
According to statistics from the United States Department of Labor, the number of job opportunities for architects will increase by 25,000 by the year 2005, reaching 121,000. Statistics from the National Board defining formal architectural professions in America indicate that by 2005, approximately 9,400 graduates will compete for those 25,000 job opportunities. Based on these figures, we should immediately shut down half of all architecture education programs before supply exceeds demand.
But note that according to 1991 statistics from the American Institute of Architects, one-sixth of the Institute's members — more than 8,000 people — have said that their primary activity has been running a personal office. Both the AIA and the American Institute of Architecture Students emphasize alternative careers for experienced architects. The American Institute of Architecture Students, in an article titled "Career Opportunities in Architecture," published in their Career magazine, has listed more than 100 fields in which the skills, creative abilities, and problem-solving capacities of experienced architects can be put to use.
You will also encounter colleagues who are architects but make their living in related fields. You too may have entered a field whose foundation is architecture. A newsletter from Texas A&M University, in its spring issue, introduced two graduates who earn their livelihood from their architectural education: one is an Air Force instructor and the other is a sculptor.
Based on estimates, only 50 percent of graduates enter the profession and find formal architectural employment. If this estimate is true, we should not think about restricting programs or limiting architectural education. On the contrary, we must find ways to help architecture students learn how to apply the skills they have painstakingly acquired in other fields as well. Meanwhile, schools and professional architectural organizations must form networks with other professional groups and industries, making them aware of the broad, creative, and problem-solving skills of experienced architects. A person does not necessarily need to be a licensed professional architect.
One of the information resources prepared to help graduates is called "Educated for Architecture" — an audiovisual package prepared by the American Institute of Architects. Officially titled "Careers in Architecture," this comprehensive package has examined careers on the other side of architecture — in landscape architecture, interior design, lighting design, acoustic design, construction, urban and regional planning, environmental and behavioral research, and architectural history, theory, and criticism. As concluded in this chapter: "The final word is that the field of construction is a vast arena, and the opportunities it presents for architects are enormous."
Therefore, if once again a young man or woman comes to you to inquire about becoming an architect, encourage them with complete confidence. We need many architects who are not architects. As Leslie Gallery Weisman of the New Jersey Institute of Technology recently stated: "Architecture graduates possess the powerful problem-finding and problem-solving skills needed by a designer. I am confident that they will be able to invent new definitions for the important work of architects, which plays a role in the social landscape of human activity and the events of life."
News
French Students and Professors in Iran
On the 28th of Farvardin this year [April 17, 1998], a group of eight French architecture students and professors from the universities of La Villette and Belleville came to Iran. The goal of this group was to survey traditional houses of Isfahan dating to the Safavid and Qajar periods using a new surveying method (precise drawing during measurement). Apparently, these drawings are to be published in a book about the traditional houses of Isfahan. The group was accompanied by eight architecture students from the University of Tehran, and for 11 days in Isfahan, they successfully surveyed the plans of approximately 23 houses. University of Tehran students had surveyed 7 of these 23 houses the previous year.
Tehran Gallery Exhibitions
Tehran Gallery, affiliated with the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Tehran, has organized the following exhibitions this year (open 9 AM to 5 PM, Saturday to Wednesday):
1. Exhibition of paintings and sculptures by Nasim Mozhdeh — 4 to 19 Khordad [May 25 to June 9]
2. Exhibition of paintings by Qodratollah Aqeli — 5 to 19 Khordad [May 26 to June 9]
3. Exhibition "Beyond Brick and Clay: A Passage to Desert and Architecture through Images" by Simon Ayvazian — 20 Khordad to 3 Tir [June 10 to June 24, 1377]
4. Exhibition of oil paintings by Aziz Tabesh — 6 to 27 Tir [June 27 to July 18]
5. Photography exhibition "Silence" by Meysam Makhmalbaf — 1 to 15 Mehr [September 23 to October 7]
Tehran Gallery — Faculty of Fine Arts, Enqelab Street, Qods Street, eastern side of the University of Tehran
Architecture Competition at Shahid Beheshti University
In Khordad of this year [May-June 1998], Atak Consulting Engineers organized a competition for the preliminary design (esquisse) of a sports center among students of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Shahid Beheshti University. The jury of this competition included Mr. Engineer Joudat and Dr. Khatami from the faculty professors, and Mr. Engineer Ahmadian representing Atak Consulting Engineers. In this competition, no project was recognized for first place, and Mr. Manouchehr Aziz-Pourvaziri, a final-year architecture student at Qazvin International University, received second place and the cash prize.
Workshop 4 Qazvin
This architecture workshop, which began its activities in Khordad 1377 [May-June 1998] under the supervision of Qazvin Cultural Heritage, includes two workshops: a Presentation Workshop and a Critique & Architecture Workshop. Among the activities of Workshop 4: organizing a seminar on "Identity and Architecture" and holding a student esquisse competition at the Ab-Anbar (water cistern) of Qazvin. Workshop 4 Qazvin was established with the collaboration of Dr. Falamaki. This workshop plans to add model-making and volumetric studies workshops starting next term.
Student Competition Deadline: "Memorial for Iran 1400" — extended to the end of Aban 1377 [November 1998].
Second National Student Congress: Date changed to 20-23 Farvardin 1378 [April 9-12, 1999]. This congress will be held at Persepolis.