Images of architecture and construction
- Some architects feel there is an image problem or lack of understanding of their role among the public and in the construction industry. Negative images of architects include: being overly focused on ‘artistry’ or ‘creativity’; having a big ‘ego’; and the myth of the ‘lone genius’, creating autonomously. Care providers, developers and contractors sometimes describe experiences of working with architects who are overly ‘precious’ about the aesthetic aspects of the design, which can cause practical problems for the wider team.
- Negative images of architects include: being overly focused on ‘artistry’ or ‘creativity’; having a big ‘ego’; and the myth of the ‘lone genius’, creating autonomously. Care providers, developers and contractors sometimes describe experiences of working with architects who are overly ‘precious’ about the aesthetic aspects of the design, which can cause practical problems for the wider team.
- Stereotypical images of architects are perpetuated by media portrayals focusing on ‘starchitects’ who create iconic buildings, reducing architectural design to single acts of artistic creativity, and neglecting the complexity of the process.
- Dichotomies between logic/artistry, creativity/practicality, design/construction were sometimes drawn on by both building contractors and architects, constructing their professional identities and roles in opposition to one another.
- Just as some contractors, developers and clients hold negative images of architects, architects sometimes hold stereotypical images of builders as overly focused on cost cutting at the expense of the design, lacking in creativity, and lacking in consideration of building users.
- These images have real implications for working relationships on projects and can underpin tensions between different disciplines. On the other hand, positive long-term working relationships can help overcome negative stereotypes.
Project architect
“…there was this BBC programme about a hotel in Singapore, and they interviewed the architect to explain how the concept came up, and the guy went ‘I just cut a piece of cardboard and put it on the three towers, and it was perfect’. And my wife, who is also an architect said ‘that’s why people think that’s what we do. We just cut cardboard and throw crazy ideas into the wind’. We’re not artists…we employ a kind of high level of creativity, but our design decisions are based on facts. These comments that some architects use to show themselves as being very spontaneous, they only hurt the profession in the external perception of what we do.”
Rethinking images of construction
