"Architecture is a visual art, and the buildings speak for themselves". ~ Julia Morgan

At the core of it all, an architect is a communicator. You my friend, are a creator of meaning.

Spaces are not merely enclosures with no face and no expression. They are a canvas for which the artist (which is you) distills a multitude of contexts and considerations – to provide response that can say a resounding something. 

Your work is your attempt to fill the world with color, in shades that future generations will react to with “That’s a funny building”, or “I love this place”, or “Yikes. I never want to be imprisoned there”.

It’s a tall order, but a fulfilling one at best – to tell a 4-Dimensional story that is uniquely yours.

There’s a difference between going through the motions and working with passion. The former is a forgettable scar to your precious existence, and the latter is an enduring fulfillment.

So don’t design a door that is without purpose, generic, and placeless.

Design a door to a preschool – vibrant and playful, such that a child would enjoy operating it, to let them know that “this is a happy place”.

Design a door to a place of worship that is large, humbling, and very tactile, to say that “our human existence is dwarfed by a brilliant mystery”.

Don’t design a museum that is uniform all-throughout for the sake of simply being easy to work with.

Design a historical museum that speaks of slavery and retribution – by envisioning a circulation that starts off as dark, oppressing, claustrophobic – moving in a gradient towards a brilliant clean, white, open atrium.

This isn’t you putting up four walls and saying “Okay. So I think these boxes are enough space”.

This is you telling the world – “this is what makes life vibrant, purposeful, and worth living”.

So enough with the empty lines that barely scratch the surface, and then fade into oblivion. Enough with the copy-pastes that are overwhelmingly everywhere but say nothing at all.

Build lines with distinction, with purpose, with a resonating voice. Your voice. Architect – You are a communicator. Your space is your oration. So think deeply, and act with vigor.

Let’s make this world mean something.

Cheers,