LEARNING AGREEMENT
'MY WORK ALWAYS STARTS WITH A MATERIAL, AND THEN THE CREATIVE PROCESS IS SHAPED AROUND THIS HANDS ON INVESTIGATION'
‘The practice of architecture and the role of the architect must expand if the profession is going to be capable of dealing with the contemporary societal flux.’ This learning agreement is a self-reflection on my experience within the umbrella of ‘architecture’ thus far, as a means to speculate how I would like to shape my spatial practice moving forward.
What kind of architect do you want to be? A question that I am frequently asked when I tell people that I am studying architecture. As it happens, l do not have a clear answer as of yet, which I think is a good thing. However, there are a couple of notions that I am sure will not play a dominant role in my future practice. Perhaps the most pressing being the dominance of the artificial image, the notion that ‘the problem is the picture’. This was particularly evident during my BA, which I felt gave a high reward to the production of final images, and somewhat overlooked process-driven work. I feel this creates a disconnection between myself as the designer and social experience of the people occupying a space. Whilst I do recognise the importance of image as an engaging representational tool, I would argue that there is an over-reliance on aesthetics within both architectural education and practice.
One notion that I intend to embrace moving forward is the practice of broadening my creative landscape through collaboration. The importance of absorbing social, environmental, and cultural information can only enrich my outlook of a spatial practitioner.
For me, the design process always starts with a material, and then creative narrative is shaped around this hands this investigation. We are living in an unsettled time, but also within a society that I believe will embrace change. I believe that the material world around us is going to change significantly over the coming years. In many ways, we’re still living out the material dreams and needs of our ancestors, which much of the lifestyle that we’re accustomed to today standing as a product of past inventions. I am driven by the concept of introducing low impact, regenerative materials back into the forefront of the built environment.
Simply put, I work best when I am stimulated and interested in what I am doing. Looking forward, this has to be the key guiding principle that underpins my practice.
COMMUNITY
OF PRACTICE
