How Manufacturing Methodologies are Poised to Transform Building Construction

“Appearance has triumphed over substance.”

 

THE ARCHITECT: THE MASTER BUILDER

 

“The most significant, yet troubling, legacy of modernism has been the specialization of the various elements of building once directed and harmonized by the master builder.”

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            Throughout the years, the architecture practice has changed as a profession itself. In the 1400s, during the Quattrocento Renaissance, architects or (master builders) like Brunelleschi had to incorporate the job of what today would be more than 4 different professionals. At the moment, master builders, as so called by Stephen Kieran and James Timberlake, weren’t recognized as so, architects were just starting to be recognized as what they are today, before this time they were considered to be mere artisans. Nowadays, architecture has been fragmented and specialized; this would be a positive thing if done right, if it meant deeper knowledge of that specialized part, even so, most of the time architects today are glorified for doing less than a fourth of the work a Renaissance master builder would.

            Architects are not entirely to blame; the evolution of the practice and the “progress” in materials has lead to the segregation of decision making, including others by default in the design process, making it harder to call a project one’s own. Therefore, a building might end up being a collage of elements put together by many professionals that don’t necessarily agree or have a continuous line of thought. Even so, personally speaking, I believe architects today are being deficient not only in trying to fix this segregation of jobs problem, but also in giving the right amount of importance to “use and place” that should be their “primordial” task. Architects today focus mainly on “form over function.”