INTRODUCTION

The question we are discussing here is “What kind of architect do we want to be?” isn’t it? So, let me answer you with another question: What is an architect? Or even better: What should I do to become an architect?

If we search for the meaning of that word in the dictionary, we’ll find that an architect is “a person qualified to design buildings” But we all know that architects are much more than this.

We could also look for the answer comparing the most notorious professionals of our days, and then we’ll find that those strange beings known as architects are some kind of serious formal intelligent people who usually wear black clothes in a respectable elegant way.

They are some kind of demigods who study society, who study the way the rest of the people live and the needs they’ve got. Some kind of demigods who design the world where the rest of social life is developed. In other words, people in charge of improving the infrastructures of the city in order to make the overstressed lives people have nowadays easier and faster.

Some kind of genius able to pick up a white piece of paper and convert it into a building, a chair or even a city.

So, that being the case, the answer is easy, isn’t it? To become an architect I should take them as a model and try to develop my work in a similar way. I should look elegant, I should think about society’s needs, and I should create the most spectacular shapes possible in a building or a piece of furniture.

But, what if I don’t care about “black” elegance? What if I don’t want to dress in a serious and formal way? What if I cover my body with a rainbow? Would it matter very much?

And what if I don’t want to make people’s lives easier? What if I feel too ashamed of their overfrozen lives that I prefer to create emotions in those “robots” rather than creating installations which accelerate even more the way they move? Would I have become too much of a dreamer for an architect?

And if instead of picking up a piece of white paper to create something, I pick up some colourful sheets and transform it into a shapeless amount of originality? Could I still then become an architect?

I’m sure there are lot of people who would say no, no you couldn’t.

So, here is my answer. I’m Silvia, and I don’t know if I want to be an architect.