Journal

The word ‘architect’ first emerged in the 16th Century, followed by the architectural professions in the 19th and 20th centuries (the RIBA formed in 1834), existing for a mere fraction of the duration over which human civilisation has built and occupied buildings.  

Like every sector of the economy across the western world, architects have been hit by a succession of financial impacts; the 2008 credit crisis, the global pandemic, and in the UK the ongoing fallout from Brexit and the Grenfell Tower disaster. This might be a temporary blip, with the economy ultimately improving and with it, hopefully, the fortunes of the architectural profession.

Or it might be that we’re witnessing the start of a more systemic change.

In the middle ground of architecture AI and parametric design tools present an existential threat. I’m not talking about those seductive Midjourney images that populate instagram. I’m more concerned about the push/pull parametric tools that easily allow the creation of fairly competent massing and layout. These are in their infancy but they’re already pretty good. Combine these with design guides and design codes and it won’t be too long before clients wonder why they need an architect at all. It’s probably happening already.

Project forward twenty-five, fifty years and what will it mean to be an architect? What will our profession look like? Will we become editors, parameter-setters or decorators of AI-designed buildings? With any disruption there is opportunity. We have to ask what we, as architects, can offer that AI and parametric design can’t. We need to offer more than just a mechanical response to constraints. We need to offer a VISION. We need to offer SOUL, CRAFT and ARTISTRY. We need to offer HUMANITY.

The world needs people with ideas and vision. It also needs spatial thinkers. Whether or not the built environment needs architects any more. That remains to be seen.