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An Architect's Calling Cards
The next time you run into a tongue-tied architect hanging out solo in a corner, one of these handouts may help
Houzz Contributor. Just an architect, standing in front of an ideology, asking it to love me.
Houzz Contributor. Just an architect, standing in front of an ideology,... More »
Hello. I'm an architect.
I often feel misunderstood. I'm usually cast as the aloof, artistic type, standing alone in the corner of the room, staring out the window at some distance church steeples. I seem to know important and complicated things. I appear cool and collected on the outside, wearing my perfectly tailored black turtleneck sweater in the middle of July. But on the inside? Well, not so much cool and collected. I can be hard to approach. I can be difficult to talk to. And if you do spend some time with me, I can be impossible to understand. I can be esoteric. I can be obtuse. I can be impatient. I have a problem.
So I've started giving out calling cards to people at parties, to break the ice. This way, people will know how to talk to me. These cards are the equivalent to an architect's medical ID tag. In case I've drifted off into my own thoughts and I'm unable (or unwilling) to talk for myself, I can just show you my calling card, and then you'll know I'm severely allergic to small talk.
And we can just skip it and talk about Prague.
I often feel misunderstood. I'm usually cast as the aloof, artistic type, standing alone in the corner of the room, staring out the window at some distance church steeples. I seem to know important and complicated things. I appear cool and collected on the outside, wearing my perfectly tailored black turtleneck sweater in the middle of July. But on the inside? Well, not so much cool and collected. I can be hard to approach. I can be difficult to talk to. And if you do spend some time with me, I can be impossible to understand. I can be esoteric. I can be obtuse. I can be impatient. I have a problem.
So I've started giving out calling cards to people at parties, to break the ice. This way, people will know how to talk to me. These cards are the equivalent to an architect's medical ID tag. In case I've drifted off into my own thoughts and I'm unable (or unwilling) to talk for myself, I can just show you my calling card, and then you'll know I'm severely allergic to small talk.
And we can just skip it and talk about Prague.
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| Thank gawd for Ikea. |
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| Unless it's hot. Then I wear black. |
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| [Jody shuffles feet uncomfortably.] |
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| OK, this one's not fair, really. Architecture is one of the few professions I can think of where you are expected to have a broad knowledge of multiple fields. Architecture is part art, science, engineering, sociology, economics, politics, ecology, technology, psychology and so on. We can't know everything about all of these fields. We know just a little about everything, by training. This is probably why I'm nervous talking to you. You think I know what I'm talking about. But I don't. |
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| Please, never let an architect choose your dining room chairs. They will be beautiful but uncomfortable and expensive. |
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| Mainly because less takes more time. |
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| I almost couldn't make this graphic. It hurts my head. Photos used to create these graphics are used with permission under creative commons license. Click individual graphics for photo sources and links. More by Coffee With an Architect: 12-Step Program for Architecture A Primer on the Language of Design Find Your Inner Minimalist Flash Cards for Architectural Terms Find Your Architectural Style Great Architecture Speaks to Us |
Ideabook published on May 1, 2012.
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Don't label us, other architects, in all in your stereotypes of what architects are like, from your personal perception or by the general viewers
surrounding you.
There, I speak my mind.
I am an architect/educator/home owner/a community builder. I have a passion for life, never struggling with affording/not affording a taste like you do. I have no reservation/shyness/arrogance/self-importance to think about how others will think about me as such of an architect. I will know my own short comings or achievement. But I try to deliver the best I can with the ultimate compassion and love for life.
At least, none of your words can describe me or what I do or think. Don't use the broad term of we, architects, in your writings, please.
Can you talk about the sociological and communal expert views more as an expert for other houzz subscribers? You are quite good at this small talk. Irony.
http://we-do-this-because.posterous.com/idea-cards
Thanks for the morning guffaw!
I wear funny looking glasses.
Just kidding. Have a 30+ year career in the profession as a Designer/Project Manager/Construction Magician Administrator making all the squiggly sketches a reality..... and I thought, when it started, that it would be a good 2 year gig doing architectural illustrations.
I think you nailed it!..........(sigh) so little time, so many to help.