Us and Them

Musing over a cuppa and a biscuit, as I often do, I wondered why I have so few architect readers – or at least, architects who are willing to leave comments. I have collected quite a few police officers, either serving, wannabe or retired, an American piano tuner, a supermarket operative, a nature watcher, a PhD student, a couple of architects who can put keyboard to screen and one of my faves, B2A – who I believe is an architect but never leaves comments. I am honoured any of you even bother - and delighted.

I considered some of my colleagues – by that I mean architects who are in a similar situation to myself, working alone or in micro practises. They are a sombre and silent lot, and will only speak freely to other architects, usually in the form of a good old moan over a lunch provided by a seminar organiser which comes free before the afternoon plug of some product they will never use. Why? Because their jobs consist of tiny loo extensions, which do not warrant the latest in glass staircases. So why go to the seminars? Even architects need company occasionally, and the prospect of a free lunch and a good moan will often tempt even Alice here away from the drawing board.

These micro architects sit in a tiny office or at home, alone in the coldest room, with a steam -driven old computer for company, running an outdated version of AutoCAD salvaged from their previous employment. They sit on an ancient adjustable office chair from Viking Direct, which has lost its adjustability, surrounded by 1970’s office furniture and second hand filing cabinets, scratching a living from tiny loo extensions. They are terrified of the ARB, the RIBA and their insurance company, and live in fear of being sued and struck off. Many look forward to retirement, counting the days before they can tell the clients to find some other miserable, black clad, worn-out professional depressive.

Pink Floyd were architecture students – need I say more?

Those who work for the mega practises, such as Rogers, Foster and other starchitects, are so far up themselves - er - in the stratosphere that they can hardly see the architectural bacilli on the earth below, and even if they do use a microscope occasionally and peer at the swarming pond life, they wonder how such bottom feeders can possibly survive. In any case, they won't find Alice's blog remotely touches their world of huge sheets of bonded aluminium sheeting, granite floors or glass staircases.

On the other hand, police officers seem to have no trouble at all stringing a few words together. Just look at some of the police blogs – hundreds of comments, some of them paragraphs long, little novelettes in their own right. If you don’t believe me, have a look at TUPC’s comment on this post.

Of course, not all architects are mute. This one isn’t, anyway.

*With thanks to Sutherland Lyall, writer for Architectural Review (a glossy with lots of good pictures - just what architects like) and inspiration for this post.