Initial Thesis Sketch

Written Sketch- Response to "How to Draw up a Project" by Jose Luis Mateo

In this article, Jose Luis Mateo points out that a project is vague and hard to grasp the boundaries and all the parts in consists. However, he says that a process with a fixed direction. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing that a project is like a boat with many captains, and that the people involved in the making of building need to communicate and move toward the same direction. This raises the questions of our role as architects. What can we do to guide different systems toward the anticipated direction? Do architects have power to lead the building industry in today’s society? In what conditions do we fail as leaders?
Some of these questions are answered in this article. “It is necessary to work delicately, clearly, and openly with these phantoms, in an attempt to define with precision the basic issues to be developed, without becoming trapped by them.” He insists that we should not bind ourselves with sets of rules that we make during the process. This is also a lesson I learned personally in the first year of architectural education at CMU. The rules of geometry or of a system can develop and alter over time, and it is crucial to realize that ideas can come throughout the process. A project is not about having generous ideas from the beginning of the process; a project, or a process with fixed direction, is similar to the “growth of organism”.
Towards the end of article, Mateo says that architectural education is rather still when buildings are active and live with people inhabiting the space. I disagree with this because I think it is up to each individual to discover what is beyond their educational system. Institutions are there to provide guidance and knowledge necessary; however, our minds have power to adventure beyond the framework of system.