Hey architects: Make buildings people love!

I can’t stand when people insist that architects have “sophisticated” tastes just because they appreciate the subtler aspects of Corporate Modernism or Brutalism. Why is this the conception of sophistication we want? Why is it sophisticated to create ugly buildings that people hate.

Architects should create buildings people love. If you fail to do this, you’ve failed as a profession.

Just because you’ve become so overstimulated by your field that you gravitate toward the most extreme or niche expressions of it doesn’t make your preferences superior. Exclusivity and overstimulation should not be what we want out of our sophistication concept.

The real marks of sophistication should be discovering new ways to create buildings that people genuinely love. It should mean possessing such a deep understanding of human psychology that you could design in countless ways that bring joy and connection to the human experience. Your education and expertise should be in service of enhancing the lives of others.

If you were a teddybear maker and all your creations were unloved, no one would call that “sophistication.” The same standard should apply to architecture: your work should resonate with people and enrich their lives.