statement from A&B 04 | 2022 issue
This is not a graceful profession. Bureaucracy, overtime, stress, responsibility, often uneasy relationships with clients. Projects can drag on for years, and it's hard for enthusiasm not to drop off after a long time, even in the face of the most exciting topics. It happens that at the moment that in theory should be the most rewarding, i.e. the commissioning of the building, one feels relief rather than joy.
All over the world, architectural pathologies are being pointed out - from expecting students to stay up all night working on projects to full dedication to the profession. It's no coincidence that more and more people are retraining, and the feminization of the profession can hardly be considered the result of gender equality, but rather the retreat of men into better-paying professions. Although the situation is changing for the better, the pace of these changes is not satisfactory.
Sports complex in Piekary Slaskie
competition design: DOMINO Grupa Architektoniczna Wojciech Dunaj
© DOMINO Grupa Architektoniczna
In Poland, to the long list of expectations comes being a man-orchestrator. An architect should know everything: from construction and installation, to legal issues, to environmental issues. In the case of mistakes - and, after all, there are no projects without them - one looks for culprits rather than solutions to the problem. The prestige of the profession seems to be artificially maintained by the professional community as compensation for long, poorly paid working hours. Perhaps only Generation Z (especially women of this generation, eager to choose design professions), understanding the importance of work-life balance, will begin to force change.
Already we can see a new way of working of younger studios - thinking of design in the category of problem-solving, focused on the craft nature of the profession. This approach can be seen, among others, in the activities of xystudio, which in its projects is able to integrate both practical and effective spatial, functional and technical solutions, as well as a high aesthetic level of the designed objects.
Monika Arczyńska
A2P2
