logo

I don’t want to do anything else!

Home » Uncategorized » I don’t want to do anything else!

I don’t want to do anything else!

| Uncategorized | March 17, 2013

“Maybe you should do something else”.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had somebody say that to me over the last couple of years. It usually follows a long winded rant on my part about how much the profession sucks, how hard it is to find work, how hard it is to get paid if you do find work and forget about finding good clients.

Here’s the thing that non-architects (and some architects) don’t get, architecture is not a job! It’s a calling. The “mother of all arts” as Wright once said. But lately it’s becoming a job, a means to an end. And as a job, architecture sucks (“When did architecture become a job” http://goo.gl/kwf5e).

But what else to do? Become a real estate broker, computer programmer, writer, teacher, what? What other profession offers creatives who become architects the addictive highs of the creative process?

Granted, the lows associated with the profession are devastating. (that’s why one keeps a bottle of single malt scotch nearby). But we’re all addicts, waiting for that creative fix that trumps everything, that’s makes the world around us disappear. That makes you throw your chest out and say “I’m an architect” when someone asks what you do.

Do something else?

I don’t think so.

I’m an architect.

About the author

This author has yet to write their bio.

3 Responses to "I don’t want to do anything else!"
  • Steve March 18, 2013

    You (like me) can be an architect and be ready and willing to take on the architecture work but in the meantime do something else related that brings in the money. Since being laid off, I am doing other creative things like house flips and construction management consulting. Unfortunately we can’t all sit around waiting for the grand ol architecture job. :). Don’t get me wrong, I am still and will always be an architect and am proud that I can say that. It took a lot of hard work to get there and nobody can take that away.

  • Tapani Talo March 18, 2013

    Yes, this is the 4th recession and yes, one learns to live with ebb and flow. Apart from learning new skills and doing research that one never has time for when projects are humming, art – writing, photography, painting, trying test things in ones own home/house.
    My house is 90% more energy efficient due these quiet times, and that is huge. I can ride power outages in 72 degree warmth even in winter.
    In 1992 when Philip Johnson went essentially bankrupt – we lost 8 high rises in one week and everybody was laid off except if one was finishing a project.
    So – one works on anything to ride recession, save as much as one can while work is coming in. And accept reality – with a smile.
    Thank you David McFadden for help in the middle 80’s…

  • David C. McFadden April 12, 2013

    These postes by Colbrooke are topical and fun. A nice break from the daily grind or lack there of!

New Jobs