The Purpose of Architecture

The purpose of architecture is to create useful spaces that batch want to be in. Its non enough to make the space useful if state hate existence in it. And its non enough to make people want to be in it if they cant use it for its think purpose. But being attractive without being useful is probably better than being useful without being attractive. If people like a space, theyll find a way to make it work. If people dont like a space, theyll stay away, even if it seems to meet altogether their practical needs. architecture creates more than ane sweet of space. Interior spaces are the ones we usually think about. But architecture creates exterior spaces as well. A bleak building on a street makes it a different kind of street. Is it a street where people want to be, or is it a street they hurry through? The architect is as much answerable for the street his building sits on as he is for the space inside the building. If a new twirl creates a long, blank wall that people in stinctively avoid, the architect has effectively destroyed the street.Businesses on the different side of it will wither, and the street will exist only as a passage from one more desirable place to another. Style is less important than scale in creating spaces people like. Architecture on a human scale is inherently more friendly than architecture on a titanic scale. Monumental architecture needs smaller subdivisions to make itself relatable the arches in a Roman basilica, or the stilts in a Mies van der Rohe forthice building.Great slabs of concrete or stone put us off instead of welcoming us remembering the human scale is the thing that makes architecture work. These are all obvious ideas, but the enthusiasm of an all-encompassing theory of architecture can make an architect deflect them. An architect needs to look at his plans and ask, Will people want to be here? mayhap he should point to different spots on the blueprint at random Will people want to behere,orhere,orhere? I f he can always answer yes to that question, hes done his job well.