A whisper about life, Design & architecture

In 1975, six years after my birth, I was asked the question by one of my family’s friend’s coming to visit… “What do you want to be?” My answer was firm, “I want to be an Architect.” At the age of 14, I worked for the French consortium building the Cairo underground, and the same question was asked. My answer never changed. However, I caught the attention of the HR director, a fine French gentleman named Dennis, so he interviewed me, and he asked me why I wanted to work with the most difficult team of injecting the body of the tunnel when my dream was to become an Architect. My answer was that, “in our pursuit of our dreams, we meet challenges, and we passionately work them out so we can make a difference and have an impact. That actually enriches my pursuit to become an Architect.”

Being a multi-cultural architect and coming from a diversified background has given me the strength to stand tall every time after falling, to follow along this journey and to continue my pursuit of growth.

We didn’t come this far only to come this far. I hear some people says things like, “When I make it,” “When I get to the top,” “I will keep working hard to get to the top,” or “I will keep on working hard until I reach my goal.” We can’t only talk about reaching our goals, we need to do a lot more than the work, the hard work. Leonardo Da Vinci, who left behind treasure of culture, art and impressions, all achieved by hard work, has once said:” I have been impressed with the urgency of doing. Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Being willing is not enough, we must do.”

With that introduction, I have found that all writing about designing the profile of the future architect has ignored the soul of the matter, and the ones concerned. Young architects usually make it there because they want to, because it’s their choice and because they are willing to take the challenge to become Architects, same as I have pursued my dream among others.

I believe we are here to inspire, and we are currently living at the turning point of our industry, but let me tell you something…. Some 10 years ago, we got in our hand a new phone called iPhone… that one has changed our world. In a matter of fact, changes have been happening every day, and have managed to profile our roots. While we are still talking about reshaping the future, it has already started and it’s going on faster than our minds. Technology is playing a role and we have to adapt, and confine with these facts.

We, the architects, we are still trying to hold on to our values when everything around us is changing, but we still call these values, when others are calling the changes “new values.” How can we be visionary in tackling the profile of the future architects, when we are surrounded by Artificial Intelligence and technology that keeps on growing around us at a pace that doubles every 18 months, and soon crossing the 6-month cycle…

So, in my pursuit of drifting my view, I have opted for some different recommendations, easy words, and some easy to apply words. I thought that the impact of such easy to understand stories will leave our new generation with “real life” whispers, to mention a few:

1. Our work to reveal: With new designs and a more connected world, we need the ask architects to reveal new designs, something meaningful, that the community hasn’t been aware of before.

2. The constant seeking of improvement: we need to get the message loud and clear, and we fail to deliver that Design is a language that needs to be spoken to the ones who understand it. Lately, it’s more imitation than innovation and we need to improve our language to match the fast paced audience, constantly and persistently.

3. The truth is in the details: it’s not only that, but the details are what makes the design satisfactory, and what makes it stand out or outstanding. The details are also what brings the design from being “a Design” to being tailored, refined, exclusive and addressing.

4. Our Design shall not call communities out, it shall call them up: the successful design shall have one successful goal in its essence, which is to bring people together and galvanize them to move forward in cooperation, not conflict.

5. Driven by ambition to enable architecture to become a sustainable change agent: Sustainability is real, and it’s here for us and for the next generation. We, in our turn, have enjoyed a totally deregulated fancy, and took the maximum of our planet’s natural resources. We have forgotten that we are just one of the generations, and we fear that we are consuming the resources too fast. We need to act differently, and the new generation will have a better drive to conserve.

6. We link history with current events: our traditional education is no longer linked to reality. We must link history with current events and draw conclusions if we are to move to the future.

7. Raise the challenge through new “challenges”: the constant changes in life and people’s pattern is bringing a lot of new challenges that Architects needs to address. We constantly seek to improve our environment, communities, dwellings and cities.

8. Make our designs “inclusive”: we are in an industry which increases the likelihood that people from all walks of life will feel when spaces and buildings are talking to them. It is a design and a story that transcends any culture, geography, race, religion, politics or workspace. Do not manipulate, but embrace people who, in the end, are the real judges of our designs.

9. Let’s end on a note of hope: we have portrayed designs that sometimes impacted the life of so many people, but we have not been necessarily successful in portraying other feelings or to bring emotions to Designs. Give them “hope” so they give everybody “hope” back. It’s always possible to see hope through design and spaces.

Let all the Architects knows that a new day is on the horizon, and that we are looking at them as a lot of magnificent people and some phenomenal ones, fighting hard to make sure that they become the obvious leaders who take us and the following generations to the time when nobody ever has seen yet.

This is just the beginning…