Steps
Architect, The economic crisis has spurred a great deal of reflection upon the viability of a profession that is dependent upon commissions; not only are we financially exposed to the instability of the market economy, we perhaps feel a deeper crisis of relevance in only being able to react to a client’s wish. Despite our skill and experience in manipulating space and material, architects are impotently incapable of addressing the needs of society unless we have first been explicitly asked to do so. Unsolicited architecture offers an alternative to this reactive, service-oriented role, and instead calls for a new, more socially-motivated approach to procuring projects. The typical architectural commission can only proceed when the four pillars of client, site, budget and program are simultaneously aligned. In our consumer society, the projects that succeed in this quadrella are more often than not motivated by money, as opposed to social values. The unsolicited architect does not wait for this rare eclipse, but instead occupies the territory where at least one of these pillars are absent, thereby making the project undesirable or even impossible to tackle using the standard tools of the commercial practice. Unsolicited architects tackle the big issues facing society that are otherwise overlooked by the market; they create briefs where none are written, discover sites where none are owned, approach clients where none are present, and find financing where none is available. For this to succeed requires a professional shift toward a more entrepreneurial mindset, as the tools of architecture and architectural thinking are only powerful if they can be unshackled from the increasingly marginalized opportunities to react to a given brief. In times like these, the risk of not getting paid for your efforts is perhaps
one worth taking. Unsolicited architecture – who dares
?
Act
Unsolicited
Twelve Steps to Being a Successful Unsolicited Architect