COVER LETTER
andre maragos
My career goal is to merge the two areas of the industry that have been a driving force behind both sides of my work: Eco-Integrity and Parametrics. Beginning with four years of experience from five design professional roles, along with the mind set and artistic eye bestowed by my previous professors, my venture into the intermediate level of architectural employment is supplemented by a convergence of my two parallel educations. As society progresses towards an exclusively digital future, the simple geometric pillars of design established by the era of Modernism become increasingly unrelated to the subjected populace. The death of modernism in architecture left a massive gap in approach and meaning for architects of the new generation. Parametric design software offers a new horizon of techniques that can emulate natural patterns, fluid forms, and a web of processes better than ever. But if we are truly going to redefine the school of thought that drives the building industry, we must re-think the construction processes and material applications that compose this new identity. This stage of reality is too often overlooked for the sake of the most impressive appearances. These parametric design capabilities won’t survive the test of time if the performance and carbon footprint of the structures aren’t made into an equal priority. Even if we allow our ethical compass to design structures which co-exist with nature’s example, we are gradually losing sight of the role of an architect. Wind energy, solar process, and other environmental engineers are arguably more qualified to lead the future of eco-friendly architecture if it is nothing more than a sum of its parts. I do not believe an accumulation of high efficiency machines to be entirely sufficient in the full definition of architecture’s future. Nor do I envision parametrically natural designs to be successful without the aid of environmentally sound construction practices. These two strategies are seeds for growing a prospective building paradigm that mimics nature in both form and function. As an aspiring architect, I am eager to cleanse our cities from their connotations of rigid conformity, uninspired patterns, and artificial epicenters of mankind’s paved planet. In contrast, I am excited to re-imagine a lush urban hive as assimilated with the local ecosystem as it’s rural counterpart.
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