multitude

What Architect stands for in 201x

In the Euro­pean Con­ti­nent the role of the archi­tect has dete­ri­o­rated dur­ing the last decade; from tak­ing a seat at the polit­i­cal ‘table’ of Europe, archi­tects have dropped (in the best cases) to the posi­tion of make-up artists for devel­op­ers.
The large com­mis­sions given by gov­ern­ments have ended, demar­cat­ing the end of archi­tects’ involve­ment as pub­lic intel­lec­tual figures.

Nowa­days, archi­tects have become either extremely global or extremely local. This means that one can work from Ams­ter­dam design­ing a build­ing in Brazil or South Korea, or one can oper­ate in Antwerp only fol­low­ing local projects.

More­over, the new gen­er­a­tion has become inter­ested in inter­dis­ci­pli­nary col­lab­o­ra­tions and small assign­ments (tem­po­rary instal­la­tions, small exhi­bi­tions, inte­ri­ors, teach­ing), as a strat­egy to reach eco­nomic independence.

There is a new pro­fes­sional trend that can be iden­ti­fied; aside from con­ven­tional prac­tice, young archi­tects are start­ing to design, real­ize and sell diverse prod­ucts, thus invad­ing the field of small-scale prod­uct design.

This direct approach to design, pro­duc­tion and sale allows them to max­i­mize profit, espe­cially when this involves small, rel­a­tively afford­able prod­ucts.
This process can hap­pen with­out inter­me­di­aries and ren­ders the archi­tect both entrepreneur/producer and trader: the new cre­ative craftsman.