As any architect can certify - it is far easier to approach the design of a building whose identity can be understood as an abstraction or even a caricature. Ask any kid in the developing world to draw a cowboy. You will get a drawing of a Marlboro man or a Clint Eastwood clone, straddling down the cattle ranch. Ask the same question to a 12 year old growing up in Alberta countryside and it is a not so easy question. The question of identity comes up - does he ride a horse, or a 4X4. Does he then need to wear spurs on his shoes. Does he carry a guitar or an iPod?
It is my experience that as you start approaching a new project - whether a building or a software project, it is these questions of identity that first need to be answered as an architect. The questions being -
1. Who is the client ?
2. Why do they need the project?
3. What do they aspire that the project be?
4. Is this aspiration sustainable?
5. Do the project goals align with my own morals and belief systems?
6. Do my own belief systems require re-interpretation?
7. Am I the qualified to do this project for this client? Will I hold true to the client's objectives?
8. Has the client chosen me as the architect for some reason? What are these reasons?
Initially, I struggled with these questions myself, even to the point that should I be asking them at all, or should I move on and the answers will come to me? I found that the unanswered questions kept coming back. So it is in everyone's best interest that the architect answers these questions affront.
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