Why I Write about Architecture

  I don’t remember when I first started reading buildings. In many ways, it was similar to learning to read words, a hidden language of symbols and patterns that gave me a deeper understanding of the world. It was an understanding that I craved. I had been poring over books about architecture for a while before I began to see the words I had read in them spread across the facades of apartment complexes. I began picking out patterns, staring at buildings until I puzzled out why the architect had made them that way. And then, I started writing about what I saw.

Architecture is my primary career goal because I have begun to notice, over the last few years, that the built world both reflects and creates the society we live in. The library next to my friend’s house is all warm toned wood and strong horizontal lines because it reflects the Usonian influence of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was built in this way by an architect who perhaps admired the democratic values the style represented, the idea that learning was for everyone. Even as I sit with my friend, flipping through a books, the very way that the sunlight falls across the pages is a manifestation of someone’s dream. I want to participate in this world that affects my life on every level. I want to understand it, and leave my own mark on it. 

For many of the same reasons, my alternate career would be writing. It would fulfill my need to dive passionately into topics and to share what I have learned with the world. I started a design blog because I wanted to change the way people see design, the same way other works have changed my worldview. 

Ultimately, I love both architecture and writing because both areas revolve around the need to understand and change the world.