Does an architect’s ego get in the way of sensible design?
Does it? Does an architect have an ego? Well what is ego for that matter?
“Ego: A person’s sense of self-esteem or self-importance” (oxford Dictionary) this is a very tame definition, most people will agree when saying that the definition of ego is in fact the arrogant part of you that in some ways makes you think you are superior or the less cynical of us would like to say an ego is the autopilot of the mind, it’s the thing that one does out of conditioned reflex as a response to any situation, it is biased to childhood and professional experience, an ego can be flexible and adapt to its surroundings., or in many cases I doesn’t, which gives way to the definition of it being the arrogant trait of a person.
Everybody has an ego, in different forms and intensities; it varies from person to person, depending on their experience, upbringing and profession. An artist might have a bigger ego than a primary school teacher, artists have to express them selves though their art, they spend their whole life and invest all their energy into bringing a piece of them selves on to a canvas, some can say its purely self indulgent. Teachers on the other hand have to follow a set of rules they singed to abide, to the national curriculum and timetables; they have a very little window of self-expression, once in a while you get the super teacher who manage to juggle the students and bring a personal flair to their teaching but they are somewhat of a special breed. You often find such breeds have very artistic and self-expressive hobbies.
Before getting in too deep with ego of every profession, lets move swiftly and quickly in to architecture. Do architects have an ego? Do they let the...
... middle of paper ...
...s failure on poetry and art work alone.
However it makes me wonder if the emphasis was more on the artistic appearance and representation than the soul function of the building, did the artists inside Zaha Hadid’s disregard it or was did it prevent her form seeing it. If she didn’t see it why didn’t the designer, engineers, and the group of postgraduate ‘CAD monkeys’ working for Zaha Hadid see this.
The failure was reversed as the building is now turned into a museum of transport, one can argue that no new building had to be built for a museum, hence cutting costs, but a whole new fire station had to be built, therefore nit covering up its tracks of cost.
There are exceptions; those being the designs that were sensible and responded to the brief appropriately even with egos.
Arrogance; an insulting way of thinking or behaving that comes from believing that you are better, smarter, or more important than other people. Arrogance is an attitude that can describe any individual with overbearing pride. However, American Psychiatric Association notes that people who are also narcissistic are frequently described as cocky, self-centered, manipulative, and demanding. According to Paul J. Hannig, Ph.D, Narcissistic Personality Disorder is “a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy” (Ashmun). By examining the relationships, behaviors, and internal conflicts within, Willa Cather’s Paul’s Case, Paul’s “case” can be diagnosed as Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
“The architect’s role and their intellectual responsibility is to fight to maintain their vision and little bits get chopped off all the time, but if they’re only little bits, it’s not too bad.’’
Shaver, R. "Egoism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = . http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/egoism/#2
The ego lies within the conscious and unconscious realm and seeks to satisfy the id’s
In philosophy, egoism is the theory that one's self is, or should be, the motivation and the goal of one's own action. There are many different forms of egoism, for example, there is psychological egoism, ethical egoism, rational egoism and much more. All these different types of egoism differ in different types of ways but in of all of them it is implied that we are all self-interested and not interested in others.
When an architect is influenced they create. They make what they see in their mind. But people could always improve what they’ve already created. Homes at one point were only one story houses. But suddenly to someone’s mind they thought homes should be two stories or even three. Back in High School, most of my classmates wanted to become architects and they’d be asked how they were influenced to draw a blueprint like the one they had. Some would respond with “I saw this house that had this this and this and I really liked it so I put it into my home.” Meaning they would be inspired by a home that was already
The egoistic person can sometimes be hard to deal with or even dangerous that's why it’s important that you learn how to spot them. An Egoistic person thinks that he is extremely important and as a result the slightest sarcastic comment will be considered a serious assault. They always try to be different than others. Egoistic people believe that they are way better than most people. I have a friend that’s a lot like this. She takes everything personal, even when it really has nothing to do with them. She can walk in a store and the cashier not say what she thinks is appropriate and she starts to think they personally don’t like her. If she doesn’t agree on someone’s opinion, she believes it’s wrong. It’s completely her way or no way. That just because the egomaniac claims she can walk on water, that doesn’t mean it’s true. Don’t let her bait you into an argument or long-winded conversation about herself. There is one more type of person that’s difficult to deal with is the neurotic if you are afraid of spiders, for example, you may freak out whenever you see a spider, but once the spider has run away (or once it has been killed), you are able to regain your composure. But the neurotic becomes impulsive and start acting almost
Ego identity is said to be one of the many things Erickson has focused on. He believed that through social interaction we gain mindful sense of ourselves, which can be commonly referred to as Ego identity. Although, Freud referred to the ego as the match over the necessities of the identity and superego, Erickson saw the ego as our way of our self-esteem. The way Erickson describes ego is the way we commonly use it in conversation. The main i...
As long as you are alive and your mind functions in and through the body, ego will arise and exist. This ego or pride is not permanent and unquestionable reality. It is a temporary experience; it is only lack of knowledge that invests it with permanency. It is a concept; it is lack of knowledge that elevates it to status of reality. Only enlightenment can bring this wisdom.
This explains why for ‘many directors, commercial and industrial architecture are just a necessary shell for their business processes’ (Susanne-Knittel Ammerschuber (2006) pg10). They consider dimensions for example surfaces, floor levels and converted space to be the stand out feature of this corporate architecture. Through doing this, the architectural ethos is overlooked during design. The architectural potential is therefore limited as it tends to overlook the surrounding context; the urban environment, local identity as well as the surrounding landscape design. Instead it...
The Ego is made of reality principle. It is largely located in conscious part of mind and It is the strongest part of our personality. It knows what is rational or realistic. It can to satisfied the Id without obsessing the superego that is why it is called a logical part of personality.
The success of architects is defined not so much by the problems they face as the act of their creative and practical responses.
The ego is the most important part of the brain, and the ego is the center of what controls our actions and thoughts. This is vital to making some who they are, for better or worse. The ego by Freud standards is not the same as today 's standards. The ego is the epicenter of all actions, but it can be swayed by the other areas like the id and superego (Wilson 24).
The role of the architect is a question that evokes a spectrum of answers from Norman Foster’s definition; ‘Architect is an expression of values… the way we build is a reflection of the way we live.’ [Foster, cited in Tholl, 2014: Online] This debate of who and what an architect should be and do is not a recent one to emerge but has lead many architects and designers as far back as Vitruvius [15BC] to produce documentation on what they believed to be the make-up of an architect. In Vitruvius’ ‘The Ten Books On Architecture’ he quickly establishes two fragments that make an architect, the manual skill and the theory and scholarship.
Every person with a job, no matter what occupation, makes an impact on society in some way, shape, or form. Some people leave their legacy by defending people in court, some saving lives in a hospital, and others planning and building works of construction. These planners have a large-scale effect on everybody in society and have an eye for detail, as well as enjoy using mathematics to ensure proper construction. That is why I have chosen architecture to be my career. An architect is a person who designs buildings and supervises their construction. A broader view of an architect is a person who is responsible for inventing or realizing a particular idea or project. Architecture varies from the pillars of the Greek Parthenon, to peoples’ homes. I often find myself marveling over the design of large-scale building projects such as the skyscrapers of New York City. Most of these buildings belong to a myriad of well-known companies such as Chase and Toshiba. That is why I have particularly chosen to become a commercial architect.