9-5

Most young architects (especially graduates) will complain about the bulk of their working hours spent on tedious drafting, endless days in front of that dreaded three-letter acronym known as CAD. It appears to be intrinsic to this profession.

Sure, we all wanted to be next Fran Gehry or better, if you're like one guy who studied architecture with me. "I'll show them all!" he proclaimed in a moment of megalomanic outburst while gulping down his fifth coke of the night and starring into black-screen abyss of CAD. But soon enough came the first job after graduation and the disapointments struck. Disapoitments that we were told about during Uni but thinking about which we always put off 'till later. After all we were busy dreaming away and spending night after night on making those dreams a reality, albeit only on paper. We struggled with that too, as our designes kept changing till the day, hour even, the presentation was due...

Engineers and others more rooted in "reality", were probably less shocked. They never spent their nights trying to make sense of subjects as disparate as literature, structure, sociology, fashion, economics and law, and combinging their insights into coherent design presentations, all while being told to learn and use as many software applications as possible. They were preoccupied with more practical concerns, such improving sensitivity of surface infrared spectroscopy or optimising the performance based method of structural topology. Things that multinational companies paid them handsomely for, in their first years of professional work.

For graduate architects this sudden change was particularly hard. It has prompted many of these CAD monkeys, as they are known in the industry into leaving their jobs in search of more elusive "creative" pursuits, thinking that they have somehow made a wrong career choice, even to the point of questioning the whole point of architecture etc. Some have grown increasingly insecure, something that makes me wonder about world's suicide rates among young architects.

This is where the architect - the idealist entered the world of the engineer - the realist.

Specialisation is inherent in the world society has created. Open any job site and you will be entering the world of obsure jobs agencies offering career progression, creative outlet, recognition etc. Positions such as statutory planner, financial analyst, corporate copywriter, or assistant cost estimator - residential projects up to $500, or Software solution architect specialing in SAP. That reminds me, even terrorists are labled architects nowdays. But that's another story. The point is that It was always inevitable this kind of work arrangement would occur in a globalised market economy (the 'free' market society as it's known).

In our pursuits of worldy gains, when the politicans think of economic growth with ever bigger zeal, when international competition and resource grab is reaching new hights, it is only logical that this trend will continue. Specialisation will become only more pronounced. Who was once a CAD operator in a firm specialising in hospitals, will become a REVIT 2011 (a certain brand of software) CAD operator specialising in dental surgery projects between $1 and $2 M. And to add insult to injury, they will need a good 5-10 year excperience in this field, locking them in the "field" forever (or until a newer version comes out). What consequences this may have to architecture will be discussed in another article.

What is obvious is that this is only the beginning of the death of the generalist...

To offer some consolation, however, I have written a short story based on my own experiences, as a 13-year old in Bosnia at the peak of the war that ravaged that country. Perhaps after reading it you will manage to find some pride, if not megalomanic ambition, in starring at that damned black screen.

There are after all worse things than drafting up a 2.4 metre high toilet wall made of timber studs and plasterboard...