Isaac A. Meir on Architecture and Sustainability

What is the importance of Architectural events, like ECOWEEK, worldwide? What are the profits for a city holding such kind of major events?

It brings different experts from different countries very close to the local students of architecture that might not find it easy or appropriate to travel for such an event to a different country. So, that makes the event itself a stimulating and educating event despite the fact that it’s not designed as such. It is designed as an interactive thing where younger and older architects exchange ideas and work together. It brings people from other countries to the venue of the event where they are exposed to the local problems. And they go away with a different perception of the place, a different perception of their future colleagues.

I believe it makes the work much easier when you have been exposed to colleagues from different universities, from different countries and you understand how to share your experiences and how to share your ideas with them. I think that especially for the students of architecture this is very important and I say that because for professionals and academics there is many conferences that take place. It is important for the students to see such events and maybe find the event an attraction that they can maintain when they become professionals, so that they are updated and they renew their background.

It also has to do with additional environmental problems like dust storms and sandstorms, loss of livelihoods, of people, like farmers, people who work in animal husbandry, in many such areas there are there are very unreliable infrastructures for water distribution, for energy distribution. So, we always have to deal with extreme situations that make the architect’s job much more interesting, I think. Usually you cannot create good architecture unless you have all sorts of constraints that you have to deal with. If you have no constraints then any design can be of the same value.

How important is the history of architecture? How do we evaluate architecture in historical terms?  Architectural history is vital because it allows us to understand every single culture and society that has developed a specific kind of architecture and in these terms it allows us to see local culture in a more comprehensive manner, in a more complete and holistic understanding. If you just read the literature, the poetry or if you just walk in the landscape you may understand a bit of the local culture but, if you see what kind of spaces people design for themselves in order to live in, to be educated, to entertain themselves in, that gives you a complete picture of the lifestyle of the people and through this lifestyle you can understand much better the culture and what formulates it.

Can an architecture book influence ordinary people, non architects, to deal with architecture and demand better urban environment? How can this be done?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.