| Should Architects be the designers of the metaverse or should we allow techies to do it? See Architype.ca |
| I'm for Architects as the designers of the metaverse-- opinion. |
Carleton University, School of Architecture-
Technology and Design Economics
There is an unspoken crisis in the architectural profession. Architects are expected to lead project teams in an increasingly complex development process without first having studied and mastered the underlying municipal processes and second under a fee structure that is increasingly unrealistic. Margins in the profession are being squeezed at the same time as the expectations and needs of clients, municipal planners and politicians, approval agencies and community activists are soaring. Young professional architects feel that they are exploited by the system and that it is financially unrewarding to establish their own practice.
With this in mind, it is important that architects both master certain technical skills and place at their disposal new technological resources so that can reassert their contribution to the design of our built environment. Architects will also be called upon to contribute their skills to new areas including brand extensions such as- urban media, mediatronic architecture, architectural signage, the creation of an architecture for cyberspace and the metaverse and many other areas.
This course will introduce students to certain technical skills and technological resources including an introduction to:
a) critical path methodology (CPM) using Microsoft Project;
b) functional programming and quantity surveying using Microsoft Excel spreadsheets;
c) creating web based surveys using a forms program such as Perseus to assist in completing the functional program;
d) cost benefit analysis and calculation of Internal Rates of Return using Excel;
e) Personal Web Site design using Corel Web Designer and other web development software, as well as using File Transfer Protocol (FTP) software for uploading material to the Internet;
f) a brief refresher on the use of Form Z, Autocad or Vector will also be available to the students in this course,
g) an introduction to statistics- means, medians, population distributions, standard deviations, regression analysis and statistical significance.
Because of the importance of the internet, we will look at the use of the internet to support an architectural practice. A question upper most in the minds of architects these days is what is going to happen to the profession in the era of the web- demands on architects in the bizarre world of municipal approvals and in the land of nimby'itis (not-in-my-back-yard syndrome) are up and fee-for-services is down as mentioned above. Why pay an architect $6,000 to design a new home when 100s of designs and working drawings are available over the web for $350?
We will examine the hypothesis that the web could be a huge boon to achitects. Architects will place their knowledge and portfolios on their personal web sites- all their Intellectual Property will be there and they must find ways to exploit their IP. The web may allow architects to sell their designs many times over- to use and reuse whole designs and parts of their work for many clients and customers. They can retain ownership and copyright of their IP and they may still be receiving royalties from their body of work even when they are relaxing on a beach.
One of the outputs from the course will be a personal web site contructed by each student. There, the student will post their assignments, their resumés, their 'Bull Durham' bios, their existing portfolios and other aspects relevant to their future as architects and artisans.