We used to revere the eccentric genius, giving him a pass on his transgressions because his creative ability served as sufficient atonement for his sins. This is not just a grab-bag candy game." – Toni Morrison If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. "I tell my students, 'When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. Remember: there is a difference between a master and a mentor. But there is also another: someone who presides over servants and slaves. There is an individual of great skill and ability. The belief that one should try to earn the favor of the established professional through sweat, suffering, and self-sacrifice is a result of the outdated notion of the mythologized master. ![]() The conservative idea says this mythologized master is so special and so sought after that interns should be willing to do anything and everything, any task for however long the design leader wishes, and be grateful for the chance to do so. People flock to them, eager to learn, associate, and tap into the new ways of thinking they pioneer. A small group of people become design deities and garner themselves a seat on the Mount Olympus of architecture. Within architecture, it's where we get terms like "starchitect." Successful practitioners become mythologized in an unwritten oral tradition prevalent across Western architecture. We've brought that along with us to the modern era. The Mythologized MasterĮven back then, accomplished artists were revered by the public and young artists alike. Verrocchio was their mentor.Īrchitect at his drawing board. But Verrocchio's apprentices were not necessarily working for him they were being cultivated by him, molded to be the best practitioners they could be. Pupils even worked with Verrocchio, the maestro, on several projects the workshop was commissioned to complete. Those artists used the skills they learned to support the workshop and in exchange received clothes, food, and lodging (basically, they were compensated). Verrocchio had the great responsibility of helping young artists develop their craft. ![]() ![]() Take the workshop of Andrea del Verrocchio, the mentor of Leonardo da Vinci. Going as far back as the Renaissance, this model was relatively fair. The arrangement was simple: the young apprentice came to the master, hoping they were worthy of working under him, grateful when given a chance to do so-whatever the costs. The image of the lone master, seated at his drawing table (yes, his), while his pupils stand by, in awe of the toil and finesse of the master's hand, thankful to be in his presence, is an image we can associate with the mythologized history of architecture. "Shun those studies in which the work that results dies with the worker." – Leonardo da Vinci ![]() The hope is to connect a gap between generations to understand where this conservative view came from and why it no longer holds up today. I see a disconnect between the traditional professional ethos and the advent of the current zeitgeist that has been born, particularly in the last three years, and that refuses to see professional achievement as the ultimate ideal one should strive to attain in life. Instead, I want to explore the deeper historical and philosophical concepts that I believe underlie what we’ll call the conservative view of architecture work culture: that long hours, toil and suffering, and low pay are inevitable realities of pursuing a rigorous design career. The events have already been well documented online and in Archinect's latest reporting on April 1. But this isn't an essay about SCI-Arc, or an account of what is going on at SCI-Arc. After a recent panel hosted within SCI-Arc, called Basecamp: How to be in an office, sparked protest from students and alumni, a slew of events unfolded within the school that rippled into the architecture community, prompting passionate discourse about ethics within professional practice and academia, especially as it relates to internships and the treatment of students and young professionals.
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