Self-critical architectures (was seaside stuff)

David Sucher, as an aside to another discussion, comments:

>But why so harsh on them? I see this in architects all the time. Rather
>than saying to each other, 'nice try' and ' perhaps if you nudge this line
>over here and ...' but what I hear (over-hear) is this rabid tempest in a
>teapot. Someone can attempt to make the world better and they get carping
>and sniping from their fellow architects. I wish you folks would be a
>little less competitive as a professional group.

I think this is worth discussion in itself.

When I was doing the research on the architectural profession and
educational system, with an eye to pursuing the education and career
myself, I was struck by the perfectionist streak of the field.  Now, I
understand this a bit from computing, where the machines enforce a rigorous
correctness, so much so that the human uses of design are often lost to the
illusory need to make the program a few milliseconds faster, or a few bytes
shorter.

Having researched the matter a bit more, well, I think the profession
attracts visionaries to begin with; large-scale design demands vision.
These being the students, the educational system system seems to exacerbate
the perfectionism that a most dangerous failing of idealism; the intense
criticism and competition for peer esteem teaches that this is the best way
to deal with fellow architects.  When students become practicioners, the
attitude carries forward, much to the detriment of the profession and, I
think, the work itself.

(And, perhaps, sometime, some reader of this post will be asking me hard
questions at a crit--a scary thought!)

It was at the AIAS Forum, almost a year ago, that I remember a student
asking of a panel of professionals how to deal with a hostile crit.  He was
told to turn it around.  When the student asked, again, how--the answer was
repeated.  I think the person who answered missed an important point: the
interpersonal skills that are so necessary to the actual work of
architects--can be taught, just as design can be.  And I think it would
work to the betterment of the profession if they were.

What say you?

R.