Dear Architecture: A Final Celebration of Knowledge
All of you began this semester in some relationship to architecture, regardless of whether architecture is to you a vocation, a profession, a discipline, an ambition, an interest, a combination of the preceding, or something else entirely. Has your relationship to architecture changed as a result of your study of architectural history this semester and, if so, how has it changed and why has it changed? Has architecture itself changed for you and, if so, how has it changed and why has it changed? Has your understanding of your own future as an architect changed? Do you now have different questions that you are asking of architecture? Do you now have different problems that you are coming to architecture to solve?
Respond to these questions in the form of a 3-4 page letter to architecture. Your letter, which should begin Dear Architecture, ought to describe the effects of your study of architectural history in this class on what architecture is, your relationship to architecture, and your understanding of yourself as an architect-in-the-making. Because you are writing to architecture, do not use the word architecture in your letterwhen you refer to architecture, use the word you instead.
Please include at least three references to particular aspects of our class in your letter (readings, lectures, discussions); the more specific you can be about these references and their consequences, the better! Please feel free to include one image to augment your message in your letter, too.
Upload your letter to Canvas by 5pm on April 28; please note that late submissions may not be reviewed.
Note: This assignment was inspired by Dear Architecture (https://sites.google.com/view/dear- architecture/home), a web-based platform for collecting and broadcasting the voices of architecture students initiated by students in Arch 323 in the Winter 2019 semester.
“Dear Architecture” was itself inspired by the Dear Architecture competition sponsored by Blank Space in 2013. This competition “invited
The Dear Architecture competition was won by Craig Wilkins, Associate Professor at Taubman College; you can read Craig’s letter to architecture here: https://www.archdaily.com/774005/blank- space-awards-winners-of-dear-architecture-letter-competition