THE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY OF AN ARCHITECT

It is this question that the manifesto of FAR addresses in a way that is both “very utopian yet
pragmatic”. FAR – an adjective, distant; an acronym for Architecture of the Real;
FAR is a group of people interested in the quality of the built world and the role construction can play in
bringing that quality about. Its their desire to define material solutions to building environmental
challenges that are grounded in historical, social and economic realities. Its in this defined context of
theirs that architecture and construction cannot be separated. In short, they are concerned with
construction of efficient architecture. And by efficient they mean architecture which provides us with a
meaningful framework for social activities and an efficient investment.
Within the laboratory of FAR, there is no distinction between basic and advanced technology or high end
or low cost solutions but it is the ability to understand the manufacturing process of any programme in
its spatial to cultural to economic dimensions that is more stressed upon to have in taking decisions.
In talking about principles that guide the analysis of design propositions of FAR, he says its their intent
 to be efficient in the use of resources employed
 to ethically allocate resources to a programme.
 To demonstrate the concern we have about the design choices, for the workers and the users,
 to analyze and envision trigger enable positive change in the environment
The act of design cannot be a method to architectural form or building engineering rather it must
provide the entire process of the transformation that helped in the adaptation to main social
organization of production.
Technology is a means to this will and not an end in itself.
Tombesi believes that TOOLS are testimonies of collective cultural identity and social ingenuity of
individual associations of hand with the mind. This Will embodies two different things at the same time-
convention and innovation intimating a rule of art. They are interested in the capacity of tools to
become instruments and this requires vision, habitation and commitment of the practitioner.
Since building designing is the tool we have in architecture, it’s important to understand how to draw
human resource toward us. As Pericles states in his funeral oration, “instead of looking on discussion as
a stumbling block in the way of action we think of it as an independent preliminary as capable of any
wise action at all”.
FAR has a distinctive ethos that are like natural molds, which impels them to build theory based on
experience. “We like to make propositions and speculations too but we need to test them and validate
our propositions”, says Paulo.
When we research, we have a position that we want to state through the manifestation of it.
“we want to cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy(softness);
wealth we employ more for use than for show and we place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning
to the fact but in declining struggle against it”
This is the basis of why profession is also a territory of sort. Architecture as a professional practice and
the place that research has in practice is an intrinsic part of this charter.
A profession is a disciplined group of individuals that adhere to ethical standards and hold themselves
down and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge or skill in a widely recognized
body of learning that arrive from research and from education and training of high level. (research and
education being separated). Individuals prepared to apply this knowledge and enhance these skills in the
interest of others. Thus, inherent in definition of professions, is the code of ethics that must govern the
practice and activities and thus, upon the person’s moral and political beliefs.

Assigned socially is a privileged position as professionals by society that trusts you to be efficient,
meaningful and socially fertile WAY IN TRANSFORMING THE COMPONENTS OF THE INDUSTRY AND THUS
IT IS NOT A TECHNICAL OR ANALYTICAL POSITION BUT A FIDUCIARY ONE. To say, the architect is
entrusted with the community’s destiny. It’s a Duty of care and not result. To ask if it is an art or science
is rhetorical. Its better put that it should be conducted scientifically.
Drawing from the notion of doubt from Descartes’ cogito ergo sum, Paulo considers doubt as an intrinsic
element of his work. Doubts about the entire process helps bring one back to provide the hypothesis
and experiment but also to validate the results of the experiment. Scientific method acts as a perfect
supply chain for architectural activities.
-Observe how the world works
-hypothesize
-organize/experiment(what you can do to act upon the hypothesis)
-validate
As there is always a degree of uncertainty built into your work, you ARE the researcher by social
function. You have to systematize your body of knowledge and as an architect your experiments should
be validated. You need to have your own intellectual ecology and the laws of ethics states
-Fitness of purpose
The right of the community that lives within a building to experience and take advantage of it
-Environmental fairness.
To allocate resources for their construction in a way that each space guarantees their fairness such that
even janitors experiencing the space as fair as anybody else that use the building does.
The methods of validating depends on the analysis and in understanding the constraints that
construction generates, the values of the architect attain credibility or transform into higher ones.
The thesis of Gabrielle Fontana on the Reconstitution of SANAA’s Rolex Learning Center is taken up as a
model to state his case.
The thesis involved understanding the design challenges intrinsic to what the architect intended to do.
The positions taken up in achieving continuity through parallelism, modularity and to integrate the
functional support impels the architect to adapt to the spatial configuration of the building, thus
formed.
It raises questions such as
Was there functional geometry that makes sense of the use of building as well as the constituent
components?
Was the program of use consistently the functional geometry and was an environmental integration
produced?
As it has a multiplicity of technologies having different tolerances, could this difference be more inline
with the architect’s intent?
The social function assigned to you culturally, historically, economically has not much chance of being
fully realized as it would instead if you use these opportunities to steer the course of your own path.