ABSTRACT
Architecture is not unique in its attempts for a new start in the aftermath of tragic revelation. Many professions emerge in this way. When a human activity is depleted of its traditional function, humans institutionalize some aspect of that activity to shore up its place in society. This process fosters continuance by invented necessity in the form of artificial instrumentalities that suggest a slight change in focus and an upgrade in service. Despite a long entanglement with engineering problems as well as the more recent hype of a proliferation of new technologies, the field of knowledge known as architecture is not a science primarily concerned with physics and technology. Architecture, instead, exists at the intersection of multiple discourses or fields of knowledge that might reasonably be categorized as human or social sciences. The professional architect is an auteur of recent origin working in a field of rapidly increasing complexity.
