ABSTRACT
The architectural profession is in flux, perhaps even in danger of coming to an end. These concerns are based on many factors in play today—both in society in general, and within the architecture community itself. The profession is challenged by a rapidly changing world due largely to the pressures of powerful global economic forces and the complexities of unsustainable patterns of growth. Over the last several hundred years, architects’ influence in the design and construction process has steadily declined. In this Late Modern Age, or “Third Industrial Revolution”—when it is no longer possible to easily move along a pre-determined groove, the complexities of a highly fluid society, fueled by rapidly developing Internet technology—multiple issues both confound the design process and the long-standing tenants of contemporary architecture. The failure of the profession to keep up with the evolving world of the design and construction industry, that is bent on accelerating the process of project delivery, is challenging the core competency of architects to integrate a diverse range of parameters and hyper complexities affecting the performance of buildings—and at a larger scale, the responsiveness of urban communities and the multiple networks that govern commerce and infrastructure.
