The built environment is a complex, active organism. It has many facets or systems and can be examined through a variety of lenses. The individuals who shape and mold the built environment have a variety of motivations, adding to this complexity. Some are in search of profit, others power or control, and still others seek notoriety or perhaps to simply improve their lives in some modest way.
As a result, the built environment is the culmination of our competing and collective ideas, needs, desires and dreams. Regardless of one’s intention, alterations and additions to the built environment impact our collective experience politically, economically, aesthetically, technologically, philosophically, ecologically, materially, spiritually, and so on. The built environment is an intricate, dynamic system of deeply connected factors yet exists as a singular, holistic entity. When someone builds a new building, road, park or piece of public art, it is like inserting a new cell into a living organism. That small cell can act as a catalyst, alter the organism’s DNA, or be rejected. For this reason, the built environment should be viewed as an endless source of meaning, purpose, fascination and discovery.
No one is capable of mastering all the intricate relationships, systems and infinite interactions that operate in the built environment. Nor can anyone, with absolute certainty, predict the ultimate outcome of any proposal.
Every decision that is made or action that is taken becomes intertwined with the whole and therefore impacts every facet of the built environment, whether it was intended or not. The thoughtful professional is aware that these complex interactions exist, studies them intently and acts with humility — knowing their understanding is always incomplete. Most participants tasked with shaping the built environment are understandably overwhelmed by this complexity, so many specialize or focus on a single aspect or system at the expense of all others. Unfortunately, some go a step further and convince themselves, and attempt to sway others, that their focus is the most important consideration, around which all other considerations must orbit. This, however, does not reflect reality. I often tell my students that architecture is like making a pizza. Some people may fixate of the crust, the sauce, the toppings or the temperature of the oven, but at the end of the day they are responsible for producing the entire pizza and will be judged on how good it tastes.