Down Detour Road An Architect in Search of Practice

by Cesal, Eric J.

• ISBN13: 9780262014618
• ISBN10: 0262014610
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-08-06
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

I paused at the stoop and thought this could be the basis of a good book. The story of a young man who went deep into the bowels of the academy in order to understand architecture and found it had been on his doorstep all along. This had an air of hokeyness about it, but it had been a tough couple of days and I was feeling sentimental about the warm confines of the studio which had unceremoniously discharged me upon the world. -from Down Detour Road What does it say about the value of architecture that as the world faces economic and ecological crises, unprecedented numbers of architects are out of work? This is the question that confronted architect Eric Cesal as he finished graduate school at the onset of the worst financial meltdown in a generation. Down Detour Roadis his journey: one that begins off-course, and ends in a hopeful new vision of architecture. Like many architects of his generation, Cesal confronts a cold reality. Architects may assure each other of their own importance, but society has come to view architecture as a luxury it can do without. For Cesal, this recognition becomes an occasion to rethink architecture and its value from the very core. He argues that the times demand a new architecture, an empowered architecture that is useful and relevant. New architectural values emerge as our cultural values shift: from high risks to safe bets, from strong portfolios to strong communities, and from clean lines to clean energy. This is not a book about how to run a firm or a profession; it doesn't predict the future of architectural form or aesthetics. It is a personal story-and in many ways a generational one: a story that follows its author on a winding detour across the country, around the profession, and into a new architectural reality.

Author Biography

Eric J. Cesal holds master's degrees in business administration, construction management, and architecture from Washington University in St. Louis. He is now living in Port-au-Prince, managing and coordinating Architecture for Humanity's design and reconstruction initiatives in Haiti.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
Introduction: Reflections from Detour Road	p. 1
The Aimless Architect	p. 7
The Case for Empowerment	p. 27
Where We Get Power (Kings, Not Sorcerers)	p. 43
Camping in the Front Yard	p. 55
The Financial Architect (or, A Brief Economic History of Architecture)	p. 59
Great Architecture is Like Pulling Teeth	p. 79
The Value Architect	p. 83
Horse Apples and Cow Pies	p. 97
The Risk Architect	p. 101
I'm an Architect	p. 115
The Paid Architect	p. 119
The Best Idea in History	p. 133
The Idea Architect	p. 135
The Basis of All Things	p. 153
The Knowing Architect	p. 157
You're an Architect, Aren't You?	p. 171
The Named Architect	p. 173
How to Become a Famous Architect	p. 185
The Citizen Architect	p. 189
How to Make a Golf Course "Green"	p. 197
The Green Architect	p. 199
The Difference between Hookers and Architects	p. 207
The Sober Architect (or, A Doctor, a Lawyer, and an Architect Walk into a Bar)	p. 209
Epilogue: Finding Love at a Hardware Store	p. 213
Notes	p. 223
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