Shelter as a basic necessity :
Shelter is one the most important factor in the three basic factors that enable human existence along with food and clothing. Dwellings have been an integral part of human beings since time immemorial. Man has always looked at ways to protect himself from the elements of nature that are detrimental to his existence. This led him to living in caves, seeking shelter under trees and other natural elements. But the problem with this was it only served one specific purpose; i.e., protection. However, it couldn’t enable him to stay there and settle down. Agriculture and a constant source of water played a major role in the formation of what we call civilisations. Man realised that doing things together made it efficient and satisfied his desire for companionship. But as newer discoveries and inventions were made, living became better and that called for an integration of shelter and living. This gave rise to new techniques, materials, strategies to settle down and create convenience. This way, the basic concept of shelter evolved into a sophisticated idea called architecture.
Architecture as an artform :
As time passed, mere living spaces became cultural symbols that reflect the beliefs and thoughts of that civilization. These had physical manifestations in terms of features, typologies and building materials and non-physical manifestations in terms of design strategies and taking care of the human needs. Romans, Greeks, Egyptians, Indians, Chinese and Japanese have all looked at this in a very profound way and came up with their own principles and texts for design and construction. The idea of an architect arose roughly around this time. These early master builders excelled at observing the natural environment around them, looking at different natural materials which could be used for buildings and a sense of geometric precision. Their genius gave rise to some of the greatest edifices we see around the world that are still standing to this day. This has been inspiring many more over the ages.
Influence of society on buildings and vice-versa:
Architects made an active effort to convey their ideology or their personality through their design. In this way, buildings started to stand out from one another. Buildings and structures that had similar characteristics in terms of their features or materials or ideas were classified under a particular style. Like everything in history, new things would replace the old ones and often would have much more sophistication. Styles also change with the prevailing socio-cultural setup, climatic conditions, material availability etc. These were never permanent in their nature and had to decline at some point or the other. Buildings represented the society they were in. They were decorated and given more character according to the typology and the principles upon which that culture was based. But after a while, historic events tend to trigger a change in style and the previous one would be challenged by a newer one and the cycle repeats itself. One thing which is always true is that a society or a culture is the determinant of the architectural style that would be followed. Today the fast-paced world needs everything quickly. Therefore this has made architects look at techniques to reduce the time of construction. However, concerns around the world are about sustenance and global wellbeing at the moment.
Role of the digital world in influencing the society:
All this while, significant developments were made in the field of science and technology. This too started to catch up with the times and made human living comfortable. At first glance, technology appears to have nothing to do with architecture, but architecture has intertwined itself with technology on so many levels. Drawing with the help of a computer being the most basic of them. Visualisations of building projects, planning and generation of entire designs have become a reality. This was unimaginable a few hundred years ago. Creativity, indeed, has no limits. We as architects in the 21st century have so many choices and possible solutions to design problems. Architects today are not just restricted to designing and creating buildings but they have the choice of exploring all the allied fields that are related to the building industry. These range from furniture design to interior design to construction management to giving detailed drawings and specifications to urban designers to movie set designers and planners, etc. Parametricism or parametric design is an upcoming process that generates a design that is based on an algorithm and given parameters. It is slowly gaining popularity. Parametric design also helps in creating architectural simulations of the natural environment, which has always been an integral part of our life.
Where are we headed?
As much as architecture is about generating ideas, styles, designs etc, it is also about having a real world built form of the same. This requires a piece of land as that is the most obvious place for a building. With the rapid urbanization and expansion of cities at a scale that is unheard of all around the world, land is quickly becoming as scarce resource. Suboptimal use of the available land can have monetary consequences. While, generation of designs is endless, land is limited. This however should not stop architects from thinking outside the box when it comes to coming up with new design strategies. In spite of this issue, architecture will always be a fashionable to humans because of its quality to adapt to the times. Adaptability is what makes anything relevant in the past, present and future at the same time. Architecture will exist for as long as the human race is around. It will continue to inspire the future generations and make them come up with something that seems impossible today.