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Project Growing Up - In Defence of the Egoistical Architect

In Defence of the Egoistical Architect

I have always been a huge fan of Ayn Rand ( recently made hip by Paul Ryan's declaration of his fan-ship in his wanna-be VP pitch . Who can forget Howard Roark - strong, silent, master at his craft, Father of all Egoists!  A  truly fascinating character.

It is not so amusing when your Architect is a type of Howard Roark, as the scenes unfold.

For starters, I've been reduced to monologues. My wish-list trail has turned cold - cold silence at the other end. Ok, I take a few deep breaths and I start writing. " Revenge is a dish best served cold." I did tell Mr Y earlier that ours is an equal partnership - he has the craft, I have the pen.

Here's the sub-heading " Architects are egoists by their own design."

I have one very close architect girl-friend who's a super-charged ADHD turbo machine. She is  presently doing time as a foreign talent in a country not too far away, designing their public transport systems. She reminds me of the refrain in "The Sound of Music" - " How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you find a cloud and pin it down? ...How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?..." Answer - you can't. This woman does not answer emails and she is likely to forget where she placed her phone. It was an opportune moment last week when her SS ( read - supportive/suffering spouse ) prompted me that she is back in Singapore and whether I would like to call her. Incredulously, she picked up the phone and we managed to touch base. One thing led to another, and we are set to catch up in Berlin next week while her SS tackles the Berlin Marathon. This is so reminiscent of our last rendezvous in Beijing a year ago when the man ran his Beijing Marathon.

Oh, back to Mr Y now. With a buddy like that, I am well placed to be the magnanimous SC(suffering client ) or not ? With one proviso though - I have a dubious past as a lawyer, with as big an ego to match.  While scouring the media and recommendations for an architect, I came to this conclusion that architects are very much like lawyers - unless you are in the profession and in the know, they are either famous or infamous, and nothing is known of the lesser mortals in between. Maybe that was unfair - haven't come across any infamous architects yet, but you get the drift.

So, I shall do the Ayn Rand and praise the egoists, lawyers and others. In the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, the architect is one of the 16 personality types: the type that sees the world as clay waiting to be moulded. Someone in the Sydney Morning Herald even said " Architecture is a top-down kind of deal, which makes arrogance, of the Ayn Rand type, an occupational hazard. This journalist goes on to say " But of course, arrogance is just insecurity's flip-side...only the few can be great at design or anything else. To be a great architect...may require a self-belief so vast as to be limitless, but it also requires more than a botoxed self-portrait as proof."

At the time of this writing, I have since repented and acknowledged that I am a mere mortal and am no longer practising in the said profession.






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