Architecture is subjectively founded on principles. The key word is subjectively. 

In school, in practice, and in life, we as architects attempt to make sense of, digest, and argue subjective principles as an attempt to find a greater meaning to shaping space. Whether it is our peers, our professors, non-architects, family, or historical characters, there is a constant urge to validate or improve our profession by the avocation of principles.

Our response? Embrace it, learn from it, argue against it, disagree with it, but do not reject it. If one takes too severe a stance he or she will never reach full potential. To paraphrase the Director of our Graduate Program, Kathryn Dean, “architecture is a game of constraints: be it clients, budget, materials, location, zoning, or time it is about creative solutions within constraints.” 

We live in one of the most exciting times to be alive. Never before has the world been so explorable and had the ability to communicate and change so rapidly with such ease. Never before have ideas been shared at such an exponential rate. The subjective language of architecture is more present than ever. The key is to find one’s personal balance. Thus, we have the Architectural Venn Diagram.

This blog emerged from a combination of the passions, frustrations, and curiosities that we share in search of what it means to be an architect in today’s society. There is no right or wrong answer, but we feel that balance is paramount. Our professors, peers, and coworkers expose us to three primary fields within architecture: the functional, the rational, and the aesthetic. These underlying subjective principles have their strengths and their downfalls, and we feel that none can possibly stand alone.

While recognizing our own strengths and shortcomings, we strive for a balance, and our hope is to share these with you as move on our adventure. We are about to begin our spring semester abroad through an exchange study at Aalto University in Helsinki, Finland. We will keep you posted on our adventures, thoughts, and observations, and we will also begin to fill you in with our backgrounds.

This work by A.D.Morley & J.A.Wong is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.