are you ok?

yeah that was my death notice.

or i won the lottery.

or both.

nope. If I had five years left, I'd travel the world, working whatever odd jobs I could get to get by. If I won the lotto, I'd invest in property, rent it out, and go back to art school.

If i won the lotto, yes i would still be an architect. I would continue producing work without the monetary constrains that hinder others. I would choose fewer projects and really focus my efforts on producing work that interest me.

But if i had five more years to live, i would defiantly quit the biz, and spend every waking moment with my loved ones. A mayline has never loved me back, and pretty sure there is more to life then our jobs.......

Lottery: Architect/Enlightened Developer/Philanthropist

Five years: Weirdo Public Installation Artist

sorry quixotica saw the first part only and posted without really meaning to...
... to answer your question, YES in all counts.

I have seen enough of the world to know that I dont enjoy seeing the world and that what is needed is action not passive tourism. I prefer to hunker down and get down to business doing some work that hopefully will contribute to the human canon of idea/buildings.

i just find it interesting because on the one hand, if your dying, but with a substantial time left to live, you still need money to get by for those few years. But if you won the lottery, you dont need the money but then you have all this time on your hands.

If i won the lottery i think i would work pro bono for low income housing families, while at the same time, trying to make my graphic design successful.

If i was dying, i think i would say my goodbyes now and take off. (assuming i was dying of some sort of sickness) id rather people remember me as i am. work odd jobs wherever i ended up. Id send postcards and stuff but once you stopped getting them, sayonara.

quixotica, when you put it that way, it's actually a really profound question. I guess my answer to both would be.....keep living every day like it's your last. Life is short. On the one hand 5 years seems like a long time.....on the other, what if you win the lottery and die tomorrow?

the odds are better that more people who frequent this thread will be dead in five years than will have one the lottery...

if i won the lottery and have only five years, i'd drop off architecture like a hot brick, start doing some work that REALLY helps society, and invest a huge chunk in working towards a cure for the disease thats going to kill me. That way i'd have served a noble cause and maybe not die too!

5 years to live = too bad sallie mae will not get paid

If I had only 5 years to live ......

ok i need some time on this one..

If I had 5 years to live, I'd do exactly the opposite of what I've been doing, and see where it takes me.

Or maybe I'd renounce all my possessions, and travel as far as I can, starting from scratch, wearing only robes and sandals.

Or sit under a tree and contemplate existence, trying to end the world before it ends me.

Or I'd do what evolution would expect of me, and sire as many children as are physically possible in the given time frame.

But I'd probably sit around and get fat.

I also would quit school and walk the earth, and try to amass as much knowledge as humanly possible. In my last year or so, I would probaly attempt to design one piece of architecture (which would probably live out its days on paper) and write a manifesto, probably from some monastary or shack in some far corner of the planet. I would do this one last piece of architecture hoping perhaps that in my dying days ive contributed something to society that i can be remebered for while proposing an architectural solution to one of the worlds problems. Because im young and naive and I still believe in architecture's abilty to improve lives.

I'll help manuG with the children and travel thing ...

Five years left, quit. There is way more to life than architecture. In five years you can make much more impact on your friends and family than you can as an architect (for most people). I would get some job that would allow me to eat and remain comfortable for my last years and spend that time with people that matter and see things that I haven't seen yet. Very few of us ever get famous. I equate architecture a lot to how every kid who buys a guitar thinks he's going to be a rock legend. But in the end, even when you're not famous, playing guitar is still fun. But I would still quit architecture and play more guitar.

Lotto, i.e. free cash, is probably the best thing you can get as an architect. Then you don't need clients! You can build what you want. Buy up some old shells in Philly and make a sweet development of your own designs. I'm sure you all have encountered the independently wealthy designer that isn't really talented, but gets to play because they don't have to worry about it.

If anyones answer to the above question is 'I would quit architecture', surely you should quit now and do something else, no?

I dunno diabase, when i first posed that question to my friends, that was my feeling too, but i think most people, in whatever profession they are in, no mater how much they love it, would choose to spend their last days on earth doing something else, because, for most of us, no matter how much we may want it to be something grander, it is just that, a profession. and theres more to life (and imminent death) than your job. especially, i would think, in a field like architecture, where 5 years usually wouldnt be nearly enough time to complete your "opus".
however the question does arise, how do you make your money for those last 5 years. travelling the globe is all well and good if you have the means to do it. but if not, 5 years might be your BEST case scenario.