Right on, David!
Where you've hit the nail on the head is that the focus must be on the process, not the product, in order for the broader public to appreciate what we do. We must communicate that we are not just selling a design product (i.e. "Can you draw me some plans?"). We are guiding a complex construction process, and bringing design ideas to bear on that throughout.
Our colleagues in related fields handle aspects of the process, and the public often looks to them since their knowledge might cover a good bit of the territory in a project. However, nobody but the architect pulls everything together, keeping design as a constant guide, such that the final product can be functional, beautiful, and more valuable.
I have an image of members of the public asking, "Who can guide me through this construction process?" A room full of candidates from different fields all eagerly raise their hands, including the architects. The AIA should help us raise our hands higher, and with more authority. They've got to focus on the most basic "elevator speech" that can quickly show the public that our skills surpass those of the others. We've got to stand out from the crowd, as we should. And this must be a grassroots approach, aimed at the daily lives of regular people, not just the builders of museums and universities. If people knew more about what we do, they'd go into that room and pick us out of the crowd.
Attitudes toward housing design are critical, too. If the client who is going to build a museum or university did not even use an architect on her own house, why would she not consider using a some other building professional to guide her institutional project? If we focus on housing, where people spend most of their lives, we can make the most pervasive impact.
Furthermore, I take issue with some of the marketing statements we were asked to select on the AIA survey. For example, having the AIA be a vehicle for leadership opportunities is putting the cart before the horse. While that does wind up being a wonderful aspect of AIA, it is a byproduct, not a goal. Leadership on some particular ISSUE is the goal - focus on what those issues are, not how good we feel being leaders. Fellowship is another such byproduct disguised as a goal.
Most people will not join AIA purely for the leadership and fellowship, which are admittedly good. People can and do get those qualities from other organizations or other areas of their lives: family, work, community groups, religious groups. Those areas of life are likely to come first. AIA must provide unique qualities: mainly being the public face of architecture such that the public connects with what we actually do. Then we can all do more architecture!
The AIA survey should have had a comment section at the end. That's where they would really find out what people think. I've been a member since the start of my career, and have volunteered with AIA. I have been impressed with the energy and enthusiasm of so many AIA volunteers on a local and national level. I just wish all that great energy could be harnessed toward action that truly impacted the community at large.
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Catherine Barfield AIA
Architect
Atlanta GA
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