The Identity Crisis has finally blown out of proportion, after 43 years of statutory acceptance of our profession of architecture.

Today the students and many practicing architects wonder why, and look for a way out of the eternal Tom and Jerry chase of our professional pursuits to stand proud as one among equals with other professionals. Is it possible by quantity - increasing our population day by day or by quality - of educating ourselves and performance later, when we enter profession?

Education is only a canvas on which we paint our own picture of competence supported by our alma mater and our teachers. In a professional field the real learning happens when you jump into the field. Very few survive effectvely in this field... most recede into oblivion, indulging in mundane activities.

By populating ourselves more and more in the form of a school in every town and panchayat, mostly owned by folks waiting to fill their coffers, we are only adding to a large pool of individuals who will continue to indulge in mundane 'architorture' activities...

The only way out is to uphold 'Quality'... not the ISO kind based on number cruching but the kind which created timeless architecture all over the world in ancient times... we don't even know the names of most of those architects who designed and built them, but the 'Quality' of their knowledge and work stand as testimony of their times, for all times. Not just ancients but in contemporary modern times too we have many such individuals who uphold quality, not quantity in their works...

Architecture, in Ayn Rands words, is a crusade that justifies the existence of man on this earth...

We have seven years to go to celebrate the golden jubilee of our own 'Act'. Unless we collectively Re-Act, the Act will gobble us all into a world of chaos of quantitative filth, in education and profession... We need to Re-Act positively and ensure that we take steps to pave way for a better future for next generation architects in this great country of ours, which I believe, has the best of architectural wonders any where in the world...

This page is dedicated to thoughts that can bring back 'Quality' in our endeavours, both in academics and profession. While I will write regularly here, I welcome interested individuals to mail their thoughts to appear here.

Dr. Harimohan Pillai