.twenty one.

I think about the quote "live every day like it is your last", at this time of year especially. However, I believe I have a different
understanding of the meaning of the phrase. To my understanding it is not about going out everyday with reckless abandon and trying to check off all the things, adventurous or not, from my own "bucket list". For me it is about reminding myself everyday that I can make a difference to the world little or big on every new day I am here. As a Christian I do believe that my actions can speak for my faith without my voice having to speak the words.

This post is partly in reaction to the recent occurences in Mumbai. It is difficult to see virtual youths act with such malice to their fellow human. The result does not further their agenda, it only separates those who are doing hateful acts from those who are true difference makers.

So in closing, I try every morning I try to remember that my actions can bring possitivity, but can also do damage. I thank you for reading.

Kurt Neiswender, LEED AP

.twenty.

The economic crisis has been giving me some things to think about lately. And I am sure that everyone has something to say about the matter. I have recently read a handful of articles and one NPR radio report about the middle eastern countries beginning to feel the pressure of the situation as well, in particular Dubai, the so called Disneyland of architecture. These stories have really got me thinking about architecture in Dubai, and as a profession in general.

The profession of architecture has become a commodity that has outgrown the very reason it exists. Architecture is as old as time itself, utilized to capture space for human comfort. Throughout time this trade, or ability to create space has been used to build simple shelters and magnificent cathedrals, but what has been going on in Dubai, for example, has far beyond exploited the thing that is architecture. In less than 10 years Sheik Zayed Road, has turned from ugly duckling with scattered non-descript towers to what is the now familiar main artery of that booming region including the beyond extreme Burj Dubai.

What I am getting at here is that while the Burj Dubai is bringing lots of notoriety to our profession of how architecture pushes limits of engineering, our human race has not figured out some basics. First, what people do not hear or see about with the construction progress of the tower is the severe slum like conditions that the workers live in. These workers come from Pakistan, India, Iran, Etc., their numbers are in the millions, come to work on the Burj to make many times more than they could in their home states. While they can earn more money no doubt, to send back to their families, they sacrifice basic human necessities to live with 6 to 12 other men in a single room apartment. Here is where architecture fails the human race. It should be a fundamental priority to provide well crafted functional architecture for everyone.

As I stated in the beginning of this post, architecture needs to be less of a commodity that the small minority of society can afford, and be more available to the vast majority of the whole earth.