If you'd rather place an order by talking to one of our cheerful order desk clerks, please call 1-888-232-4444 (USA and Canada only) or 250-383-6864. From Europe, ring our UK order desk clerk at local rate number 0845 230 9601 (UK only) or 44 (0)1865 722 113.

An Architect's Journey

by Roger Smeeth

159 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #03-1436; ISBN 1-4120-1067-5; US$20.00, C$22.00, EUR16.50, £11.50

A collection of essays looking at forces driving the creation of our built environment - all seen through the eyes of an architect - on his journey.

Read more!

about the book      about the author      sample excerpt and Table of Contents      catalogue info

About the Book When architecture is considered, the focus is usually on the buildings themselves, giving a little attention to how our culture's complex mix of attitudes and values play out in the designer's act of creation. Whether we like it or dislike it, architecture must be seen in the context of these many forces to be better understood. How does the designer inflect these forces through his own set of personal sensibilities - the inherent values that fuel that perspective? This is the question. More about question than answer, this is an architect's story, developed and nurtured through his insight: a walk through portions of his life which, by his own admission, is a work in progress. It's more a journey of how his insight, initially disguised as recollection, came into being. This is a book about the development of identity, vision and authenticity in one man's life both personal and professional. As a book on architecture, it will change forever the way you look at buildings. Also, it could change the way you look at your own life. It's a primer for young architect's and a guide for us all.

---

About the Author Roger Watson Smeeth is a semi-retired architect, currently living in Victoria, B.C., Canada. Graduating in 1957 from the University of British Columbia School of Architecture, he has filled his life with the creation of buildings, particularly favouring private residences. He has also been an ardent proponent of neighbourhood development and community recycling initiatives. To contact the author, please telephone 1-866-638-6884 or email editorial@trafford.com.

---

Sample Excerpt and Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Anticipation

Conjectures

Getting Started

Our Vitruvian Heritage

A Fantasy Project

Discovering the Design

Making a Good House

Myth as a Shaper of Architecture

Some Other Shapers

Finding Some Authenticity

Reflection

---

Conjectures

-introducing the viewpoint -

Architecture: Is it different from building? Is it building done by architects? - and only some buildings or some architects? My answer is yes - in each case. It doesn't matter who produces it. Like love, when it's there, you know it.

At its simplest, the purpose of all building is the provision of appropriate shelter for human use. Yes, but not just that. Society overlays that basic function with many other values that take it far beyond that simplicity. And how might we differentiate architecture from building? Beyond just providing safe and comfortable shelter, each has to work, satisfying their particular physical needs, be they of a factory or a palace. I believe the fundamental answer to this question must deal with how any structure is experienced by the user and observer - what is felt? Is there an experience of something that transcends those physical needs? Are we moved? Do we find a sense of "life" in the structure? Is there bliss, peace? Are there qualities beyond the physical presence that are seen, felt and understood, even if only subliminally? If so, then we are in the presence of architecture, never to be codified and always the product of the designer's understanding, vision, creative intention and, in the process, the design ability to imbue the work with those qualities. It is about a spiritual vision, an implicit desire to move the structure beyond the mere function of shelter.

In beginning these writings I had to consider how the whole subject of architecture could be effectively talked about. What could prose convey? A vignette will help to clarify that question. At an opening of a show of his work in 1930's Paris, Pablo Picasso was asked "What do all these paintings mean?" to which he replied, "Sorry, if I could explain them I would be a writer. However, I am a painter." In a similar way, there are aspects of architecture that may be alluded to but never given full "meaning" using written language. In its discursive, linear, and non- intuitive nature, prose writing about the experience of architecture in that one dimensional form of one word after another, one thought after another, has little chance of communicating what is really a four dimensional construct. It is space that we experience over time - foreground, middle ground, distance, colour and texture, light and shade, and their relations, all at the same time, continually changing as we move through it. It is not a simple linear experience. It is a complex multi- dimensional experience which possibly could be better alluded to through a non-linear poetic form.

Well, I'm not a poet - I'm an architect and for what I want to do, prose works. Architecture as been front and centre for fifty years of my life. During this time, trying to make beautiful buildings, I had given little thought to an understanding of what, beyond my creative juices, shaped architecture. I just did it and had fun. In one very important way this present investigation is about self discovery - mine. The exploration of the ideas and forces that shape architecture must inevitably look at the subjective side - the architect - me - and how "Who I am, what I want, am I satisfied, and what am I willing to sacrifice in achieving my goals?" will affect the buildings I make. Assuming the uniqueness of both my life- experience, my approach to the creation of architecture, and recognizing that I as a "modernist" have developed what could loosely be described as a personal style, and that, in our western world at least, there is a building code but no codified regulation of design, would all suggest that my subjective nature, the inner me, plays a big part in determining the things I build. There would be value in knowing how this factor has played out.

Like all good voyages of discovery, I really didn't know where this one was going. I did realize that I was giving myself a great opportunity to collect in one place, and as seen through my present maturity, many of the important ideas I have had about my craft over the years. Starting this sort of personal exploration, the possibilities of its publication was far from uppermost in my mind - but inevitably that possibility crept in. I had to pause. Did that possibility influence what and how I wrote? As well as learning, did I have another audience in mind? All I could do is to try and reflect the complexity of my positions as I see them, having my words speak for me, and hoping they might have meaning elsewhere.

I also posed a secondary question. What is there in the understanding of an architect's process that is relevant to anyone else on their journey? Apart from the philosophical principle regarding the essential unity of creation, that all is one - there is no separation, why should we think, that on the subjective side, the bottom- line decisions for an architect are in any way different from those for a politician, a lawyer, a postie, a nurse or any other calling? But only others can answer that question.

---

Catalogue Information

---