BERKELEY PRIZE COMPETITION ESSAY PARTICIPANT Ms Tiffany D Woods COUNTRY United States UNIVERISTY Ball State University DEPARTMENT College of Architecture and Planning MAJOR Architechture YEAR 2 FIRST DRAFT Architects are committed to the principle of designing both functional and aesthetically pleasing spaces for people, making it a social profession. They also bring order and uniformity to society with the planning of cities and the areas around them. These ideas have guided architects in the past and will continue to guide them in the future toward their concept of architecture as a social art. Other objectives include taking into account the needs of the people who will be using the space, whether it is on a residential or an urban scale. All designs regardless of scale should be both practical and useful to the clients, making them revolve around the wants of people. At the same time, the designs must also fit in with the surrounding context of the area. In a sense, buildings have social relationships with each other in that they must relate to one another and to the voids created around them. All of these principles make architecture an intense and complex profession involving many factors. Architects must be much more than just draftsmen or builders. They have to strive to be designers, artists, sociologists, historians, engineers, and planners. Artistic talent, technical knowledge, and the abilities to research and to communicate are important skills for architects to possess. Becoming well-rounded professionals that are knowlegeable on a variety of subjects should be a goal to strive for. This enables architects to come up with the most creative solutions possible to meet the needs of people and society. FIRST SOURCES