As far back as I can remember, I wanted to be an architect. There was no epiphany that led me to the decision. No one in my family was in construction, let alone architecture. In fact, I don’t think I even knew an architect. I often wonder what led me to make architecture my lifelong passion. It wasn’t the round glasses, the bowtie, or even the black turtleneck. So what was it then?
The image of the architect
Maybe it was growing up in the 80s and 90s and watching numerous movies and TV shows where the main protagonist was an architect. Think Mike Brady (Robert Reed) of the Brady Bunch, Martin Kelly (Robert Hughes) of Hey Dad, and Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) in Sleepless in Seattle.1 They made working from home cool, long before remote working became a thing. It never dawned on me at the time, but all of these characters also happened to be widowed. If there was any doubt about what an architect was, we could simply turn to the TV and be rest assured that architects…