Author: Dhrubajyoti Roy

The topic at hand today is also one of the most aggravating and frustrating issues for architects all around the country. And I say in our country because Indians are ignorant and unbeknownst towards the fact that architects do exist in India and even if they do so, their attitude and credit-giving heart fail out when it comes to us. Not just in India but this fact has remained true for the Asian nations since ancient times. There are so many beautiful temples and other structures all around the country and even throughout the Oriental world, but the first thing that history books teach us is how great the benefactor who funded the structure and how great his/her vision was. The architect is rarely mentioned. Secondly, we learn and wonder about the engineering that was so sophisticated as to be able to conjure such a great structure that stands tall and keeps us in awe even for generations to come. What we never think of when documenting such things is how beautifully devised and designed such ancient treasures are and how rich the cultural incorporation in them was done by a handful of people who were geniuses forgotten from the tabloids of history. But hypocrisy exists today in the eyes of everyone when looking towards a European structure, wherein suddenly everyone remembers to praise the architects who designed those gems. And then, internal depreciation hits hard on a people without ever understanding the core of such reasons and the respect for the profession remains long lost.

This is the attitude that remains still at large to this day. And what hurts the most, in the end, is the fact that civil engineers take advantage of this situation and put themselves forward with dauntless and confident acclamation of being fully educated architects. People who just want to spend a fancy amount without doing proper research as such encourage these wrongdoers in their fraud. I would like to inform everyone that in this society of India where engineering is encouraged a lot and has become a prime profession for the youth of the country, the job expectancy of these posts has drastically reduced in the years that preceded and continues to do so. The result of this is hard-hitting fraudulent malpractice of civil engineers posing as architects. This is a serious case because when thinking of taking up higher studies, very few students think of going into architecture. The turn-up for engineering is extremely high in proportion to the former. If one is willing to practice architecture, then please truly pursue the course and do your part to spread awareness regarding the subject and study it. I do not want to be wrongly speculating anything or rather demean the course of engineering. Neither do I want to praise architecture to a mantle where everyone sees it differently. But it is a proven truth that architecture has been granted the position of No.1 concerning being the most difficult course in the world. To practice, architects need a government-approved license. The lack of which is surely existent among the many “so-called professional architects” freshly brewed out of engineering colleges.

I am very sure the interest and zeal towards a good and beautiful home to live in exist among the masses in society. But this is a heartfelt request to everyone reading this to also respect the people who are professionals who help achieve this for you. The people of the architectural community feel highly disrespected and hurt when such cases of engineers posing as architects come up. Engineers are professionals who are better at dealing with the technicality of any machinery or man-made matter. Civil engineers are only good enough to help with the structural integrity of a building or a structure, a subject that is stressed enough in the course of architecture itself. So, relying on an architect for a building’s structure is not an option so far-fetched. But architects never go around taking that laurel away from them. Architecture, however, is a mixture of art and a very intricate process of designing that involves a lot of hard work and technical elements as well. Something civil engineers don’t know the world of.

This is my request to all my readers to please understand the plight of us architects and also our efforts. The difference between us architects and engineers is clear as crystal. Please spread awareness about our profession, pursue it if you will, and respect and love the tradition and culture that architects who came before have built. Make society aware of it and help stop such misguided advantage from being taken of unaware people by a handful of miscreants who should be punished for their folly.