PROFESSIONAL AUTODIDACTS !

photo credit: Reuters/Carlos Barria

Family occupations are usually unique, special, and worth preserving. The majority of the craftsmen are claimed to have learned their trade from their forefathers and had it ingrained in their DNA. However, are they professional?  Is certification required for all professions? Despite our love for artists and their hard-won abilities, can't we embrace them as a professional path without a formal education?

A similar issue exists in the field of building science. Are only architects who have good qualifications considered professionals? When we go back in history, we do find several outstanding self-taught architects who created amazing structures.  Yet, that was in the past. It's difficult to detect a skilled self-taught architect in today's competitive world. Nowadays, a scrap of paper is worth more than a lifetime's worth of effort.

People may wonder how you can trust someone and offer them a project that will endure for years if they don't have a degree or a diploma. But, it isn't the goal of this discussion. Practicing architecture without a degree does not imply that he or she has a fundamental understanding of the profession.  A year of consistent practice is far more effective and efficient than five years of academic study.

After graduation, a person who enters the field as a newcomer will face the same challenges as an autodidact does. When you enter the working world, you will realize that both of them are in the same predicament. At the end of the day, it's your knowledge and skills that will pay your expenses, not your credentials.

However, we must not belittle the efforts made over five years of hard work with professional guidance. The self-taught architects, on the other hand, lack professional direction. As they struggled with their own particular interests, this made them even more distinctive.