The Georgia Tech School of Architecture established this symposium to help our students and related professional communities reflect more deeply about the relationship between professional knowledge, the organization of professional practice, and the evolving role of the architect within the social production of the built environment.

So who is the architect after all? The symposium addresses the nature and the prospects of professional practice from multiple points of view: 

1. How do architects forge new identities, specializations, and ways of collaboration as corporate firms increasingly dominate the design and construction of large and significant projects? 

2. How are professional knowledge and the ways in which we share, curate, and expand professional knowledge transformed by digital technologies that enable not only the representation of buildings but also the modeling and assessment of their functions as well as the storage and analysis of relevant data? 

3. What is the place of human and social values in the production of designs and the assessment of their impact and who brings those values into the process of decision making? 

4. How far do those who exercise the profession of architecture own or co-produce the larger vision that generates significant projects?

5. How has the relationship between the profession and the discipline of architecture evolved in our world?

Symposium participants are all contributors to the recent Harvard Design Magazine, Issue 52 – Instruments of Service, which discussed the challenges facing the profession of architecture at present. Professor George Johnston contributed the opening essay to the issue under the title embraced for the symposium: Who is the architect?

The symposium will focus on current trends and dilemmas of professional practice, provide up-to-date perspectives on developments in the knowledge base and the technologies that support professional practice, and encourage a comparative understanding of different models of professional practice.

George B. Johnston is Professor of Architecture at Georgia Tech and principal of Johnston+Dumais [architects]. An architect and scholar of architectural practice, he has accrued over 40 years of experience as an educator, practitioner, and cultural historian. His research interrogates the political economy of the profession and broader cultural implications of making architecture in the American context. 

He teaches courses in architectural and urban design and social history of architectural practice and is author of the award-winning book from The MIT Press, Drafting Culture: A Social History of Architectural Graphic Standards, which has been lauded for its insights into the ongoing technological transformation of the profession. His most recent book, Assembling the Architect: The History and Theory of Professional Practice (Bloomsbury, 2020) traces the formation and standardization of fundamental relationships among architects, owners, and builders and cultivates a deeper understanding of the contemporary profession. 

As both practicing architect and cultural historian, George’s speculative inquiries are propelled by this central concern: What recuperative role can architects’ practices play in this age of social and technological upheaval?