Category: CAREERS

things we can learn from the careers of other architects

What’s an architect to do?

August 2, 2026

additions, aesthetics, renovations, repair, value adding

The suburb of Daglish in Perth, Western Australia has much green space in the form of roadside verges, parks, dog-friendly parks and playing fields. Many homes are large and relatively new and this relatively new double-story typology has an entrance, a double-car garage and possibly a master bedroom across the width of the block but, […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #13: Ludwig Leo

March 10, 2024

Graham McKay

towards an architectural history fit for purpose, Why aren't good architects better remembered than the bad ones?

no comments

I found one mention of Leo having enrolled in an engineering course and, since he graduated from the University of Arts when he was 30, it could have been anything from a foundation course to a first degree. In 1956, two years after graduating from the University of Arts, he opened an office (in his […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #13: John Cyril Hawes

January 28, 2024

Graham McKay

architecture as problem solving, other ways of understanding architecture

1 comment

It’s not often we find architect and priest on the same CV but that’s the case with John Cyril Hawes. There’s a website, Monsignor John Hawes, from which I’ve summarized much of the following biographical information. Hawes was born in 1876 in Richmond in London but Canterbury Cathedral in the town of Canterbury where he […]

CAREERS

Framing

December 3, 2023

Graham McKay

fame and fortune, monetizing fame, the uses of history

no comments

It’s not often I look at all the photographs I’ve taken in such a short space of time as I did with my My Best Shots post two years ago. Some of my pet themes and patterns were obvious. For one, all were of buildings. Some photographs aspired to the standards and conventions of traditional […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #11: Kunio Maekawa (前川國男)

November 6, 2022

Graham McKay

1 comment

The history of modern architecture in Japan is short and relatively well documented even though major protagonists such as Antonin Raymond and Bruno Taut neglected to mention each other in their respective histories. Kunio Maekawa, Junzō Yoshimura and Junzo Sakakura were, along with Togō Murano, the first generation of modern Japanese architects. Togō Murano travelled […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #12: Antonin Raymond

July 24, 2022

Graham McKay

fame and fortune

4 comments

Antonin Raymond is important enough to be called “The father of Modern Architecture in Japan” but he’s not so well known. He’s not “taught”. At first I thought he might be a misfit but this is a career case study. I’ll explain why. First some facts I’ve pieced together from the sources at end. Raymond […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #9: Juliaan Lampens

August 23, 2020

Graham McKay

does one have to be an unknown architect to be an architecture misfit?

no comments

In the 2011 book, Angelique Campens compiled a list of projects and buildings that Lampens acknowledged, suggesting the existence of others either forgotten or unmemorable. I’ve combined her list with one from a 2019 Bachelor’s thesis by Andrea Ligao of the Politecnico di Milano and that includes some of the more obscure projects and competition […]

CAREERS

Stock Market

April 5, 2020

Graham McKay

does one have to be an unknown architect to be an architecture misfit?, the ever-narrowing definition of architecture

7 comments

The life of composer, cellist, and conductor Franz Ignaz Danzi (1763–1826) overlaps those of Wofgang Amadeus Mozart, Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert. Mozart died in 1791 aged 35, Danzi in 1826 at 63, Beethoven in 1827 at 57 and Schubert in 1828 at 31. Danzi and Beethoven’s lives overlapped for all but seven years […]

CAREERS

How To Leave a Company

September 29, 2019

Graham McKay

survival

2 comments

There’s no point talking about the many reasons one might want to leave a company. They’ll all fall into one of the three groups of 1) Overworked, 2) Underpaid and 3) Underappreciated. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” – Lao Tzu Your Lao Tzu moment is the moment you realise […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #10: Yo Shimada

February 11, 2018

Graham McKay

3 comments

The name’s pronounced Yō Shimada [嶋田優] despite “Yu” being more usual. Mr. Shimada also bucks convention by not having had a conventional architectural education. I don’t think we can hold this against him. Frank Lloyd Wright never had one. Wright’s thirty or so “bootleg” houses completed while moonlighting in Sullivan’s office prove he thought he could […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #9: José Oubrerie

December 2, 2017

Graham McKay

1 comment

I’ve always wondered about the value of working for famous architects for education and/or work experience. If it’s to be anything more than a CV builder, then what is the information actually transferred and what is the actual mechanism of information transferal? Frank Lloyd Wright was in no doubt as to the value of the […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #8: Gio Ponti

March 17, 2017

Graham McKay

2 comments

1921 Graduated with a degree in Architecture from Politecnico di Milano. 1923–1927 Worked in partnership with Mino Fiocchi and Emilio Lancia. Exhibited at the first Biennial Exhibition of the Decorative Arts in Monza. 1924 Ponti House in via Randaccio Gio Ponti, Emilio Lancia via Randaccio 9, Milano For many architects, their first built work is a house for […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #7: Serge Chermayeff

June 30, 2016

Graham McKay

1 comment

The life and career of Serge Chermayeff (1900-1996) were vastly different from those of Ivan Leonidov (1902-1959), subject of the previous Career Case Study. They were also much longer. Chermayeff made a series of good career moves, the first of which was being born into a rich Jewish family in 1900. True, it was in Chechnya in the then Russian Empire but he soon corrected that […]

CAREERS

Career Case Study #6: Ivan Illich Leonidov

April 3, 2016

Graham McKay

no comments

Ivan Illich Leonidov 9 February, 1902 – 6 November 1959 Ivan Leonidov’s star shone brilliantly at the very beginning of his career, perhaps too brilliantly. His misfortune was to have been born in 1902. If he’d been born in 1952 we’d remember him today as one of those infernal starchitects and, if early photographs are anything to […]