Why is Anything Important?

About two weeks ago, I stopped by a gas station. I noticed that it was a lady that helped me pump the gas into my tank. I started talking to her, because I never saw her there before. She said that she was usually there in the afternoon to late evening hours. She told me that in the morning hours, she teaches in a middle school somewhere in Pancoran (the gas station is in Kebun Jeruk area), goes home around 1pm to fresh herself up, and leaves for the gas station to work there until 10 o’clock at night. And I thought to myself: why is she teaching? Obviously the pay is not good enough for her. So what makes her work two jobs when she probably could have earned more money by working at the gas station double shifts?

During Q & A in a panel discussion mentioned in this posting, one of my ex students Amy, asked a question of “why is architecture important?” I responded that she was the only person who could answer that question for herself, because what one thinks as important may not be as important to other people.

This afternoon, she asked me a more specific question about why architecture is important to me. I told her that because when I went to school, I was fortunate enough to be able to sample different courses in the art and design field. So when I took a 3d design course taught by an architect, I fell in love with architecture. Designing architecture gave me a very different kind of satisfaction I didn’t find in any other fields. There’s something intriguing about architecture that I find mind boggling to date (I still have goose bumps when I come across something I find amazing about architecture), but I’m still trying to define how is architecture important to me, and in which area(s) I can best contribute to.

She asked again whether other than personal reasons, there were more objective reasons why architecture is important. And I said no. Architecture is the same with any other fields of knowledge: it’s how human try to make sense of the world. Some do it through the field of medicine, computer, anthropology, astrophysics, biology, economics, sociology, and so on and so forth. But of course if you happen to ask a person who is already established within the field, he or she would argue vehemently (as some architects would) that their field is the one most important discipline in the world of knowledge. Can’t blame it, we mortals want to leave a mark of our existence in this ephemeral world – and of course that mark is important.

Anyway, after that conversation with Amy, I stopped by the same gas station and saw the lady again. Obviously, earning money is not the only thing important in her life. Like many underpaid teachers in Indonesia, she sticks to her job, because it is important for her.

And does design matter? I guess it only matters for those who consider it important. And for them, design gives meaning to an otherwise indistinguishable being.