Architecture is about people and the way they interact with the Earth, more than it is about self-expression. Through Architecture humans can either kill their surroundings or grow together with them.
Nowadays it's impossible to practice the architectural profession honestly without being aware of this kind of problem. Hype is no longer enough of a rewarding or maybe it is, for those of us who choose to be shallow. I like to think though that Architecture is a field that promotes in the mind a high level of consciousness.
Architecture is Art and Art should be responsible, not socially but cosmically responsible. Architecture is not at the service of governments, companies or religions.
Architecture didn't always need Architects. People used to be their own Architects.
The Architect should be the priest who performs the ceremony of alliance between humans and their mother planet through magic manipulation of space. Instead, in most cases the Architect is the agent of annihilation of life, providing the physical background for the "global economy" to deplete and destroy irreplaceable resources for the pure sake of endless monetary, though not spiritual, enrichment of a tiny minority of the human population.
All over the world Architects are organized in guilds, unions and associations whose central purpose is to uphold their corporate interests. Far are the times when the Modernists aimed somehow at a level above their wallets. The debate is no longer about style but substance. Let's not ask any more if Architecture looks good but if it is good, good for the user, self-sustainable, nonpoisonous, energy saving, durable or recyclable. Let's face it: cities are a cancer, spreading all over the planet, with their concrete or asphalt surfaces preventing the normal exchange between air, earth and water that allows life to thrive, inexhaustible sources of garbage which piles up in the guise of mountains or fills valleys flooding all around with threatening chemicals and exuding noxious fumes.
And in the middle of all this where is the Architect? Taking a cut from a situation that will compromise the survival of his/her grandchildren.
