Day 55: Tuesday 28 March
When attending a webinar about the future of practice lead by a technology company (as I did today) it’s no surprise they’ll assert the future is tech.
It wasn’t their only pitch but it was strongly worded around it.
There’s no doubt that technology will hugely influence the future of practice. Yet technology is not all.
Technology won’t solve the environmental challenges which the profession is complicit in creating.
Technology won’t help you with interactions you have with the humans that will always form part of the process.
Technology can’t lead.
Technology will not come up with original, creative and lateral solutions to building future practices.
As I wrote at the time: “What might we miss if we focus on technology as the future?”
It’s inevitable that technology is out focus (tech webinar or otherwise). Tech fills our feeds and news. It’s more remarkable than
BREAKING: “Two people connected through a vulnerable conversation.”
It’s also dominated our challenges as we’ve moved to remote work and flexible arrangements over the last three years. It’s the tools we use that enables us to do our work.
It’s inescapable.
It’s the Halo Effect.
And I worry when it overshadows other important considerations for the future of work. Especially if we consider it might lead to the shrinking of scope for architects, meaning a shrinking of the profession. When that happens technology won’t be the saviour but creative thinking will.
