Role of an Architect: Lessons from the movies
- Amit Jnagal, Senior Technical Architect, Infosys
None of us are new to the entertainment value of movies. They can make us laugh, cry, ponder, put us to sleep, wake us up and can entertain. The use of movies for the purpose of education is not new either. In fact, there is a special genre of movies with educational values, meant for different audiences.
Recently, I was in a discussion with my mentor. We started talking about challenges faced by the new age architects. Gradually, the conversation drifted from these challenges to the amazing world of movies. Soon after that conversation, I was conducting some training sessions for budding architects. The opening act for this training was titled – ‘The Role of an Enterprise Architect’. While preparing for that workshop, I related it back to the conversation about movies and what lessons can we architects learn from them
Movies (from Hollywood & Bollywood) can offer good lessons to architects and in general provide a good overview about role of an architect.
Let us consider 12 Angry Men (Year of Release:1957; Director: Sidney Lumet; Our Architect: Juror#8 played by Henry Fonda; Architect's character: Juror in a 12 member Jury
It would be highly in-appropriate if I tried to relate the role of an Architect to characters in movies and started with any other movie. 12 Angry Men is a black and white movie which depicts a murder trial for which a jury of 12 members is to deliberate and come up with a decision.
At the start of the deliberation, 11 of the members are convinced that the defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree and one person, only one person is doubtful. For the next one hour, this single gentleman convinces everyone else of the loopholes in the case and gets a 12-0 verdict acquitting the accused of all charges.
Incidentally, this 12th person who single handedly turns the opinion around happens to be an Architect by profession (a civil one though).
The lessons that an architect can learn from this movie are:
• Consensus Building
• How to speak your mind and not go with the general opinion when you are not convinced
• How to use facts to justify your argument when emotions run high
• Innovation
• Never, ever to let go of your common sense
Scenes to watch out for:
There is a scene in the middle of the movie about a fact presented in the case according to which it takes less than 10 seconds for an injured person to walk about 20 meters. Our architect proves, by enacting the situation, that it is not possible.
I can very easily relate to this situation in architecture work. A lot of time people come to the negotiation table with pre-conceived notions or facts that they believe to be true. If you doubt the authenticity of a fact, go ahead and challenge it. Do some research, collect facts and go back to the table with figures and numbers. It can help you turn the balance to your advantage. The other aspect of our work that this scene highlights is the need and importance of PoC’s to validate hypothesis and bring certainty in projects.
Towards the beginning of the movie, there is a scene where the jury talks about a witness who remembers the accused carrying the same knife with which the murder was committed. The architect produces an exactly similar looking knife that he purchased after hearing the argument. He proves that the knife is not extra ordinary and is very easy to get hold of. This shows the importance of doing your homework or research on a project.
This scene again emphasis the value of research and doing your homework. Before going for a discussion, you can find new insights if you spend some time with Google or an expert that you trust. It also teaches us architects to look beyond what the eye can see. Sometimes, the facts are not what they seem.
