Through sharing Y/our truth, I believe we unlock architecture's potential to be a catalyst for transformative change. My journey to this realization began early…
As a 4-year-old child, I would sit in the back seat of my grandparents' car and gaze up at the stars. I just couldn’t comprehend this thing called 'life'. This early search for truth would become the foundation of my work, though I didn't recognize it then. My earliest childhood dream was to become an opera singer, then an architect, a hairdresser, an industrial designer and eventually an architect again. During my BSc. studies at the Technical University of Vienna/Austria, it was clear I wanted to become an architect — namely to design and possibly build buildings. For my Master’s, I had always aimed to study abroad so a dream came true when I got admitted to the Technical University of Delft/Holland. Little did I know that this was the beginning of a big, magical journey that would challenge everything I thought I knew about architecture.
Description: Person standing on a rock under the starry night sky
Over the following semesters and years, I experienced a vast internal expansion.
Description: TU Delft / ARGUS study association exhibition ‘Radio Venezia’, 2017, Inés giving an informal speech on the future potential of architecture field
Being immersed in such a wildly creative and international study environment 'exploded' my perception of what architecture can be and do. As a result, I no longer wanted to become a conventional architect, but instead, explore and expand the boundaries of the field and carve out a new way of being. The problem?
I became interested in too many things; Architecture, Exhibition Curation, Publishing, Film, Music, Event Management, Public Speaking, Activism, Personal Development, Psychology and Spirituality.
Description: ‘Passion journal’ at the top, ‘Designing Activism’ on the bottom right, WASDNTY notebook bottom left, a purple and a yellow pen.
I had no idea how to combine all of my interests and passions into one lifetime. And I didn’t really want to sacrifice any of them. This caused immense internal pressure, so I made it a habit of carrying a ‘passion journal’ around with me where I would pin everything down and hopefully come to a conclusion over time. Retrospectively, I can say: Powerful things happen when you write them on paper. And so this came up one day when visualizing my future:
WASDNTY: What Architecture School Does Not Teach You
Upon closer examination, I realized I had finally manifested all that is me into one project. Then after I graduated from Delft with a MSc. in architecture, I reached a sudden turning point in my life. It was born of the heart-breaking and eye-opening realization that I had always kept my true self on the inside, trying to meet the criteria of friends, family and culture — but never my very own. So I decided to seek my truth. Making this commitment to the universe suddenly started to shift things in my favour. I moved to Melbourne/Australia, my 2nd home, where I declined a corporate job offer at one of the world’s top ‘star-chitecture’ firms. I recognized that my own journey of uncovering truth could help others do the same and what once started as an idea turned into my calling.
Description: Planetary distress. Credit: https://givingcompass.org
Let’s face it:
We are knee-deep in a planetary crisis. Injustices, depression, housing shortages, waste up-into-the-sky, climate and biodiversity breakdown; architecture, construction and engineering are complicit. We are among the planet’s monster polluters and destroyers. So, where to start and how to change? Personally, I have stumbled upon countless articles and books that paint a grim future and call every one of us to action NOW. And while any content of this sort can open our eyes to what is going on, it has often had the effect on me that I pushed it away due to fear and a certain powerlessness. Hence, I have come to believe in a different approach: Rather than coming from fear and separation, I believe in activating the innate, boundless potential within each of us. For this, we need to re-connect with the truth of who we really are.
What is ‘truth’?
Description: Essential nature covered up by limiting beliefs and conditioning
Essentially, the truth is who you really are. Not who you ‘think’ you are, or ‘should’ be, or were ‘taught’ to be — but who you are in your essence. In the course of your life, you develop layers of conditioning that cover up this essence like an onion. (Don’t worry, we all face this dilemma) However, these layers are false. They’re layers, after all. All of this becomes completely clear once you start your own ‘un-doing’. This journey is not for the faint-hearted, but what awaits is a deep state of truth. A clear mind + an open heart.
Description: Ocean waves with text overlay ‘Dear future architects, you long to make waves when you don’t realize — you’re part of the ocean’
It takes courage to meet your depths and shed the many layers of conditioning, but you will inevitably transform from the inside out and unravel a unique gift that only you can give. When expressed, this gift creates a new way of being and in turn a new way of doing architecture. That’s why your truth is so vital, now more than ever, as it raises the consciousness of our planet at large. Your gift is already within you. The question is:
Do you have the courage to let it out?
The climate and biodiversity crisis has been declared the ‘most serious issue of our time’ by the UK Architects Declare Movement. Yet, contrary to popular belief, I believe this crisis is not the actual issue but rather a symptom of something deeper. Our natural and built environment is nothing but a reflection of our dis-connected selves. The outer is a reflection of the inner. We have forgotten who we really are. Architecture is suffering a crisis of forgetfulness; a crisis of being. The illusion of separation has us tight in its grip. It’s not a secret that the architecture industry has lost its way: Burned-out graduates. Unfulfilled professionals. Systemic injustices. An outdated education system. Dis-connected and dis-connecting (built) environments. We often search for solutions to these at the level of doing only (the external, the physical, the measurable), e.g. frameworks, policies, technologies, typologies, materials — not realizing, however, that the root cause is always at the level of being (the internal, the spiritual, the non-measurable). If we only change the doing and not the being, we will perpetuate the same old mindset and system that got us into our issues in the first place. Ultimately, all our challenges are the symptom of one and the same root cause: A separation from nature. More specifically:
A separation from our true nature.
If change is so urgent, then why hasn’t it happened yet as quickly as it should? Guess what: A deeper level of being drives the doing. And unless we address that, little will change. In other words: Our best efforts will be compromised. That is why I believe: Creating change starts from within. A transformation in consciousness would automatically bring about new thoughts, words and actions, individually and collectively. This would inevitably bring fresh wind into ‘architecture’ and turn the field towards a more cross-disciplinary, open, colourful, beautiful, fun, diverse, inclusive, empowered, safe, connected and regenerative future.