Self Taught Home Designers?

[RMorrison]

There is, of course, a lot of information about architecture and construction that may be acquired through self-study and practice. But there are also components that I currently believe are just not possible to teach oneself. For starters, these include:

1) An appreciation -- a connoisseurship, if you will -- of the formal qualities of architecture, such as proportion, rhythm, scale, color, light, space, etc. and how these all interact with one another. This is, in effect, learning how "to see" and requires many exercises and someone who has already developed an appreciation to guide the novice in experiencing these qualities. I'm not saying that it has to be necessarily in school, but it requires a mentor. Even such a talent as Frank Lloyd Wright had such a mentor in Louis Sullivan. And architects who are serious about their craft often let others critique their own work. This is similar to how artists get together and discuss one another's work. This is simply not something that you can do yourself.

2) An attitude that the first couple of solutions probably aren't all that good. A mark of a novice (and a beginning architecture student) is that their work is precious. It takes years (and some serious ego-bruising) to learn that good design is really hard work and that pushing one's self to better design may mean staying up late, and looking at the 10th or 15th solution. Self-taught people just aren't capable of mercilessly bruising their own egos, and knowing when they are producing something that is pretty mediocre, at best.

3) Starting with a belief that good design is important. While a diploma or a license isn't a guarantee of competence, it is a mark of a certain level (years and $$$) of commitment and dedication to an ideal that is seldom found in self-taught people.