definitions

architecture is more than
an art,
design,
or construction of shelter.

art is more than expression.
it is communication.
communication requires two parties,
one gives and the other recieves.

according to leo tolstoy, art is the human expression of feeling with the desire by the one expressing the feelings to have the one who recieves the expression to experience those same feelings.

design is an intellectual exercise
involving the arrangment of thing and nothing.
to arrange is to create order out of chaos.

design can be based upon an theory of aesthetics, a concept of beauty. thus, a system of order based upon a concept of good and bad, beauty and ugliness.

there can be artists and designers who could care less about aesthetics and creating beauty. there can be designers who are not artists, could care less about comunicating their feelings, whose only goal is to arrange things and nothings. and there can be artists who are not designers, who could care less about arranging things and nothings, whose only goal is to express their feelings.

but there can be artists who use design to create beauty. an architect is an artist who creates designs for the construction of human habitations. the reciever of the architects art is the one who will inhabit the architecture. and if the inhabitant expreiences the feelings that the architect wanted to express, then it can be judged to be successful.

but an architectural design can also be an instrument for creating beauty in our built environment. architecture can be more then just constructing shelter to protect humans from the elements. an artistic architectural design, a rationale used to determine the arrangement of solid and void to create forms and spaces that evoke specific feelings, can also be based on aesthetics, a notion of what will make our society more beautiful. better as opposed to worse. good as opposed to bad.

this leads me to ask...
how do i see myself?
i am an artist and a designer.
i have a notion of beauty.
i have training to be an architect.

so... i guess i would be an artist who wants to design beautiful places that humans find comfortable and able accomodate their activities.

of course i still need to define what i mean by beautiful and comfortable.