Being an Architect's wife!

I have been married to an architect for almost four years now. It was not a studied decision to marry one, as with most marriages, it just happened.

When I got married, I do not think I dwelt too much upon the fact that I actually had never come across an architect in my life. I am a chartered accountant and my parents are doctors. So till marriage,my social circle mostly consisted of doctors and finance professionals.So it turns out that my husband is the first architect who I  met,married and am living with since. And wow how things have changed since then, suddenly I know more architects than I ever knew existed.

Anyway, this post is not about why I married an architect, but how being married to one has introduced me to the various facets of this profession and professionals.

So here are a few of my observations,

They are an interesting lot of professionals, albeit underpaid.Compared to the years of training they put in and the amount of dedication the execution of a design idea requires, their work is undervalued,under recognized and under compensated. And though I have heard all architects complain about this, the fact that they enjoy their work seems to keep them going. In fact, they are by far the most jovial set of professionals I have come across. They do know how to enjoy life!

With an architect in your life, shopping gets a whole new meaning. When earlier in my marriage, my husband mentioned that he needs to go shopping with a client to "Commercial Street", a popular retail therapy destination in Bangalore; I was keen to join in. For till then, I had never realized that  shopping  could involve things like faucets, hooks,tiles and bathroom fittings, which is what he was going shopping for.

They also seem to share a love hate relationships with their clients. The love seems to last till the architect presents his invoice for payment.

Finally when you spend some time with an architect, you realize that they are first artists who want to express themselves through the structures they design. But, as professionals they are constrained by more mundane demands like time lines,cost constraints and client expectations.This is why most architects want to design their own homes ; for then they have the freedom for their artistic expression. And that is why most of the times their homes are always work in progress :).