Architectural Journalism: Scope, Relevance and Need

“Journalism is
the first rough
draft of
History”
-Philip
Graham
Defining
something
Confines it
into the
Definition.
This could be
the reason why
Architecture is
a profession which cannot be defined completely. There is always a gradient of grey which
fluctuates between the black and white. Architecture is where “Science and Art break Even”. It
is a combination of Engineering, art, aesthetics, logic, designing and planning. To put it simply it
is an amalgamation “Sugar, spice and everything nice”. Ideas as their own improve the society,
but their meaning in words ‘Aids to the improvement’, which makes Architectural Journalism
-’The Chemical X’ of Architecture.
Be it Jane Austin or Jane Jacobs, they weaved the same known story in a never-yet presented
way which made us look into the same aspect in a totally new dimension. Architectural
Journalism, I feel is that portal which tries to comprehend the designer’s mind and the user’s
experience of a design from an unbiased perspective. In a prepared speech given at Butler
University on November 12, 2003, Paul Goldberger is quoted as saying; “Architecture criticism
is aesthetics and it is politics and it is sociology and it is culture…”  .
Architectural Journalism is a niche of writing about architecture and design. Very often,
architects and designers with a flair for writing pursue Architectural Journalism. They get an
advantage of learning, while commenting on a work of architecture or a design philosophy.
However, a basic sense of aesthetics and adequate reading on the subject helps in understanding
design concepts well enough to be able to develop one’s career in this niche of journalism. One
can categorize Architectural journalism into diverse subparts. It involves intense skills in design
interpretation, perceptional thinking, and creative writing, documentation in terms of
photography, exploration and research.

“Journalism is the truth that people need to know, and not what they want to know”. This
stream as a career establishes its importance in being the unbiased analyzer as well the awareness
promoter of the design world. It has got its never-than-ever relevance now as this field demands
newer ways of understanding and experience. This does not just involve mundane criticism, but
also lets the designer know “What is being conveyed through their way of conveying” and also
lets the reader/user know “What is been tried to convey”. This is home run for designers who can
understand the minds of the readers/users further-more and alter their means of communications
and also correct the miscommunication if any.
The scope of an Architectural journalist has widened and wizened in recent times. There are
innumerous magazines, web portals, blogs in India and around the world, which connect the
writers and the readers through a palm-sized magic device (which I believe has connected me
and you now).

One can take up a full-time job in any of the magazines, or summer/winter internships. There are
lots of architectural web portals which offers online internships (Like our very own “Rethinking
the Future”) which gives us the flexibility this job very well needs. As an architecture student,
one could start learning and understanding this subject right from their under-grad days through
student internships and various online courses. If one understands the sensitivity of the
subject and leads oneself to the startup analysis, documentation, exploration, study, and research
of architectural interventions. One could join research organizations related to architecture in
India, specifically: CSIR, CBRI, Research Cell at – CCA, CEPT, TERI etc.
The profession of Architectural Journalism is gaining much value in comparison to that of being
a conventional architect across the globe. This can be attributed to the fact that apart from
designing, explaining the same holds sheer importance as far as formulating a brand is
concerned. Architectural journalism is also reflective. We can understand our mistakes and
hence, learn not to repeat them in the future; and we can grasp the advantages and the positives
so that they can be replicated ahead, keeping in mind the conceptual and contextual details. In
fact, it can arouse the interest of the readers in architecture at another level, which would
certainly boost this field beside publicizing architects. Especially in India, this is a not-so-much-
trodden path in spite of its importance. The employment possibilities that it can create are still to
be hit upon. The numerous languages and cultures can bring about multivariate perspectives in
architecture. After having watched through different colors of cultures, understanding what is
best for who becomes a lot easier for any architect.

Although we have 450+ architectural colleges in India, the sorry state of affair is that only a
few of them have Architectural Journalism as an interdisciplinary course. Some of those colleges
are CCA, CEPT, NIT-H, SPA Delhi. Hence, we very well understand that awareness is a big
deal as far as this new emerging subject is concerned and there are many more efforts required to
increase this figure in comparison to the increasing number of Architectural Colleges in India in
the recent years.
Words are our most inexhaustible source of magic, Architectural Journalism is a whole new
wizardry which deserves to be learned, practiced and mastered.