Some Dutch academic magazine has recently published a survey on what professions people are attracted to. Not to do themselves, but to get seduced by its practitioners. They actually presented the top 3 most sexy professions, and the bottom three. The survey was held under men and women, all graduated professionals, of all professions you can imagine. I thought it to be a thoroughly executed survey, with all the right answers, as I found the bottom three, so, least sexy professions to be ‘tax consultant’ and ‘all professions containing ‘IT’ in the job description. What blew me away was the fact that ‘architect’ and ‘designer’ took first and second place! (yes, medical doctor was third).

So, we’re the hottest thing on the market!
We can simply walk into any bar, venue or party and tell people what we do, and they will love us for it, will take us home with them, undress for us, even aiming at having a long and lasting relationship with us. Considering the reality of design practice around the world, working evenings, nights and weekends, on inexplicable abstract projects, in an all-creativity-swallowing-environment for a lousy pay check, didn’t quite match the idea of it being the most sexy profession. Considering the architects I know, and the love life / relationships that surrounds them wouldn’t sell them very well as most wanted to say the least.

So why is it that people melt in the face of architects and designers? Why is architect the most sexy profession out there? I thought I should find out, I’m an architect myself and frequently in need of some professional motivation, so this could be it.

During their education, architects are being trained to become heroes. They learn architecture by studying only the most exclusive buildings of all times. A student of architecture can probably tell who designed the Eiffel tower (easy), the Taj Mahal or the Colosseum, and is therefore silently trained to consider himself being a member this list of monument makers, those fine men who gave us décor for history’s most celebrated moments. This gives the architect confidence, and this confidence is one reason for people to be attracted to you, to fall in love with you. (This confidence is also frequently referred to as arrogance, and might serve as a reason for others to fire you, or build something significantly different from your drawing)

More than being a hero, an architect is a therapist. I find myself listening to clients most intimate details of how they live, sleep, brush their teeth, and what they do with their guests after midnight. I supposedly have to know because I’m designing their house. I have to know everything about my client to draw that perfect house. Now, designing that perfect house is relatively easy when compared to listening to these clients most raunchy stories for long long evenings until the wine tastes bad and the client is crying on your lap confessing his cross-dressing hobby. This gives the architect patience, and the ability to listen. Now there are some wonderful love traps!

The audience who was asked to answer the questionnaire of the survey were all highly educated people, and still very ‘young’ . Considering the length of their educational careers, and the few years of experience in their profession to be considered a
professional they must have a little over thirty years of age. (Being young in architecture, for those readers who are happily not anywhere near an architect, means you’re under forty-five.) Being a little over thirty means one has tasted life a bit, has been places, has seen the fast relationships, and is ready to stop snacking, and sit down for a six course meal. Women have their clocks ticking, and men get bold and overweight. In short, people on this market are looking for something steady, something that will last. And what lasts longer than the Eiffel tower (easy), the Taj Mahal or the Colosseum? Architects make buildings and buildings are these big things around you that remind you of yesterday, or yestercentury. Buildings are steady, stand all seasons, and are low maintenance (especially compared to a 30+ partner). People know this and unconsciously connect the qualities of the buildings to the designers of these buildings. They are the creator of this, ergo, they are this. So in their eyes we ourselves are steady, weatherproof, and low maintenance, which is why we ended up with both the gold and silver medal of the sex list. Needless to explain how only the contrary is possible, even to those readers who are happily not anywhere near an architect, but lets not tell anybody, ok?

Then, there is the great misunderstanding about money. When faced with a stranger in any social context, once I drop any line containing the words ‘I’m an architect’, the hearing end of the conversation will assume I’ll pay for the drinks, all the drinks she had before talking to me and all the drinks her girlfriends had since they got into the restaurant hours ago. Architect are loaded, hence the attraction.
Now as this column is supposed to have the designer community as its audience I can admit quite frankly that, at least in my village, we do not earn the millions that we are thought to earn. Here, clients earn all the money. They are the ones who come out of this creative process being the proud owner of well designed real estate, or the legal patent for a good idea, or beautiful marketing tools or whatever else designers produce that’s worth those millions. We just work our ass off, driven by the heroic task of creating good things for a better world, working overnight, floating on some intellectually constructed idealism which can only be communicated to our fellow designers, an abstract of progress. The idea that we are rich is fed by Hollywood B-movies where any side character who is passionate, wealthy and fucked over is an architect. The money issue is furthermore fuelled by the earlier notion of architects being heroes, which in Switzerland, and pre-Euro Finland found expression in putting architects on their banknotes. Yes, architects are shown on money itself! However, it is a sign on the wall that both Switzerland’s 10 franc note (le Corbusier) and Finland’s 20 mark note (Alvar Aalto) are their smallest amounts in paper money.

Finally, I think the most important factor in how the architect and designer became the most attractive professional is their imagination. We are creators, I love my job because I start with an empty sheet of paper. If I don’t draw the problem, no engineer can come up with a solution, no financer can calculate, no lawyer can make contracts. Where other professionals solve problems, I give them the problem to solve. Other professionals are working with reality, I work with potential. My job as a designer is to be constantly looking at that, which is not there (yet), as opposed to that, which is there.

Try to put this characteristic in the mating situation. You, designer, are approached by somebody that, based on the assumptions described above, wants you, badly, desperately. You, designer, you do not see what’s there, you see what could be there. Then, instantly, driven by your own creativity, heroism, and utopian world view, this somebody is beautiful, kind, smart, funny. In fact everything you always wanted in a person could be there.

Love architects and designers! Success guaranteed!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 29th, 2006 at 21:38 and is filed under Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.