Tesla (TSLA) has just made a huge surge on the stock market (Aug. 2020) by splitting each share 5-ways. Such move implies that the value of Elon Musk’s company ballooned and had to resort to a more logical next step to assure longevity of its business life.
Here’s one of my recent contemplation on the life cycle of a business and its fundamentals: A business does have a life cycle- a peak and inevitable demise. The idea applies everywhere- astrophysics, quantum physics, biology and everything else- which brings me to the case of the built environment and architecture. No matter the scale of any entity-it is subject to growth and demise.
Everything starts with a birth, ascension, spinoff, peak, decline and death. This inquisition is actually set on answering the WHY.
I have further simplified and deduced the answer to a series of dictum:
that everything is driven by progress; progression requires an entity to constantly stack and add more information and asset until it goes beyond its ability to manage- more than we reduce.
the profession of architecture, as with every sector and discipline, started out as much simpler endeavor to be in- we were master carpenters back then (bouwmeester). On tool usage, an architectural professional 15 years ago can safely claim that he/ she’s set for life just merely possessing one software skillset (Autocad); currently there are around 5 million apps that are available on on various mobile stores.
niches or specialization are byproducts of oversaturation of skillsets and and tasks that are to be managed at a given time. Architects are widely specialized and sub-specialized by typology, tectonics, geography, and special situations.
that our need to compete, progress and expand is a universal behavior.
a halt in human progression results to undesirable consequences
everything evolves to address better ways to perpetuate the “species”
The profession of architecture have responded to externalities that prompts many to revisit the fundamentals of what we do as architects. Externalities which “eats” up our purpose in the overall such as other emerging professions, affect our dynamics and overall purpose. We constantly catch up to an exponentially fast progression of technology and way of life. It all depends on how everyone can catch up.
INNOVATION is a natural necessity.