Working with various clients in the last 15 years of my architectural practice triggered a big question for me. Not talking about the simplest residential buildings, but focused on the most specialised architectural tasks there is the final question: when dealing with the functional programme for a hospital or an airport, the interconnection of technology, rules and regulations and the utilities that have to be designed the question is - where is the architectural expression lost?
In fulfilling the requirements, the architectural language is often reduced to the basics: the light, the space and its shape and volume and to the hull and final surfaces design. A simple thesis can be developed: the architectural qualities are so much harder to achieve when you are developing a complex building. The determination to meet the functional requirements seems to override the architecture in a way that your chances are reduced to the simplest tools. And in the end, although it is hard, also an architect has to admit: the best success is to design a building that is usable in a smooth, ever-flowing way. And (if you have the time and energy and talent) after that you can start "doing" the architecture.