Experience Down Detour Road: An Architect In Search Of Practice Presented By Eric J. Cesal Available In Readable Copy

the author's attempts to clarify that this is NOT a professional manifesto, but something more like a memoir of his professional struggles.
I still wanted it to be a manifesto, He's an articulate writer and the book is filled with good insights about the gap between an idealistic architectural student and the reality of finding architecture

itself undervalued as a profession.
As far as a memoir goes, it's not insightful enough to be satisfying, As far as a manifesto goes, it's not comprehensive enough, So it didn't quite deliver on either level, By the middle of the book, I found myself readingpages of each chapter and flipping through the rest, Not a good sign.

Nice try, though, Really nice try. So close. I read this because Detour Road, as an architect, was a familiar place for me! Required school read The book starts rough there are odd turns of phrase, derivative constructions throughout one early chapter all but started by quoting from a dictionary definition of a word, and enough metaphorical explanations using abstract generalizations that sound just plausible enough to be true like the distinction between kings and sorcerers, or the description of everyones favorite bartender.
Theres just enough there to make me question whether the author had enough editing and factchecking at his disposal during the writing of the book, but some of the stuff he says are thoughts similar to my own:

At any rate, there were no jobs for “architect” as I understood that term.
It occurred to me that over the last generation, while a bunch of smart people anguished over the distinction between “architect” and “designer” and “intern architect” or “interior architect,” someone stole our damn name.


Once were past the first third of the book, Cesal really finds his rhythm talking about the different sorts of architecture that could but doesnt exist.
The writing starts to pick up dramatically, becoming a much more concisely argued premise, Cesals voice is an important one in postpostmodern architecture, but having been through it some part of my career, I remain jaded that any change will come from within the practice itself.
If architecture changes, it wont happen internally and it will only be slightly affected by outside pressures, like the economy it would take an entire army of very smart, former architects, who have left the industry and reentered it for the singular goal of disrupting the old guard into extinction.
A book that is truly thought provoking for anyone within in the architecture profession, but particularly so for someone recently graduated, Many of what he writes are what I wish I learned when I first entered architecture school, The books takes a realistic look into what architecture truly is to our society, You can see my thoughts on this book here:
sitelink wordpress. com/ Después de terminar la carrera de arquitectura y una maestría en negocios Eric J, Cesal se enfrenta ante un pequeño problema, La peor recesión económica azotaba a los Estados Unidos provocando que toda la industria de la construcción se viniera abajo.
Ante este panorama el Eric J, Cesal decide escribir para mantenerse ocupado y aliviar la preocupación que cualquier persona tendría ante este difícil panorama, En este texto que se percibe como un claro ejercicio de catarsis y por momentos anecdótico, Cesal plasma algunas de sus ideas sobre la el papel del arquitecto y en general de la arquitectura.
A lo largo del libro muestra con una visión muy aguada e inteligente algunas de las inquietudes que surgieron a lo largo de años de preparación académica y frustración profesional.
El autor es muy contundente y directo al grado de afirmar que el hecho de concluir los estudios de arquitectura, no garantizan que una persona se convierta en arquitecto o arquitecta.


Economía, cultura, tecnología, negocios, riesgos y fama son analizadas desde una perspectiva con una fuerte influencia del rol social y protagónico que puede tener el arquitecto.
De esta forma audaz, se relacionan temas que, a primera vista no pudieran tener relación alguna, Es así que se plantea la idea de que la pobreza hace a una persona mas sustentable ya que como Cesal lo narra: “me dí cuenta que tenia más tiempo que dinero, por eso caminaba o usaba transporte público en lugar de comprar un auto”.
Ideas como las anteriores son plasmadas de forma ligera, divertida y por momentos, sarcástica,

Sin duda este texto debe ser considerado como el primer “manifiesto” o tratado ligero de la arquitectura del nuevo siglo.
Sonará muy pretensioso, pero al no haber otras opciones Down Detour Road, se enfila a convertirse en un texto paradigmático, Sin duda un libro que cualquier estudiante y profesional de la arquitectura debe revisar con el objetivo de darse una pausa para reflexionar sobre el presente y el futuro de la profesión.
Futuro que hoy en día se nos presenta como una nueva realidad, de la cual Cesal afirma que: “como arquitectos, debemos repensar y replantear nuestros métodos para responder a esta nueva realidad y no solo quedarnos a esperar que el trabajo se levante otra vez”.
Que sentimientos deja esta lectura en realidad son muchos, pero el más significado es que el libro se convierte en un recordatorio del papel que debe asumir cada arquitecto en su sociedad y su tiempo.


sitelinkwww. librosdearquitectura. com. mx A young architect's search for new architectural values in a time of economic crisis, I paused at the stoop and thought this could be the basis of a good book, The story of a young man who went deep into the bowels of the academy in order to understand architecture and found it had been on his doorstep all along.
This had an air of hokeyness about it, but it had been a tough couple of days and I was feeling sentimental about the warm confines of the studio which had unceremoniously discharged me upon the world.
from Down Detour Road

What does it say about the value of architecture that as the world faces economic and ecological crises, unprecedented numbers of architects are out of work This is the question that confronted architect Eric Cesal as he finished graduate school at the onset of the worst financial meltdown in a generation.
Down Detour Road is his journey: one that begins offcourse, and ends in a hopeful new vision of architecture, Like many architects of his generation, Cesal confronts a cold reality, Architects may assure each other of their own importance, but society has come to view architecture as a luxury it can do without.
For Cesal, this recognition becomes an occasion to rethink architecture and its value from the very core, He argues that the times demand a new architecture, an empowered architecture that is useful and relevant, New architectural values emerge as our cultural values shift: from high risks to safe bets, from strong portfolios to strong communities, and from clean lines to clean energy.
This is not a book about how to run a firm or a profession it doesn't predict the future of architectural form or aesthetics.
It is a personal storyand in many ways a generational one: a story that follows its author on a winding detour across the country, around the profession, and into a new architectural reality.
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