Architects must educate clients but, more importantly they're responsible for coordination. Some will argue, “this has, and always will be, the responsibility of the architect; to coordinate and synthesize teams
and information”. In a traditional fashion; yes. Except, master-builders and architects of generations-past
did not share and collaborate with trades and other disciplines like they do today.
It’s becoming a different practice, in the literal sense of the term. It’s a
method-of-production that’s been enabled by recent technologies; and there doesn't seem to be a good school-of-thought to host this new method-of-production; this new practice.
There's a relevant article in this month’s issue of ARCHITECT magazine.
The article discusses future direction for the architectural discipline, suggesting its guidance by the generation of Millennials. There’s much talk
about a complete overhaul of the discipline. How our schools operate, what
they teach, how to incorporate IDP [Intern Development Program] into a schools curriculum, sitting for the ARE [Architectural Registration Exam] immediately after graduation; students are becoming interested in an emphasis on coordination and collaboration rather than developing styles of design; There's been a request for more professional practice courses and students are interested in community-based design-builds as
studio projects in order to get real-world experience. These ideas suggest a shift of focus and prioritization, away from appearance and towards performance.
Architectural design is dead. What's born in its place
is systems design, business-plan design, coordination design, collaboration
design. This shift is consistent with the idea that software design is becoming more
essential than design-style. How systems operate is becoming more important
to people that the way something appears. Maybe, our filter for criticizing good aesthetic design has matured into a more proactive analysis of functionality. In a culture where people are expected to be less judgmental, less critical, & more accepting is it surprising that design-focus may be shifting to a characteristic that can be analyzed more logistically?