When an architect lacks custodianship of his/her own work the outcome is mostly unauthored - something other than architecture. The struggle is to achieve a core of architecture authored with minimal impediment or compromise occasioned by external factors. This is not to devalue the enormous potential benefit of a healthy collaboration between client and architect. Rather it is to protect the work from the possible frailties of that relationship, which may lead to undesirable and inappropriate instructions. The architect's aesthetic advice should be regarded as ethical advice and - so long as it is compatible with the budget and brief - should be accepted and upheld by the client. But too often architects are unaware of their ability to refute an instruction and indeed that they shoulder a duty to voice and explain a refutation to their client. This obligation is of paramount importance where the advice relates to an exterior offering of a public nature; in this case the architect bears a responsibility to the wider public.
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