The film, The Architect, shows a local concerned southern resident who happens to live

in a dangerous housing complex designed by an architect named Leo Waters. She was in a
protest on tearing down the buildings and trying to gather petition signatures so that demolition
may take place. She has observed the poorly built cheap housing buildings have a lot of
problems including the plumbing and sanitary lines which concerns her more of the health safety
of their children. She also observed the insufficiency of bathrooms and emergency exits. It was
implied in the movie that she has been attempting this to happen for quite a while and her efforts,
along with the support of other residents in the complex, were not enough to convince the
authorities to grant her wish to tear the buildings down. She came to the idea of gaining the
signature of the Architect himself. She believes that with the architects sign, her fight for
demolition will be much stronger and the chances of achieving this will become higher. She
thinks that authorities will never argue with the buildings own architect. However, her first
meeting with the architect did not turn out well because Archt. Leo Waters refused to sign her
petition and was quite offended with her asking him to destroy his own design.
In later parts of the movie, it was revealed that there are more conflicts than just the
architectural problems of a certain public housing complex. The architect faces several
challenges in his own home. There were a lot of social issues that were addressed through his
children, Martin and Christina, as well as his own wife who appears to be unhappy with their
marriage. His son, Martin may have some issues regarding his gender and his daughter Christina
has also some issues with her maturity and identity. I also noticed that his wife may or may not
have some psychological issues. The activist, Tonya, also has her own issues at home and her
past that also contributed to her protests to demolish the buildings. However, it was clear to me
that the gangs and drug business taking place in the housing complex may have something to do
with her sons suicide in earlier years.
In all honesty, I really did not understand the movie synopsis at all. I had to watch it for
over three times, plus recalling parts and scenes where I kept searching for clarifications
regarding the plot but still failed to comprehend. It was really a challenge for me to find the
actual storyline of the movie and the issues/problems that the characters needed to resolve. It was
really a confusing movie where I really cant tell what the focus is. There were a lot of individual
character stories that doesnt seem to have a sense or connection with the movie. It was like an
indie movie mainstream where there were a lot of questions from its audience that are not meant
to be answered especially in the end where Leo and his son Martin just saw each other eye to
eye. It certainly left me clueless on what that means or implies.
With further analysis, I realized that the architectural sense of the movie is revolving
around the problems in cheap, public housing during that time. Tonya said in the movie, Its not
about public housing dont work, Im not saying that. Its the architecture thats working against
us. Despite Archt. Leo Waters defending his design to be a good design, I believe there is really
a fault in his side. He came up with a new design based in his original design in an attempt to
answer the grievances of the residents regarding the architecture of the complex but failed to
visit the buildings himself. He stated that he didnt want to cloud his perspective. As an architect,
it is his duty to supervise his project to see if it is being executed correctly according to his
original design especially, when redesigning it. I would also say, based on his egotistic approach
to Tonya, he might also have made poor decisions regarding his original design. He referred his
designed to be inspired by Le Corbusiers approach to mass housing.

Still, there are some points in architecture that may have had an impact on me as an
aspiring architect. When Leo told Tonya that mass housing doesnt cater to the individual needs
of people, I personally think it was a wrong philosophy as an architect. Architects must put into
deep consideration the needs of all kinds of users. He strongly defends that his work is
architecturally good. However, he failed to see the inner problems of the complex. His pride
made him close his mind to the possibilities that there are existing systemic problems that are
beyond repair in that complex. Even his wife agreed to knock the buildings down because she
thinks things might have changed from the original design. I also think there is negligence in
terms of the maintenance of the building. This might be a fault in the clients side. In this case,
the client is the State which funded the projects. It may not have a building manager or any
maintenance personnel that looks after the utility systems, particularly the water lines and
sewage lines that causes sickness to its residents due to contaminated waters.
Tonya told Archt. Leo Waters, You are not hired to build houses; you were hired to
house people. I think this is one of the best points Ive heard throughout the movie. Architecture
is not meant to just create buildings. Architects must be very sensitive to the needs of the users
especially when it comes to public housing. Though it is cheap and state-funded, public housing
must be designed very well in order to give comfort and convenience to whatever type of people
or families are going to use it.
Overall, despite the movie being so confusing, there are a lot of things to learn from it in
matters of architecture. Architecture is not just creating buildings; it is serving the people who
are going to use those buildings that are being created. A good design doesnt stop with the
buildings being just aesthetically beautiful. It must be fundamentally sound inwardly and
systemically. Lastly, the maintenance of a building must also be prioritized by all means. As time
passes, there are parts and systems in the buildings that are slowly deteriorating or collapsing.