Before the professionalization of architecture in the nineteenth century, it was standard for an aspiring mason or carpenter to begin his apprenticeship at fourteen and to become a master builder by his early twenties.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
My dad designed houses and was an architect for many years.
I wanted to be an architect. I used to draw houses and buildings and construct buildings on my own.
My father, Robert Ernst, was teaching as an architect at the technical high school of our city.
I didn't know what architecture was except that I lived in a house. I don't even think that I knew the word for a long time. My dad funneled me into engineering because it was his background.
I'm a trained architect. Both my parents were architects.
I did my first apprenticeship when I was 15, then joined the union when I was 17. I worked every summer in high school and college.
My first architectural project I did, I must have been fifteen, was for neighbors across the street, a couple of school teachers, and I designed a house for them. I didn't know anything about Le Corbusier or anything like that, but it ended up being a very cubistic kind of house. I always wanted to be an architect.
I come from a long line of architects. I'm the only one who did not become an architect, but I've been around the drawing aspect and construction my whole life.
The day I went to see my father to say I wanted to become an architect, he was a bit surprised, because for him being a builder is much more than being just an architect. He was very angry, and I never thought I could do something else.
If, early on, you know how things are put together, then you can build. The architect is in charge of making - he is not an artist.