ARCHITECTURE is a means of permanently capturing an event or experience. However, this

captured event or experience is not independent of its surroundings. Cultural and economic forces interact with one another daily in the context of the city, constantly altering the identity of a city. In each major city, the ways in which these forces blend together is unique to that location, with some forces enacting more influence upon the development of the city than others. The way in which cultural forces interact within a city help to create particular architectural experiences and events that are unique to a specific city. Realizing the power that these cultural forces exert upon the generation of architecture within a city helps one to understand a city’s architectural identity. Each city develops it’s own characteristics and attitude that contribute to how architecture is conceived and developed within the confines of a city. Therefore, the activities and lifestyles that happen within the density of a city become the generative forces that shape specific events and architectural experiences that become a manifestation of that city’s personality.

As a designer it is important to be able to perceive these forces and how unique interactions occur within a city to create its identity. This perception helps the designer to develop and generate architecture that is relevant and site specific. By creating relevant and site-specific architecture, the designer is able to make a contribution to the city’s environment, helping to highlight certain forces and interactions that are specific in that urban landscape. In order for a designer to be able to create something that is rooted in its urban environment, the designer has to learn to focus their creative process to understanding how the generative forces of a city interact with one another. The best way for a designer to develop these skills is to constantly put themselves in new and foreign environments. In these periods of adjustment and exploration, many of the generative forces that shape an environment become exposed. Therefore, the more types of forces and interactions that the design experiences, the more diverse their knowledge and creative processes become. For a designer, the creation of architecture is a process that the designer should not allow to go stagnant. The creation of architecture should be viewed as a life process that is constantly evolving. A designer should be continuously seeking new experiences that will uncover new ideas and processes, allowing them to generate architecture that will contribute to a city’s personality, helping the city’s identity to expand and evolve. In a world where perceived boundaries are being broken down and the sharing of information has become a global phenoneumna, designers from all over the world are constantly seeking out new solutions to the complex problems that surround them. Now more than ever, designers are coming in contact with foreign ideas and processes that are allowing them to design new and exciting solutions to the various problems that scatter the man built environment.