Editorial: Dear reader

Remote conference calls and Zoom lectures are filling our diaries, but we are interested in the letter for its intimacy and its longevity. A letter requires careful thought and consideration, in both its content and composition. It forces us to slow down and pause, but also helps us bridge and contract distances in times of isolation. We invited writers, architects, teachers, designers and photographers to give advice to a ‘young architect’. While Rainer Maria Rilke first argued that nobody could advise or help the young Kappus, he eventually wrote 10 letters that seek to help the aspiring poet navigate his own feelings and translate his experience and understanding of the world into poetry. 

In this collection of letters, contributors discuss the ways in which architecture is constructed and produced. They write about the physical experience of buildings and share particularly significant moments of their own journey. They tackle issues of diversity and privilege, and tell you about the questions and projects that keep them up at night. They consider what we need to learn from the unprecedented times we are living in – from pandemic to protests – and how they will force us to rethink our profession as well as our homes, our cities and our relationship to the planet.

The education of architects continues outside and beyond graduation, and the AR seeks to encourage and accompany this lifelong learning. These letters might be addressed to young architects, but what they express is relevant for all of us. ‘Just let them sink in quietly and without any particular sense of gratitude’, wrote Rilke to Kappus, ‘and let’s wait and see what will come of it.’