Dear Graduates,

In an interview Mies van der Rohe gave to the New York press before a retrospective exhibition of his works in the Museum of Modern Arts, the German-American architect claimed that architecture is the will of every single epoch translated into space. In fact, van der Rohe highlighted the strong link between social and cultural perceptions and their products. Architecture, like any creation, reflects the society that produced it.

Obviously, van der Rohe was right. However, architecture has another role: to shape and influence the individual and society. Planning decisions, processing a program into a specific building, designing an environment one way instead of another – they all impact how we use space, and consequently, how our cognition is shaped.

In these days of global health and economic crisis, the COVID-19 crisis, the architect’s role becomes even more significant. How should the environment respond to the crisis? What is the range of activities a building should allow us? What do we want to achieve vis-à-vis the environment? You are the ones who will be asked to provide the complicated answers to these questions and others. During your studies, we gave you the critical and professional tools to think and devise a profound, complex space that is also flexible. I sincerely hope you will utilize these tools with consideration and responsibility.

Good luck, and remember to return to your home – the school.