At some point through your architectural studies you start to view the world/our built environment with a different set of eyes. You become more aware of your surroundings and start to realize the value of the space around you. As both of us have been through the experience of studio, we knew that it would offer the right balance of humor and passion needed to make this story interesting to the vast majority of the population who is never exposed to this awareness. You usually take the things most important and always around you for granted. Every where humans step foot is the built environment.

The project was originally titled Architorture. It is a fairly ubiquitous term in the studio and profession, and we thought it would playfully pull non-architect viewers in with an intriguing sort of tongue in cheek term. It was great at first, because it really helped us establish a strong following among our core audience of designers. However, many people within the education thought it misrepresented the mission of the project and negatively portrayed the studio environment. Although we were fond of the title, we ultimately thought it best to change the title to something without such a negative connotation which could ultimately repel non-design viewers. We thought by incorporating the term culture into the title it would both describe the studio culture that that we are exploring in the film and the cultural impact of design on our daily lives.

We have gotten to see and hear a lot of things that we would never have heard or seen working in an office. I think the biggest eye opening experience for us was to see both sides of the education system from the inside but riding the line of association with both the professors and students. I mean we are only a few years removed from the students we were following and a few years the other direction from the professors. It is difficult as a student to understand the complexities behind the scenes of the educational system, and as a professor to realize where the students are pulling their personal inspiration.

Another topic that blindsided us was the hyper-sensitive exploration of technology and its influence on education and inevitably our built environment. There were very intense conversations discussing the pros and cons, and right and wrongs to the use of digital technology from conception, to fabrication. When you actually start to hear the deliberations it is quite a fascinating argument on where it is disassociating the architect from the process of making or re-empowering them with a more holistic approach as we did in the past.

The other eye-opening thing for us was the lack of power and voice currently behind the architectural profession. We obviously felt it in the profession first hand, but to hear some of the world's leading architects was disheartening. It was a bittersweet realization, because the fact that we have gotten to this point through such sacrifices and work depressed us, yet it reinforces our decision to make the film and especially to get it out beyond our community of designers.

We have continuously been working on it since July of 2006, although the concept for the film came in spring of 2004. We put ourselves through film classes while simultaneously developing the proposal and working 50+ hour architecture jobs. Once the proposal was done, we started fishing the film around to institutions nationwide and started building a team of people in San Francisco to help out with the project. In December of 2008 we left California in a white minivan mostly full of equipment and a few cloths heading to our new home in New York. We spent the next 5 months living in Pratt’s School of Architecture following the thesis class, capturing over 160 hours of footage.

We still don't feel like we have really left the architectural profession. In a way we feel like we are playing a larger role than we ever would have behind the drafting table or CAD screen. As far as returning to the "traditional" practice of architecture, I think the two of us are more interested in exploring our new found tool of communicating the built environment to the masses through film and volunteering our design services to socially engaging design organizations.