Systems Architecting

    My first and most influential teacher on architecting was my father, Rudolph Ramses Avila, AIA. He was born in Costa Rica very poor in a poor country. In 1964 he immigrated to the United States. He did not speak English, had no family, no friends, no college education and only a couple of hundred dollars to his name. Through sheer determination and will he went from an entry level draftsman to a pioneering industrial architect. He designed and oversaw the building of ultra-clean surgical rooms for heart transplants and other high risk surgeries, blast proof buildings, laboratories and total robotic automation plants for automobile and semi-conductor manufacturing. By the end of his career, his signature on plans was insured by Lloyds of London Insurance for over one billion dollars.​​

   The essence of his teaching to me was that the architect must have vision, discipline and grapple with the details. Doing all of these was necessary so that the building maintained coherence and was actually built correctly. He also instilled in me the ethic of demanding and living of up to high standards. He repeatedly emphasized that the architect is given tremendous trust and he is ultimately responsible for the success of the project. He would point out to me buildings, house hold items, electronics, landscaping and other systems of what he thought were good designs, aesthetically pleasing and also potential risks that could derail the system. He always favored simple and efficient designs since he considered them more elegant and robust.

   He discouraged me from going into architecture as he knew it. He thought the demands of the profession and my disposition as a child did not combine well. He encouraged me to pursue computer science or business. I studied physics became a naval officer and then went into advanced technology systems development. Little did he know that the lessons he gave me, my experience in the US Navy and my work at Johns Hopkins University APL were preparing me to be a systems architect for software intensive systems. He did not live for me to tell him about the systems that I have worked on, how I have used his guidance on a daily basis, and that I can appreciate the satisfaction that he knew for a project well done.