My name is Cameron Waugh. I am currently a graduate student at California Baptist University pursuing my Masters in Architecture. I was born and raised in Arvada, Colorado and still reside there. I grew up around the design and construction of homes my whole life, as my dad owns a flooring and tile company where he is involved in many aspects of building and designing homes. I grew to love the designs of buildings, both residential and commercial.  As long as I can remember, I loved constructing things, whether that be Legos, forts, toys or games, like Minecraft. As I grew older, I began to wonder why buildings and houses looked the way they did and what their design said about their purpose. I found myself drawn to the design process and how I could relate it to the intent of the building. From that point, I have appreciated architecture and the deeper meaning and understanding of the design. My time studying architecture has only increased my love for it. I have learned to see various perspectives to the art of designing architecture. My designs reflect my desire to allow people to feel connected to a building, and I hope to continue to improve and increase my knowledge and design of architecture.

Architecture is an expression of someone’s view of the world. Architecture is a form of art, and both art and architecture are meant to have meaning and purpose in its design, function, and use. As an architect designs any building, they should consider everything that influences the building's site and community in the present and, in the future. With this mindset the architect should design in such a way as to nurture  those components of a building. Architecture should be designed in such away to mirror and expand from what has already been created. Whether that be the creation of the world and nature by God, or whether that be from the history of architecture and design from past architects. Architecture allows for creativity, inspiration, nostalgia, and passions to be expressed in unique ways. Every architecture design should create a new and different experience to what already exists. Architecture should also have an underlying meaning which should be derived from truth and beauty that already exists. Architecture has significant opportunity for innovation and uniqueness and should be experimented and explored in a way that still connects architecture to the world and the people. Architecture like any form of art should create emotions and experiences. And the architect should design in way to personalize those emotions and experiences for specific clients. Architects should be vessels in which beauty and purpose is delivered to the world. Architects should design in such a way that their design ideas should express something bigger than themselves. Architects are building for people and that should be the overarching goal for every design. “How can this building serve and affect people in a positive way?” God created the world for us, and we should design and create in the same way. Architects should never design in way that promotes themselves or their own personal motives. Yes, design has freedom for input and individual creativity, but it should not be focused on the architect. An architect must be humble and serving within their designs.

These concepts and ideas of what Architecture is and what an architect should do will drive my future education and career by focusing on designing for the overarching goal of designing for others rather than myself. Architecture can be creative and captivating, but it should always be relating back to the meaning of the design, which my future of architecture will entail. I want to design in such a way that I can relate back to God and his creation. He is the greatest designer and everything that is designed by us connects back to Him. I want to be an architect that designs not for my own wants and goals, but always for the bigger picture whether that be creating a house for a family so that they can feel a sense of belonging in an area, a commercial building that creates an environment of learning and growth, or a church that provides community and warmth for all kinds of people. Therefore, I want to design so that people can see and experience beauty, meaning, and connection through my architecture.

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For the 2023 summer I had the opportunity to go to Italy for a month with the California Baptist Architecture program. The group explored Rome, Florence, Verona, Vicenza, and Venice. We were able to see famous architecture that has been the influence for so many projects around the world. If you would like to hear about all that I did in Italy you can click on this website to go to the blog I did for my trip.