School A. You walk into a concrete, bare building with a low ceiling and almost no windows. You wipe your brow. Little air flows through the building, making it hot.

School B. You enter a bright, beautiful room full of air. Light streams through large windows.

Which school would you rather learn in? We would pick school B, wouldn’t you?

Did you know that architecture directly affects people’s health? Poorly designed spaces tend to stress people out. On the other hand, people who work in well-designed office spaces focus better and take less sick leave.

In Mark 12:31, Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. How do you keep His command? How does an architect?

There are many ways to love our neighbors. An architect does it by creating beautiful, functional spaces for people to do life. Whatever they are called to do, they need a space for living.

An architect is part scientist, part artist, and part people-studier. Everyone needs shelter. But how people design that shelter says something about where they live. They protect themselves from their unique weather and build with the materials they have on hand.

All architects face limits while building. They have only a certain amount of space, money, and material to work with. What about building in places of scarcity? In some parts of the world, people don’t have enough money, food, clean water, and building materials. Architects working in these places use materials that last and won’t need lots of repairs. They can also follow Diébédo Francis Kéré’s example and teach locals how to build what they have designed.

These architects leave behind more than beautiful buildings. They leave behind people with priceless new skills.