Eyes—puffed and deprived of days of sleep, legs barely taking the weight of the exhausted body, messy hair, aching backs, and fingers with multiple cuts. No, this is no zombie but a typical third-year architecture student hours before the design jury. Every semester, we promise ourselves that this one is going to be different – sheet submissions would happen in time, models would be wonderfully completed and most importantly, juries would be attended after a good night’s sleep. And yet! here we are. Struggling with last-minute renders, sticking the roof to an unfinished model, putting on random clothes, and rushing to college, all the while writhing in pain from the drafting board landing on the toe last night.
The only solace is in the fact that almost everyone turns up to college in the same condition on the day of the jury.
Just like in any other story, every design jury also has some distinctive characters without whom the plot would render incomplete. There is always one faculty who is in a hurry to call in the next student because she has somewhere else to be. Then, there is a middle-aged, scary-looking professor who would review and speak things from a completely unheard dimension that would take us days to finally figure out. And, of course, the sweet, supportive one who would have defended us if he hadn’t dozed off already. While these characters are playing their part inside the classroom, there is a whole different vibe right outside along the corridors. Spanned across the length of the corridor with our sheets out, models alongside, and panic building up inside, we would be sitting in anticipation, waiting for our turn. Just then, someone would shout in hysteria, suddenly remembering that they forgot the toilet detail sheet back at home. Someone else would be going around leaving uncalled for feedback on everyone’s design and then, there would be that one person who would be lending all kinds of stationery from their huge multicolored bag to the ones in need. It is almost like an army preparing for a battle. And believe me, when I say, appearing for an architectural design jury is no less than one.
Up next, is the turn of this human who is the funniest in class but when it comes to juries, they are shivering all the way. “What are defensible spaces?”, asked the juror, and will you believe me when I tell you that in the state of nervousness he was, this is what he answered, “Umm… spaces that help you… umm… defend from each other… we form a group in the space and… umm… defend ourselves”. Needless to say, for the rest of the semester he was referred to as the “defensible spaces guy“. Following him, was the sincere one, the kind who works hard day in and day out, but the only problem is, apart from them, no one really understands what they are trying to convey. So, here they are explaining their concept of floating rooms, shape-shifting surfaces, and robotic technology, while the jurors are like, “Your design looks like a potato”. The next to enter the room had a very simple motto, ‘when you can’t convince them, confuse them’! She would ramble on and on from history to geography, from Art Nouveau to Contemporary, from Le Corbusier to Louis Kahn, till the jurors were compelled to simply let her go without any cross-questions.
Finally, the warrior would enter. This person, if she had to, would die defending her design. With every argument and counter-argument, the temperature of the room would begin to rise, the onlooking crowd getting bigger and exchanging expressions in awe. Before we know it, one of the jurors would snap leaving it upon the other professors to calm things down. Though we would love it! Such students were our heroes!
And just like that, the dreaded day of the design jury would come to an end, leaving rooms filled with torn sheets, dismantled models, and piles of reports that no one would ever read. The once overcrowded corridors would now be empty, except for corners hiding stationery that the girl with the huge, multicolored bag would go on to search for weeks.
The only place that would be alive right now would be the college canteen because no jury day ends without the class reassembling around those half-painted, shaky tables, reliving the moments of the eventful day. Sipping over the canteen’s cold coffee and slurping the hot maggie, we would be laughing over defensible spaces, mimicking the professors, regretting over possible come-backs and simply rejoicing over the fact that the design jury was indeed finally over! This moment right here, sitting in the college canteen that is forever under construction, surrounded by a bunch of people who drive us insane but are now family, and knowing that we are a step closer towards realizing our dream of becoming an architect, makes the many sleepless nights, countless crashed AutoCAD drawings, all the sheet redos, and the humiliating design juries, finally worth it!
