Doing an architecture degree can be hugely rewarding. But it is also among the most challenging – archi-life with long hours, a huge workload, and focus on detail – so it’s vital to understand what you’re letting yourself in for.
Your Very Own Tour Guide | Archi-Life
If you’re planning a vacation, there’s no need to book a tourist guide because odds are, you already know every modern and historic landmark, how it was built, when it was built, why it was built, who it was built by, and its significance within the wider spectrum of human history. Though be warned: if someone did book a tour guide, you might end up constantly correcting them, which might become a little embarrassing.
They’ll Notice Every Detail
From a change in color to how the tiles on your bathroom floor don’t align correctly, architects have an eye for detail. Got a new pair of shoes? They’ll notice. Moved the couch 10 centimeters to the right? They’ll notice (probably because they had it aligned with the tiles). Changed a light bulb? They will notice—you went from Daylight Fluorescent to bright White Fluorescent without being aware of it.
The Best Baristas
Romeo and Juliet, Ray and Charles Eames, Zaha Hadid, and Neo-Futurism; all of these power duos pale in comparison to architects and coffee. (Yes, we know, 0.05% of architects don’t drink coffee, but we’re talking about the 99.95% who drink nothing but coffee). Architects have mastered the art of pouring the perfect cup, developing their customized coffee blends and coffee products, and have developed an uncanny ability to find the best-roasted beans around.
Patience Level 1000
Have you ever seen an impatient architect? Odds are, no. After spending years and years of waiting for 3D renders to complete, maintaining composure standing beside a temperamental plotter, or even panicking after a last-minute file crash, it is no surprise that most architecture students have mastered the art of patience.
Infinite Supply of Cool Pens | Archi-Life
You’ll have all the stationery you could ever imagine. Not just the basics; architects will always have the coolest pens, pencils, markers, crayons, paint, and charcoal. You name it, they’ll have it.
Natural Photographers
There’s no need to worry about cropping and editing a picture. Who knows better than an architect about perspectives, lighting, and getting good scenery? (Other than an actual photographer, of course). And never fear, architecture students are familiar with plenty of editing programs, so if they weren’t the one taking the picture, they can do an awesome job at fixing it.
The Nightlife
Architecture students are consistent all-nighters. They transform themselves into nocturnal creatures throughout their education, bingeing on coffee, sugary sweets, and energy drinks.
To Become a Brilliant Problem Solver.
Architecture school teaches you to take a heap of data and information and interpret it to inform how to design a building or solve a problem. The answers never come right away; they come through investigation of the problem and many versions of trial and error until arriving at a perfect solution. This is called the design process.
The same design process and dialectic used to design a building can be used to solve many problems that have nothing to do with architecture. Once you learn and discover what your design process is, it will change your approach towards problems in all areas of life.
To Travel the World
Everyone who studies architecture travels to explore how people live in other parts of the world.
I’ll even contend that people don’t even know what architecture is until they have gotten out of their bubble and visited buildings on the other side of the world to see how other people live and interact with their environments. Traveling is a prerequisite for all architecture students.
Because you love to make things | Archi-Life
In architecture college, you are constantly designing and producing things.
Sketches, Drawings, models, renderings, 3d computer drawings, paintings, collages, photographs, portfolios, resumes, good ideas, the list goes on and on. Architecture college allows you to use that passion for creating. Students often find themselves so focused in the process of designing, they lose track of time and the rest of the world, staying up all night with intensity and determination.
To make great friends and meet some amazing people
The people you go to architecture college with quickly become your family because you’re all in this together. You’ll spend more time with them than anyone else in your life. Also, you get an opportunity to meet new people at various workshops and conferences.
To think outside the box
Architecture college is all about looking at problems from many different angles. It is not about getting from point A to point B. It is all about the journey that students go on to arrive at the destination.
You are rewarded for your creative ideas, rather than being punished for not following instructions.
Studying Architecture will change your life | Archi-Life
It will change how you see the world and ultimately change your life. You will graduate as a drastically different person than when you started. Except for your architecture friends, no one will understand what you went through for five years at architecture college.
Architecture school isn’t easy and it’s not supposed to be. The purpose of architecture college is to create strong, dynamic, smart, well-rounded graduates who are ready to move into the next phase of becoming an architect.
What’s life without architects, anyway?
Architecture students have a lot in common. We share a long-term committed relationship with the college. We share an instinctive desire to collect random cardboard boxes for model-making. We share a studio which, over time, becomes our ‘home away from home’. As we get to know our fellow classmates, however, we learn that the architecture studio hosts a micro-society often with different, but lovable, characters.
