When people talk about architecture school and the 5 years that they spent studying the immense information, they describe the endless assignments bestowed on them, the cycles of being awake for days, without sound sleep for an acceptable amount of time and lack of social life. With all these negatives, they talk about how they would not change it for anything in the world because it makes them who they are right now and changed their perception of varied preconceived ideas they had.
My experience through these 5 grueling years was the same. It involved spritely energy at the beginning of every semester to stay on top of all assignments, work and a saturated, informed, and tired mind at the end of every semester. From the first day to the last, the amount of physical, mental, and emotional energy I exhausted was immeasurable. The experience was amazing and left me a completely changed and improved person. Not only did this change occur in terms of studying, learning, and understanding the intricacies of architecture, but also in the amount of resilience, patience, and ability to get through any hurdle.
The first year was allowed me to build my foundation in all various fields and aspects of the basics of architecture. From learning about the history of architecture, sketching, terms used in making the plans, learning about materials, workshops, excursions to various places to observe the notable creations of architects to portraying all of these elements in our assignments was something I had never experienced before. It felt like awakening into a new world where I loved learning about everything spoken about and also a sense of dread to complete the work and submissions on time.
Due to my overachieving nature, I felt this extra pressure and need to be organized to ensure everything was in place and going according to a system. Submitting assignments on time gave my overly anxious brain five minutes of peace before going into overdrive again about the next task. Maintaining lists, making plans and schedules, and sticking to them irked me more than the rest of my friend group.
After the second year, the work started getting more personal and attuned to our finer choices. We started making our decisions regarding the projects faster but the workload was more. Assignments never ended and the learning was vast.
Different topics such as construction, electrical layouts, floorplans, plumbing, decisions regarding planes and incorporating principles of design and architecture were words we used like regular language. When someone still says “Do we have a plan?” my mind goes to a floorplan instead of a regular plan to go out and enjoy.
Through the years of architecture, every project made us better and gave us more confidence to understand the aspects of designing anything. When looking back from year 5 to year 1, I could see the growth and my change inability to research, ideate, amend, process and visualize in a much more cohesive manner. The endless workload and assignments which I grumbled about in the beginning and during my entire college life were a key element to my entire growth as a student of the field and a person. It changed the way I think and the way I visualize everything around me.
I started noticing this difference when I used to go out for some chores and instead of noticing the people on the road, as people usually do, I would notice buildings, the material used, the space planning, the way the rooms were built, how well constructed it was and such other observations. It happened subconsciously and that was what I appreciate the most. I started reading the visual language used around me and I applied whatever I learned in my mind to see if I could tell the difference between something correct and something not up to the mark.
All these experiences in architecture school made me love the field even more than I already did before I learned about it in vivid detail. The technical, communication and time management skills I honed and adapted in the five years of architecture school are the takeaways I will always treasure. They help me to stay on top of my work and avoid falling off the smooth-sailing ship. The friends I have made there will be people I will have in my life forever because they stuck by me through my breakdowns, the successes, and the infinity loop of my overthinking and over-organizing.
I remember when I was a child, I always thought about how difficult could it be to draw a building and make it. I wondered why my aunt, who was my inspiration to take up this field, would stay up nights making models and sketching different types of walls, lines, floor plans over and over. I understood the details that went into it later and I better for it now that I am aware. It has been a thoroughly nourishing experience and my presumption that “it is so easy” has changed.
I now know that if it is too easy, I am not making an effort to explore the endless possibilities that can differentiate me from anyone else and for me, that is the toughest assignment ever.
