Full of learning, highly experimentative, often gratifying, and a lot hectic architecture school is one of the most gruelling yet enjoyable times for any student. From the moment they walk into college, their whole life starts changing gradually. Coffee becomes their best friend and music their all-time companion. They constantly urge to collect cardboard for model-making, and the studio becomes their ‘home away from home’. From pulling all-nighters to managing daily submissions, they try to navigate their everyday life by converting the pain from the stresses of their work to manageable humour.
There are several complexities in the lives of architecture and design students, but a little humour can provide that tiny bit of happiness needed to survive an otherwise hectic day. So grab your usual cup of latte or americano and forget about your submission for a minute as we uncover the humorous side of architecture to quirk up your day.
When Your Final Plan is Never Final
We have all been through the numerous times that we have had to make changes to our plans, elevations, and designs in architecture school. You might go to college thinking that you will surely finalise your plans today, but your teacher has something different in mind. There is always room to improve our project work, but the number of times architectural students have to make changes to their drawings is never-ending. You will start a drawing and then realise more changes needed in your earlier drawings. What you believe will take just thirty minutes of your time turns into two hours of overnight work with you needing more sleep. Even at the time of submission, it will feel that there was room for even better work, but that’s what we have to learn, to know when to stop.
Choosing Between Sleep, Food, and Work:
Architecture school makes you choose between completing your work, getting enough sleep, or eating food on time because there is always too little time to do all three. From the first day of college, assignments start piling up on our desks, so it is difficult to handle it all. From drinking 4 cups of coffee a day to getting barely an hour of sleep before the early morning class, architectural students burn the midnight oil to hand in that one submission on time while the other three are due the day after. Making and rendering your sketches and checking that all prints have the correct line weights and that they come out correct are a few things every student needs to double-check days before the jury.
Carrying Your Entire Studio to School:
While other students carry only a bag with three books inside, architecture and design students have to carry their whole studio to and back from college every day. With the T-scale as their sword, drawing boards as the battlefield, and the endless number of printed sheets they have to carry, they need help to maintain their balance. Arming their huge models with protection and carrying them to architecture school in public transportation, hoping that it stays intact until their review is a wish come true for them. With a bag full of stationary on their shoulders and boards in A1 and A0 sizes in their hands, you can easily find them dangling around in the college, trying to find their balance between walking and managing all their things.
Trying to Explain Your Concept to the Jury, In Under 10 Minutes
The most crucial day in the life of any architectural student is jury day, when they get all the criticism in the world from the jurors on the projects to which they devoted four to five months of their time. Presenting your project in front of the jurors in the best manner possible is as important as creating a good and practical project. However, it becomes almost impossible to explain your concept thoroughly when you are barely given ten minutes to do so. Your tutors will tell you that discussing every significant element of your project is critical, but the same teacher will stand over your head and push you to hurry up during your presentation. While baffling to find the right words in the middle of all chaos, architecture and design juries teach you how to sum up an hour’s worth of conversation in just five minutes.
Architecture school might feel too difficult to navigate at certain points; however, good friends, supporting professors and self-appreciation make it worth the hard work and dedication that every student puts into their projects. An architectural student‘s life ranges from painfully humorous to highly stressful within minutes. Apart from managing their daily life activities, they must also keep up with college deadlines and workshops. People must understand the significance of this subject and the effort required to complete the education so that next time your relatives think twice before asking you to design their house for free.
