There’s a reason it’s called “School Of Architecture”. Emphasis on the word ‘School’ as this forms the foundation for several concepts, principles, and technicalities to be learned to understand the art and science behind creating a dwelling.
The first year of architecture is probably the most challenging in terms of defining the intent and clarity behind the constructed syllabi. One is taken aback right from the atmosphere held in a design studio (not a classroom) and the arrangement involving a single-user drafting table. Words such as ‘basically’, ‘staggered’, ‘dynamic’ are repeated often enough to become a part of your daily vocabulary. The student is asked to observe everything, to acknowledge the fine-tuning the detail holds. The stress on the importance of sketching everything one’s eye can access, keeping in mind the prohibition held for scales and erasers.
One senses the change of atmosphere when entering an architecture department. Finding students spraying graffiti on the wall, models, rendered sheets and broken t-scales lying in the storage section, the final years engrossed in their software sitting in the corridor the whole day seems unusual to a fresher. One gets to realize that passing each semester comes with its hand of maturity and calmness. While preparing for the final jury, the discussion on how the last semester’s design was easier with fewer expectations on the content deliverables is a conversation bound to happen between peers. There’s this urge for a fit of laughter when your juniors complain about their respective design workload.
The whole set of exercises conducted in the initial design classes, to get the student to understand how imagination and spontaneity can be a tool to pick up while working together as a group, looks like an archetypal move to ignite the curious brains. However, for a bunch of young adults who are just trying to adjust to the unfamiliar campus premises, get on with a new roommate, memorize the hostel food menu and in the case of localities figure out a reliable means of transport, it does get overwhelming. The fact that one has to carry the drafting equipment for every class, make frequent visits to the stationery stores and explain your weird assignments to your friends from other streams seems overboard.
It’s not just the student adjusting to a new phase of life, the whole family gets their own set of intimation to be followed which seeps in gradually over time. Nothing on the drafting table is clutter anymore. Throwing away any chunk of crumpled random doodling (for an outsider that is, it might have been a conceptual sketch of a dreams resort for the student) could lead to serious verbal combat at home. The only permissible time to probably look into the junk is after the final jury where depending on the comments received, the student either makes up their mind to destroy any evidence of the existence of the project (an indication that the jury didn’t end up well) or would want to preserve even the half-done trail model (an indication that the jury was a success, conserve for future motivation).
Freshers also don’t necessarily pay much attention to linking all the subjects learned, to have some impact on their major design project. This comes with constant reminders from the faculty as well as the serious cross-questioning by the jurors during the viva. As far as relatability is concerned, it’s easier to correlate the Gothic style of architecture to the Hogwarts castle and wonder why one is expected to draw a detail of the bulky batten and ledged door most recently seen protecting Hagrid’s hut.
It takes you certain days, months, or even years sometimes in an architecture school to understand why reaching over to a green marker to fill up the site is not as economical as it ecologically looks. The abundant use of glass everywhere to depict transparency might be hindering the public from accessing the space by setting up notions of the social and economic divide. To give up the subconscious habit of drawing humans and trees in a “non-architectural format”. To give in to the developing section not only to grudgingly fill the mandatory deliverables on the final sheets but to express the circulation of activity across different levels. Many times a lot of mistakes get pointed out during peer discussions to make one realize the subject expectancy to be kept up.
One cannot disregard that with the growing knowledge on the structural aspects, the estimation and cost, the sustainability factor, construction details and to top it merrily with the obligation to produce sound working drawings, the once alive wildness to imagine the unknown, the unseen and produce an outlandish design does take a step back. Everything is seen with a pragmatic eye to make sure it arrives at a secure conclusion. The site analysis which once mandatorily consisted of an oversized SWOT written in a quadratic template to fill in the pointers now actually becomes the soul of the project. The ability to empathize with the surrounding, to be as inclusive as possible concerning the users, considering the carbon footprint involved in transporting a specified designer tile from abroad, instead opting to consume the local produce to the maximum extent is where the evolution of maturity regarding the design takes place. Balancing the curiosity of a fresher with the knowledge and experience of a well-versed graduate could make wonders to sustain and evolve for a better tomorrow.
