Architecture. A beautiful word, isn’t it? And the very first question one asks you in an architecture school is, “What is Architecture to you?” and “Why Architecture?”. I have heard various answers, it makes me laugh when someone answers, “Well, it’s not Engineering, so we don’t have to deal with Mathematics and Chemistry.”
But later, we realise that architecture is not defined, and we need to be aware of almost everything under the sky. It’s not just about designing, drafting and drawing. It’s people, communities, environment and life itself. It’s not about giving the right dimensions to a room but making that room a ‘space’. A liveable space for the people.
A school becomes a new world when it comes to this profession. Especially the first year in this course, where we are to forget everything we have learnt so far and hit the refresh button cause it’s no more the usual way of schooling. It’s because we become part of a larger ecology.
We learn about people, their cultures, their living patterns, their communities, their surroundings, the environment, the climate, available materials, and so much more. And to put them all together well, we learn mathematics, physics, chemistry, sociology, journalism, economics, history, climatology and as mentioned earlier, almost everything under the sky.
The Sky Is Not the Limit
Exploring new ideas and possibilities is the core concept of an Architecture schooling system. Adhering to that we were allowed to go wild with our imaginations in the design studio and yet pulled down, back to earth and stay grounded in the construction classes.
Where I study, Design Studio is the most significant part of the week. We do not study design as a subject but as people living and using that space, by putting ourselves in the shoes of the user. We think of it as a virtual reality game—we close our eyes and imagine how it would feel to be in that designed space.
There is never just one way to design and that is the best part of this profession. Two plus two doesn’t have to be four. There is no right or wrong in design—It either works or doesn’t. There are ‘n’ number of new ideas that one can come up with or evolve with. And at the end of the day, it’s not just the design that evolves, it’s also you as well, as a person and as a designer.
You Learn Everywhere
The most important part of architecture schooling is peer learning. The more of your fellow students you know, the better you learn. In my school, we learn mostly from each other after school hours. We help each other draft sheets, make models and study for exams. This criss-cross learning happens between all the semesters and not just the batch we are a part of. The senior batches help up think ahead, help us advance our skills and the junior batches help us get a newer, fresher perspective on things.
There is never one definite medium to learn from in the school. We are exposed to learn from a variety of books from authors who are related or not to architecture. I remember one of our faculty members asking us to read the book ‘sapiens’ in our first week. None of it made sense in the beginning but you know the value of words only after some time.
Apart from books, movies were another approach to learning. We screened movies on campus and discussed it the next day as a group. The movies panned across all languages and contexts. We would watch movies like ‘The Silence of the Lambs’, ‘Lucia’, ‘Her’, ‘No Fathers in Kashmir‘ to films made by Satyajit Ray.
Movie genre and the discussions would range from politics to romance to mystery thriller to art. How do these help? It doesn’t help you design but helps the thinking process.
There is No End
Once you realise what Architecture is and how it all works, there is no looking back, and there is no stop to learning new things. Every day becomes an opportunity to explore, discover, learn and evolve. Carrying a sketchbook and a pencil around becomes a habit. Talking to people and asking them questions to learn, becomes a habit. The question word ‘Why’ becomes a major part of your vocabulary and finding answers becomes a routine.
As students, we start looking at everything with a new perspective. We start developing ideas in our sleep and a paper napkin becomes our drawing board at cafes and restaurants. People may agree or not. We might fail again and again. There might be multiple ‘Re-Do’s.
But, we learn to face it all and still keep thriving till we are satisfied with what we have. Eventually, we learn to apply everything we learn in an architecture school to our lives. That’s the beauty of this profession. It all eventually balances out.
