Witty and nostalgic insights into the world of architecture school
As Louis Kahn rightly said, ‘the Sun does not realize how wonderful it is until after a room is made’ architecture acts as a soul of any civilization and is catered primarily to the needs of society. From providing the utmost basic necessity of a shelter to all kinds of infrastructure, and luxury of living, architecture has given way to a new age of collaboration where history meets the future, traditional meets technology, business meets creativity- to shape a new idea of judiciously built human habitats. Yet architects often get asked what is architecture and what they do? Usually, the pearls and perils of the field seem bizarre to people outside the fraternity. People perceive it as solely being an object or vessel within which humans live. Architecture as a profession and as an academic both is beyond time and space, it’s spiritual. The variety of premises makes the archi-culture idiosyncratic and unique in its way.
People are always curious to know how a design school functions, the schedule, strange working hours, the environment, what studio space is like, and the way of working too. There is no place where you get this kind of culture. Once you enter the school, it becomes your second home, the community of people who are struggling with the same questions. There is a constant war going on with design and understanding of the art, the survival of every minute is a conquer in itself.
Being in architecture is like you are “taken for life”. But oh! It’s a life-changing journey.
As architects, you only remember the hardships you went throughout your school and to date but what makes those hardships worthy are the light-hearted funny moments in-between.
Remember that first day of school when you enter into an architecture civilization just with a little knowledge about the field but what makes the orientation interesting is that intro taken by seniors. You feel scared of being ragged and humiliated but it is those little moments of knowing each other that make a lifelong connection and friendship.
So, let’s have a peek into engagement with architecture:
Excitement, curiosity, and passion,
Thou ingress in the palpable world of architecture,
Lost in epigram and reverie of design.
First-year, all about basic design and developing new skills. Learning how to maintain your desk, ban on using scales, eraser and sharpener, perspective sketching and anthropometry discovering, that failed attempt on clean and crisp drafting, playing with mud and Plaster of Paris (P.O.P) while creating mass and void from it, that failed attempt on the encounter with plans and sections, yet the excitement of a curious child, somehow in awe and sometime in whoa!
Unknown to the trajectory, while accounting design sensibilities, there is an inexpressible pleasure of drawing on a clean white sheet.
Lines, pattern, planes
Scale, proportion, depth.
While construction, structures, and architectural graphics & techniques are levanting around, they first encounter new terminologies, a change in perspective, a little shift in observation.
Pencil, pen, and t-scale,
becoming your requisitions.
And those first sketching trips, using a pencil as a sight measuring tool and other people laughing at you for being ‘crazy’ while you attempt in understanding the depths, details, and derivation.
A new love found in the form of stationery and profound skills entering the dictionary.
Sleeping, a fragment of imagination
Insomnia turning into infatuation
A puller of an all-nighter, Buckminster Fuller comes as an insight.
Tea and coffee often leads you to victory
With a puff of sutta that creates a history
Remember how all those sleepy nights while stippling that whole palace’s plan you regret choosing architecture and end up sleeping anywhere with anger. With a fear of cutting your thumb while making a model, which only has trees on-site without blocks of buildings, and those incomplete plans and sections, filled with foliage to make it aesthetically appealing. You try to choose quality over quantity as you have always been told, but oh your colleague with a heap of sheets makes it to the top.
Thoughts to ideas, ideas derive concepts, concept to designing, designing to producing, a process more augmented, enriching design empathy.
Redo- the uninvited guest,
Heeding discussions and communication makes you bless
Faculties occupying your minds and fear of deadlines with music as a companion, seniors, and juniors as a rescue team, Oh again it is the same blasphemy!
And the time has come
To test your trump
Thoughts bounded inline
Crashing of AutoCAD, gushing your heart with a scare, the problem-solver inside prompts
While waiting in a stationery shop, to get that print in a hurry, Pendrive- the instrument on getting you late again.
The master of all,
a loner in the society and a bonker in the community
Consoling again by saying ‘This too shall pass’
It’s crazy how an architect’s life functions and its equally endearing. Because you are not just an architect but an artist, writer, researcher, photographer, and problem-solver.
Pride turns to the ego
An overconfident amigo
Ready to turn the world into lego
A journey lived in pieces
With lots of stress, passion, and aggression
Let’s appreciate life and fun instances
Period.
It is funny how almost all architects, at some point, try to imitate the style of their favorite architect, mostly with a black turtleneck, slim fit pants, pointed-toe boots, and minimalist jewellery with a pair of Corbusier and Philip Johnson’s iconic round glasses. Sometimes a chic statement haircut or adopting the unofficial uniform of designers with the all-black outfit.
Despair and delight both make architecture interesting and exhilarating. An experience hugely satisfying and gratifying because ultimately you, yes you make a difference!
