Architecture is a fraternity, where one learns not only how to design but also opens up a wide span towards the other aspects of life. As an architect, one needs to be up-to-date with the technologies, artworks, sculptures, web series which is going to be released, etc. This helps in learning from different sources and helps in opening up. Such learning is important in creating a different kind of experience for the client, as they come with different tastes and preferences. For instance, if a client is interested in building an artistic house, as an architect we need to understand the taste of the client in art and create a design that caters to his taste.
A field where observing your surroundings helps you identify context, what one wants to adopt, what has been negotiated between ideas, responding and reciprocating, concerns through a design. An ability to convey ideas and thoughts, via sketches, models, etc mediums guide an architecture student in effective learning. As architecture students, a basic understanding of representation, documentation, designing of a space has to be taught. Do you remember appearing for a NATA entrance exam for architecture students, learning logo design, perspective sketching, going for sketching trips, filling up a4 sheets practising logos, 3d sketching, perspective views? Getting through m one of the best architecture colleges, learning architectural terminology, about famous architects, meeting students from different cities, states, and countries.
Learning and remembering paper sizes A0, A1, A2, A3, etc, learning sketching through different mediums using pens, kitta, watercolours, poster colours, etc. Documentation is an important part of the architecture, as it is the job of an architect to measure and document the details like joinery, views, elevations, plans, sections, etc. Do you remember going for sketching trips to different places every weekend with your classmates, attending lectures of different architects, preparing case studies on different projects? As juniors, all of us have helped our seniors in making physical models, stayed up all night working on renders for the final sheets, making AutoCAD files for laser cutting, etc.
Have you ever measured your fellow batchmate? Their height, head size, arm length, knee length, etc., in different positions, sitting, standing, squatting, etc? Sketching them in 1:1 scale, folding them, carrying them along, with the help of this anthropology designing an artist studio with work-rest-play, considering minimal space provision. Have you attended a discussion in which anthropology is given major importance, went back to measuring the staircase of your college, and then accordingly made changes in your design? Going to the site, interrogating the neighbourhood, learning about the client requirement, learning how to prepare a questionnaire for the user class group, designing keeping the user group in mind, coordinating with them.
Do you remember watching over and over again tutorials to learn AutoCAD, Sketchup, Revit, etc software in youtube, referring render options for your sheets, putting human figures, activities, in your design? In the housing studio, trying to solve the problems of space crunch, learning to manage a large scale project, struggling in finishing the model.
That studio site visit outside the city, a weekend full of sketching and going around a new city learning the typology, aesthetics, understanding, and documenting the context, reciprocating to it, a discussion taking place among the batchmates and the faculty. All the batchmates coming together and making a site model, some making the institutional building next to the site, some making all the housing blocks, some making different options for trees, discussing among and finalizing them, some making the base for the model, etc. learning that how to make a half-cut, ending up giving more pressure and cutting the entire piece. Have you ever made models out of acrylic, cutting it with extreme pressure, and applying chloroform for sticking it, getting expensive materials for making models like balsa wood, deciding the thickness required in etc., making with the board, avoiding to apply for access fevicol, making POP block and then carving it, forming a negative mould cast for POP block, all the struggles searching for appropriate material for representation.
Learning drafting sheets, making construction lines, with 2h, drafting with line weight, rendering the sheets with a lighter grade of pencil, making sure that the sheet doesn’t get spoiled. Learning to observe and respond to the context, deriving concepts from the context. Going for an internship, interacting with clients, preparing working drawings for the site, interacting, and learning execution on site. Nowadays studios and designing have started online teaching students across the globe.
