“Life isn’t always what you expect.” Well, life and architecture. Eight months were enough to get this fact in my head.
The concept of expectation versus reality fits in here. When I planned to take up architecture I was told that it’s a very professional course which would pay well as well as have flexible working hours. However, this hasn’t been true yet. It’s very different from what I thought it would be, still, there’s no doubt about how much this course has taught me. Sure there have been many surprises, but the college chaos gets us ready for the real world out there. I’ll list down some.
Patience- I had a submission the next day. The week had been too busy, nothing special, it’s always the same. The subject was vernacular architecture and I had to prepare two A-1 sized mood-boards showing the culture, and vernacular practices and materials of a specific region in India. I hadn’t started anything yet, but I wanted to make it crafty and attractive. So I started with it and it was 12 in the night after I completed 1 mood-board. I decorated it with patches and wrote the text in some beautiful font. I used paints to make a repetitive border, and this was the best project I had ever made. It was tedious, but I completed it at last. I was so excited to give the presentation. I reached my studio, only to find out that the professor was on leave the next day. I was so frustrated because it was the first time I did a week’s work at night. This made me think this isn’t the last time it’s happening, so to be motivated, I need to be patient, no matter, what unexpected event happens, or how people react to my hard-work.
Visualization- It was the mid-semester break going on. I was having lunch with my family and was sharing what they had taught me so far in my college. After that, we went to visit our new house which was under construction. The next stage was interiors, and they were telling me their ideas so far. I said that the dining should have cool colors and that the formal sitting should be minimally designed. I spoke too much and suddenly realized that whatever I had learned in my college, started applying itself to my immediate surroundings. I could imagine and visualize in my mind what could be done to combine concepts and functions to look the best. Not only this, the clouds, the strange grainy tiles, and modern art have started to induce meaningful shapes in my head.
Perfection- We were sitting in a design class. The professor had asked us all to read a book and submit its review. I love writing, so I did it very well. I gave enough time to read, and wrote a well-structured review. I thought that many people won’t submit on time because this isn’t something that everyone would enjoy. Strangely, everyone had done it. Writing 200 words wasn’t difficult after all, it seemed. So I went up to some classmates to find out which books they had read. Well, most of them said they just copied a review of any relevant book they found on the internet. I thought to myself, that I never would’ve done this. Why do something which you don’t want to give effort to? (Well, for marks of course). But that day I decided that I’ll try to do every assignment with all my heart and soul. The result being that I now have a mental satisfaction that I tried my best for an assignment, even negative remarks can’t affect me now. I have started paying attention to details and the lack of sleep or paper cuts won’t bother me if I have given enough effort to make the best I can.
Punctuality- I had a viva the next morning. I stayed at my friend’s to work together, so we were up all night. As usual, we were late and had to improve our sheets and do proper formatting before presenting them the next day. We thought it would work faster if we would divide the work. So I started drafting construction lines, and she started correcting all the errors. We were chatting to keep ourselves up, but both of us were very sleepy. Then, we decided that won’t correct all the sheets, but those we do would have to be perfect. We managed to do almost every sheet. The next day, I went to the viva room. The external examiner went through my portfolio and asked some questions. He looked impressed, but after looking at the last 2 sheets he asked, who helped you in your portfolio. I was shocked, wondering how he came to know. He said that he caught it as the line-weights differed. Then, the embarrassed me narrated to him what happened. He said it was nice that you organized your work, and preferred quality over quantity, but if you would have started earlier, this problem wouldn’t have come up. That’s when I realized that actually if I would have started it beforehand, I would have been able to achieve perfection too, and thus, punctuality with work is very important.
Architecture has taught me much, from several softwares, to the core values; from professional etiquettes to the power of stress management. The course leaves you with much more than knowledge of drawing some lines to make a building.
