Architects enjoy recounting their experiences and adventures at architecture school. Some aced at schoolwork, while others found it traumatic. Whether you are a student, a graduate, or a college dropout, your time at architecture school changes you. It can teach you everything from construction and design to patience and resilience. The points listed below are merely a selection of condensed lessons that it trains you for.
Do not be scared to be creative.
Architecture coursework always starts with a great deal of hand sketching — sketching that includes our surroundings, landscapes, people, and even architectural elements. While there is an emphasis on keeping the sketches observational and relatively technical, one is encouraged not to limit oneself to only these aspects. The focus is on expanding individual skillsets and a conscious seeking out of abstract, organic, and out-of-the-box ideas. Students are spurred on to be as creative and imaginative with their work as possible at the outset. During the rest of one’s architectural career, creativity is often sacrificed at the altar of practicality. Students need to explore and exploit their full potential and be given the liberty to showcase their crazy and outlandish ideas.
Say ‘Yes’ to experiences.
Internships and projects give a more profound understanding of what architecture entails. The school presents you with a whole world of opportunities and experiences. It may be work opportunities, volunteering at events, or even exploring other avenues of design. All of these experiences compound one’s knowledge of architecture and design. Travel opportunities — an excellent source of learning about different styles, cultures, and aesthetics, are also provided. Getting out of the comfort zone is so essential to develop your very own design narrative.
Presenting your work and yourself
Architecture school helps you to establish who you are and identify the story you want to tell. Every project or portfolio is an extension of yourself, so it must be curated in a way that you would present your individuality to an audience. The key is to understand and have confidence in your opinions and words to market your solution to potential clients who would, in all likelihood, have compelling arguments against your proposal. Producing detailed drawings and specifications is not always enough to articulate your ideas. Graphic design plays a significant role in presentations. Content should be easy to read and understand, pleasing to the eye, and must communicate the design narrative you want to express. Every effort is made in school to further this process.
The right way to take criticism
Architects have an opinion on everything, and negative critiques are inevitable in architecture school. It is always disheartening to hear an architect or a professional tear apart a project that you have worked hard on. The only way to get through it is to take it with a pinch of salt and understand that it is not a personal attack and try to understand what the jurors are implying behind their harsh words. Architecture school prepares you with developing a thick skin, which stands you in good stead later in life.
Importance of research in design thinking
Architecture is about providing solutions to particular problems. A designer must dive deep into the problem statement and have a thorough knowledge of the topic in question, without which the answer would not be relevant. All research must be careful and precise. For example, the Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright in New York must not be confused with the Guggenheim in Bilbao designed by Frank Gehry. It is essential not to be ignorant of the details. Extensive and exhaustive research combined with critical thinking undertaken during architectural studies prepares one to use the same approach in life, whenever the need presents itself.
Working with other design professionals
Collaboration and teamwork are critical in any kind of design process. Every design professional will have a significant contribution to your design thinking, and it is crucial to identify that. In a work project, architects would need to collaborate with interior designers, engineers, graphic designers, contractors, marketing professionals, clients, and people from various other disciplines. Networking with individuals from diverse backgrounds earlier in one’s career leads one to have well informed and holistic designs.
Mark Twain once famously quoted, ‘I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.’ Anyone who has labored through architecture school will agree that here the two terms, schooling and education, were synonymous with each other. Architecture school puts you through grueling places to emerge from one’s chrysalis as strong, resilient, informed, and confident individuals with a honed skill set to match to take on the Earth and everything that’s in it.
