“Architecture is a dynamic course that lets you design your dreams and renders you as the maker of society.” – This is the basic version of the sugar-coated morale booster given to every architecture student at their first day to college. Heads up, reading this article further would get you familiar with the humorously chaotic life of an architecture student.
Everyone knows the course is tedious, but the intensity could be truly seen after attending two weeks. I got three redos on my first sheet, the design assignments were a mess and all this came with the anxiety clinging on a fresher, who had to make new friends and connections. Almost everyone is warned about this by someone in advance, but the reality is much worse. We had to deal with a variety of professors who could give unrealistic deadlines, and every kind of class-mates, from angels to back-stabbers. The fear of submissions getting soiled before marked kept us at the edge and the principle of quality before quantity would make us an ever-busy species among the undergraduates of other fields. And just as we were starting to adjust to this hectic environment, a yet new surprise awaited us, the jury!
Our written exams were over and we were overjoyed as they turned out to be surprisingly simple. This was as we were new to the system of evaluation where written exams didn’t have much weightage as compared to that of our handwork and jury. Everyone was tensed about the format of the viva. The first viva would be for Architectural Design. We had designed a single-occupancy residence which would serve to the needs of an architecture student. We had prepared sheets for concept, plan, elevations, and sections.
A day left before the viva when we were informed to make a model of scale 1:20 for the same. We were baffled. Our batch had two divisions and the professor teaching ours, hadn’t planned on assigning us to models. But under the pressure of other division doing it, he thought it would be better. Everyone was panicked and flustered by the thought of making such a big model, using materials they had no experience with, for the first time, in one day!
We rushed to the stationery stores and stocked up on all the materials. The forex sheets were too huge for our vehicles and we had no clue how to use them. I reached my room by evening and called my friend from the other division to ask her if she could explain how to proceed. I invited another friend of mine to work with me in my room. Both of us had to complete making our models before 10:30 am the next day and we had about 16 hours to do so. I suggested that if we divided our work, we could work faster. She cut out and painted walls for both of us and I cut pieces for furniture and glued them. Sounds easy right? Sure, but by the time we finished this, it was 4:00 am in the morning. We had to measure each and everything according to our approved designs which took so much of our time. Also, we were working with the material for the first time, thus we got a number of paper cuts and the glue was so strong that it burned every time a drop touched our skins. The room was a mess, we were exhausted like anything, and we still had to assemble the base with the walls and fix the furniture. We crashed on the bed, woke up in 4 hours, and hurried down to our classroom.
Our regular room was occupied by our seniors, so we got a smaller classroom, over-crowded by 50 more, sleepless humans and their semi-finished models. Of course, there were a few pairs of bright eyes ready with their submissions, who were pacing back and forth helping their friends. There were tiny tables and cupboards, blades, scales, paints, glue, cookies, and juice cans at every step. The commotion was unbearable until the roll call began. With the assistance of our friends, we somehow got an ipsy-tipsy structure that could remotely be called a model.
Till lunch break, most of the busy faces from morning now looked worn-out. My viva went quite better than one would expect by looking at my model. The jury members demanded logic to everything on my portfolio and the model, and though nervous, I somehow could explain everything. The quality of my work wasn’t as desired, but I was happy that I tried everything I could. I was advised to work on my speed and precision.
I’ve marked that such incidents leave us hustling for all the five years, but these are the times we make the most out of our opportunities and some endless memories. Learning architecture is kind of a package deal which teaches us values like patience, precision, team-work, and creativity, all at a cost of its own kind.
