Pursuing architectural education is a 5 years-long commitment. It is a grueling process specially designed to make the students tough and versatile. Architectural education is just not limited to creative thinking and building forms rather it can give you a skill set that can be applied to various other creative fields. The knowledge and experience you gain by completing each semester is the knowledge that you will cherish even after completing 5 years. Either you love or hate the system but in reality, this system can give you some mind-blowing skillset that can assist you for a lifetime, some of them are mentioned below:
An eye for Detailing
An architect’s eye can never miss out on details which becomes an important parameter to see a built form holistically without missing out on its construction details. A good design comprises form, function and it’s cutting- edge detail. As rightly said by Charles Eames “The details are not the details. They make the design.”
Graphics are traced everywhere!
The mind of an architect is trained to trace graphics even in the smallest of things. From abstract art to a blurry picture, the visualisation becomes the core to develop an intangible idea. Graphics design is a tool for better communication through infographics and hence an architect’s mind is directly trained to sync with graphics to make the overall experience more visually appealing. For an architect, graphics is just not limited to 2d objects rather it takes the form of 3d objects and spaces and he/she starts noticing graphics in building, forms and even in everyday use objects.
Presentational skills
Presentation is extremely crucial and often leaves an impression about you on other people’s minds. In an architectural school, your work is judged based on your good presentational skills and clear ideas which in turn prepares you for the future. An architect needs to sell his/her ideas to convince the client and hence that’s where a great presentation with a clear imagination comes to rescue.
Time Management and Teamwork– Blood or Sweat
Often due to hectic time-bound submissions and deadlines, an architectural student has to prioritize their tasks and manage them wisely. Sometimes, these tasks involve teamwork, and that’s where real management skills are involved. Some teamwork is like a cakewalk, smooth and cheerful when you have the right bunch of people working with you. But others are nightmares when people working together belong to different worlds which leads to disaster. But 5 years long training often gives you enough practice to move along with different people having different opinions to make the most out of every given situation.
Criticism- A way to move forward
Juries are an integral backbone of process learning. An architectural student is always encouraged to take constructive criticism which provides an opportunity to move forward. Criticism gives you a vital perspective on your work, uncovering potential areas for improvement that you are unable to see by yourself.
It’s all about learning new softwares
Architecture is a profession that deals with innovations and creativity. As the world is adapting to technological inventions, the architects are encouraged to use new technology to design the future. As architects are considered to be the creator and visualisers of the future, it becomes extremely important to mix different technology to be able to visualize better. Hence, from the early days in an architectural college, time cutting, and visualisation software becomes important. To give the client a clearer picture of their future space, architects jump from one software to another defining and redefining the space they have imagined.
Your mood decides your creativity
The mood is one important factor that can motivate or obstruct your creative process. Ideas don’t present themselves and hence the mood plays a vital role to bring down your motivation to work. A happy mood can encourage a million ideas, but a bad mood can demolish all those million ideas coming to your mind. Hence, architects are encouraged to travel and explore places to keep their mood lively so that fresh ideas can start flowing in.
Hands-on experiences
Architecture is all about being practical. Working with different materials, techniques and new technologies is something which is being encouraged since the beginning. Workshops based training helps the aspiring architects to develop skills just like any other carpenter or manual site labor. This helps them not only to understand every single detail which matters the most on real sites but also to have practical exposure and respect towards such people who work really hard to turn our dreams into reality.
Work like a machine
Day or night doesn’t matter when you study in an architectural college. You are required to submit the output and hence an architectural student is shaped to work for long stretches which can sometimes turn into a couple of nights. This just does not test their efficiency to come up with something creative in a short time but also helps to develop their efficiency to work without taking long breaks. A skill like this can save you from being screwed in the long run when a client wants you to make some changes overnight.
Patience and Determination – The key to achieve success
At last, patience is what matters the most in architecture. At every design problem, your patience will get tested. Sometimes, the process to achieve the desired goal becomes difficult and frustrating. An architectural student often faces criticism from faculties, peer pressure from classmates which takes away the confidence. But 5 years down the journey one will realize that everyone goes through a similar process and churning which in turn makes you a strong individual. Your determination will keep you alive and moving, and your patience will push you to work harder and harder every single day.
