Architecture is a rollercoaster ride, especially in the first year. From a carefree schoolgirl who had her parents do most of her chores for her, to an adult having to meet 5-6 different deadlines, the transition was a quick one. The variety of college work like Model-making, drafting assignments, and 12-18hrs exams – they had me wondering if this was really what Renzo Piano, Rem Koolhaas, I M Pei had been through before making those stark buildings.
I Didn’t Sign Up For This!
We were introduced to all-nighters. We sometimes spent 2-3 nights in a row without proper sleep. Got me wondering why in the world did I ever stay up late at home taking for granted those extra hours of sleep. When I thought it couldn’t get any harder than this, was when one of our first model-making projects in Structures was assigned to us. This was probably one of the first experiences that will stay fresh in my mind from my first year.
Our teacher introduced us to different types of brick bonds. I had missed out on the class, but my friend managed to explain those to me. Rat-trap bonds and Flemish bonds seemed tricky at first. But, the real challenge came when our teacher asked us to make a scaled-down version of these brick bonds. Oh, and our teacher didn’t want us to use just any material, she wanted us to use the small Apsara brand erasers. This was done since 2 edges of the eraser matched the size of one brick in a scale that was presentable. We had to cut one edge to meet the requirement.
Brick Making
All the stores on campus had run out of erasers by the time I came to know about the assignment as my classmates had bought all the erasers on the way back from the lecture. The rest of us had no option but to buy thermocol and cut them up into small brick-shaped pieces. We spent a day and the next cutting bricks to perfection. We were not exactly experts at using the NT cutter so it was taking us more time. We had bought thermocol sheets long enough to make 10000 thermocol bricks. My friend and I thought, ‘What’s the big deal, it’s a tiny model that could fit in the palm of my hand. How long could it take?’
We lay on the floor in different yoga poses as we struggled to cut the bricks. 12-14 hours later, we realized that we have never been so wrong in our lives. In between, I glance at my friend to find her dozing off. I quickly wake her up from time to time. It really surprised me how immune we had become to the blasting music in our hostel rooms. We were so tired that we could sleep off even if the whole building shook.
Off we sleep!
It was 4 am, the morning of the submission. We were so close to giving up. We were singing at the top of our voices to stay awake. After a while, I wake up suddenly to find my friend spread wide on the remaining sheet of thermocol, to find the 6 feet long sheet accommodating her entire body. She didn’t look at the least uncomfortable. She was snoring her way to glory. Her snoring had woken me up from my nap which I had not intended to take. I finished about 20-40 more bricks and kept an alarm for us to wake up.
Even though at the time, I had cursed the subject and had ended up getting an average grade for the assignment, the memories that remain etched in my mind were the nights I stayed up with music blasting from my speakers and thermocol balls strewn across the hostel rooms. In the morning we were ready to submit the 3/4th done model of the bonds. We had finally decided how important it was to manage our time. This was one of the many experiences that led me to understand the importance of effective time management. With this submission and 10s of all-nighters,5 years later, I would graduate as an architect.
Even though the submissions included a lot of stress and hard-to-meet deadlines, it was all worth it. The takeaways from this were that it was crucial to identify the main requirements of the project and the easiest and most effective ways to present them. This applied to both writing and drawing assignments. Not to mention, identifying the deadlines and meeting realistic expectations You can’t do it all! The best advice would be to learn to manage our time most efficiently so that u can have work done as well as a lot of fun doing it.
