As ingenious as it may look, yes an architecture school has a lot to offer if you are truly intrigued by it. Like every other subject, architecture also comes with some pros and cons. Sleepless nights, rigorous work, and coffee have become a part of every architecture student’s life till date. However, it is well compensated by the endless opportunities to create new ideas and watch them take a concrete shape, fun and exciting design challenges, freedom to experiment and travel to explore the world. If you are driven by your passion for creating things, you will be thrilled to know what all architecture school has to offer.
Architecture school journey is a long term commitment in itself. It is like giving half a decade of your life to studying architecture, with which comes lots of learnings. With a little insight and a lot of curiosity, I entered the architecture college four years back. Little did I know that it’s much more than a subject.
Now, I know much more about the subject than back in my days in the first year. But following society’s paradigm of an architect, I also had preset presumptions. Some of them are mentioned below.
Before writing what my presumption was about architecture, I googled the term “Architect Definition” and this was the top search result – A person who designs buildings. But is it all?
I have grown up listening that I should pursue architecture just because I’m interested in drawing or sketching. When asked what architects do, the answer would come out to be- a professional who makes building’s plans and they are hired only by well-off people of the society. But is it all that architecture is?
- Architecture is meant for creatives:
It is a common misconception that architecture is meant for those who are extremely creative. Yes, it needs a creative problem-solving approach but additionally one needs to develop technical skills to complete the task. The concept development and designing stage might need good sketching skills but the following stage requires adequate software and technical knowledge.
- Architects just make drawings:
Certainly, drawings are an integral part of the architecture, whether it is for presenting the clients or execution on the sites. However, an architect has a role to play right from the conceptual stage to its completion on-site which includes collaboration with other consultants, construction overseeing, preparing BOQs, material selections, etc. In order to meet the client’s budget and expectations, an architect needs many skills, and making drawings is one of them.
- Architects are costly and hired by just rich people:
It is a conventional approach to hire a contractor instead of an architect, thinking that they cost more. Whereas, architects add value to your investment by taking care of every penny spent by innovating cost-efficient solutions.
Architects are also taken to design just expensive buildings. On the contrary, some architects particularly focus on affordable housing by using earthy materials and applying cost-cutting technologies. The scope of an architect’s work ranges from designing just a bathroom to entire houses, schools, and hospitals to entire community infrastructure, transport stations to planning the entire cities! Hence, besides creating physical infrastructure, an architect has a social role to play as well.
- Architecture is easier than other subjects:
I bet many of the students had this misconception, just like me. Certainly, I was not aware of the sleepless nights and redos coming my way. The subjects may seem easier but it is compensated by loads of assignments and submission on a daily basis. In fact, it is considered one of the toughest courses in the world! So, it is not an easy road to take my friends but surely if it’s intriguing enough for you, it is worth taking the high road.
Beginning with just the proportions and form of a building, its contextual placement on the site, response to the local community to designing the whole towns and cities, architecture is indeed a holistic field which reflects the physical and social aspects of society. And architecture school is the place where we are trained to produce effective solutions corresponding to the design challenges of all the varied scales.
Here are some of the values I have developed over the tenure:
– Starting from learning just about great architects and monuments, I learned how it is essential to know the past in order to build for the future.
– How to take criticism in a positive way to improve upon the design
– Designing with a reasonable and rational mindset
– Reflecting upon the cultural and social values of the group of users
– How to self-educate me about the type of building given as a design problem including the identification of its user group, services, functionality, social significance, etc.
– Developing practical aspects of the profession by site visits and internship program
– Most importantly, an eye for design whether it just be a window detail or the whole building.
The five-year tenure of architecture schooling also helps in developing other skills that could serve as excellent career alternatives. I have seen many of my classmates and seniors turn to photography, journalism, graphic designing, and 3D visualization. Besides being an architect, a student is trained to be a good researcher, rational thinker, and skilled presenter which eventually helps in the career.
Most of all, I learned how to think like an architect and process the design challenge to come up with efficient solutions. Architecture school lays the foundation for designing and what architecture is.
I learned how architecture is such a dynamic field that tends to revolutionize on a daily basis. It is equally tempting and challenging to evolve with the changing times as an architect. Taking the example of the current scenario of the pandemic, architecture has a social responsibility to adapt to the surroundings for the times to come, and similarly, it will keep on serving the generation to come.
