Architecture is perfect for girls, work from home is very possible, no site work involved, You can draw? Architecture should be a cakewalk for you. Architecture? 5 years party?! This is your chance at “3-idiots”! You are going to be rolling in the riches, “corporate jobs, slick suits, and Marine-bay”.
The above are all grave misconceptions that prospective architecture students and family members of the said prospective students use as a way of convincing themselves into the life of an architect. While architecture is no “nightmare on the elm street”, it is best not to take the course solely based on the advice of people who are not architects themselves. Firstly getting into architecture should be a choice made by a “clear-headed” person, after distinctly knowing what the five-year course would hold for them.
Architecture is a perfect course for everyone, that is everyone interested and highly enthusiastic about it. Work from home might be possible, but the Architect needs to be on the site, it’s a hands-on job. It is crucial to debunk a very infuriating fallacy, that hand sketching is paramount. I can attest to you, based on my first-hand experience that knowing how to draw is not a prerequisite to getting into architecture, nor is it going to ensure a bump-less undergrad. Having prior knowledge in sketching might help fare through the waters a bit more than others but not for long. Architects mostly use software to show their designs, the manual sketching process might be a part of the first year of school, but not much can be said about the rest.
A very misplaced concept that architecture is a no theory course, while we do have many subjects that stray towards being studio subjects, every semester comes with at least three out of seven theory courses. The primary job of an architect is to produce building designs, but the basic knowledge to design a building comes from these theory courses, varying from the History of Architecture to Climatology and Structural Analysis of Buildings, but don’t be intimidated by these. The good outweighs the bad ( technically some of these subjects are just bad!) in the course. Architectural design runs from the first semester to the last, a predominantly important core studio subject, and the favorite of every student.
People also equate the fewer theory subjects to less work and hence more parties! This type of generalization is highly cliched. Of course, there are many a few college parties that I have attended, but the all-nighters that I have pulled wins the count by a major difference. The studio subjects are fun to attend, but the work that goes beyond the class is humongous. It takes countless hours to craft the sheets to perfection and satisfaction, attending parties after a sleepless night (literally!) might not be the best course of action.
Another egregious sophism is minting the green.
Architecture is listed as one of the hardest courses for a student to take up, but reaping the rewards doesn’t happen soon. An architect’s job is of the same importance as Lawyers and Doctors, but we are not paid as much. A beginning Architect gets paid around $40,000 annually and an experienced one about $110,000, these are not bad pays. They are enough for comfortable living but not exactly for a rolling in the riches style one.
While I have given every reason to not take Architecture, here are some why the course is your best option. Most architecture students take up the course even after knowing the cons because one factor outweighs all the others, which is the mad appeal for the subject. In the end, working your dream job supersedes everything else, whether it’s a corporate one or an NGO, there are multitudes of options that you can venture at the end of the course. The course is expansive and varies over many fields, a lot of students find their career in the folds of these. There are many niches that a student can pick from if he or she doesn’t wish to go mainstream like Architectural Journalism ( for the writers), Graphic Designers, Illustrative arts, Teaching, and many more. The major incentive a student would get from architecture is the design process, all design courses follow the same process of learning initially, which allows us to venture other fields in design.
Architecture provides one with the luxury of avoiding a routine. Design is a ceaselessly evolving thing that doesn’t permit repetition, hence a no-routine lifestyle.
“ If you think adventure is dangerous, try routine, it’s lethal”- Paulo Coelho.
This is practically a principle by which many of us live, trying to find the extraordinary in the ordinary and making the best out of the life we have in hand.
Here’s hoping that I have convinced you to become a future colleague of mine!
