It has always been the case that anyone who happens to know of me being an Architect has always poked me with a series of questions like – “What you did in Architecture school”? “Do you build?”, “How do you work?” Maybe out of curiosity to know or just to twist the knife in the wound, but it’s fairly understandable. I also usually respond to it saying, “I was taught how to become an Architect”. Hah!
Everyday an Architect learns something new about anything (or everything). But the 5-year (ever) lasting school of Architecture taught numerous learning’s which made us hot to trot. During the long haul, apart from hard-core architecture education, great life skills were also inculcated. We all would hopefully agree upon a few listed below which unknowingly or incidentally became an asset to cherish upon for a lifetime.
Struggle to Strength
The first thing upon entering the world of Architecture is to know that you are here for pure struggle. It’s going to demand high on your blood, sweat, and a hell lot of tears! Struggle to design, keep up with the deadlines, and still excel in the term. Well! To be precise the freshman year sets the benchmark of how much struggle it takes to be in Architecture. Creativity is the culprit! Vague program guidelines and loose ended instructions lead to the design on quicksand. And to survive out of that struggle needs strength, an important virtue to live your life as an Architect.
Patience and perseverance
Being able to accept a delay with a calm mind can be tricky when it comes to Architecture school. Delayed gratification is rooted deep in the process of design. What matters is how to build up the skill, expand and cultivate patience. Over the years architects develop this unique quality (architectural character trait), somehow only a few bring up to the implementation. Any project irrespective of academics or practice involves patience as a prerequisite. However, this can easily be gained by a sweet smile, a deep breath, and the ability to resolve problems.
Analytical Thinking Abilities
Out of the discernible glimmers of the fog came this ability, the most effective way of problem-solving. Analysis plays a vital role in the process of any design solution and does not limit to merely the product. All “WH” words help to be able to explore, adopt and adapt in difficult situations. Thinking critically attempts to transform obstacles into resources that enable individuals to use their intelligence in a way that is unique. Along with analytical thinking abilities comes the role of creativity. It adds to employ both visual and verbal expressions and cognitive rationale. The analysis helps to explicate the role of balancing creative skills and cognitive abilities in architectural design education.
Presentation Skills
Architectural design education is a highly sophisticated means of building creative problem-solving abilities. Unlike most professions, architects are fairly accustomed to standing up in front … but that doesn’t mean they like it. Presenting information, message, ideas or Design effectively is the key skill to the discipline. Amongst all the lessons learned in the drawing, designing, and creative thinking process, presentation skill leads the way. Simplicity always excels over unnecessary complications, but to convey meaningful content is a must.
Crisis to Opportunities
Anxiety is normal to an Architecture student. Had it be the studio or office the urge of completing work with perfection and on time is a crisis in itself. Each one of us probably would have gone through panic attacks for last moment mishaps with the project. To develop the strategy to better you at tackling such a crisis and convert it into an opportunity is the rule. This helps in life to positively accept situations and constructively deal with it.
These lessons learned merely came to me out of my experience in Architecture. But it has now surely become more visible and clearer after 5 years of practice and academics.
The architecture program comes with a maze of subjects, faded studio instructions, long hours of work, insomnia, and dense confusion. But one thing is for sure the lessons learned from Architecture are way fascinating (believe me they are) and are worth treasure. After all, Architecture is a field full of creativity and so it’s going to be difficult at times. The infinite opportunities and the new avenues architecture open giving us a firm reason to hold on to it.
Everyone who is from architecture has learned some lessons from it. But whatever we do with the lessons that follow architecture, be grateful it will stay as assets for life.
