Architecture is not just about a building and construction technique. Architecture is a profession of passion. This profession has the ability to change a person completely by all means. In five years of the degree, one can grow as a sensible professional and sensitive human being with excellence in the field required skills and portable skills. I got a fair chance to build myself as a sensitive person over a period of time in college.
In the journey of these five years, I learned hundreds of new things that are directly related to the field or related to life. Some of the field-related skills are the base of the profession and contribute to making a jack of all trades professional.
In a particular field like architecture, your degree paper is not a certificate of your qualities but the various skillset you have learned over the years are. These skills might be your field related technical skills or portable and transferable skills which majorly impacts your overall quality of life.
Communication and Presentation Skills
What is the use of a unique idea if you can’t present or explain it in proper design vocabulary? Showcasing your valuable design to a client to represent a small idea informing the juror all takes good presentation skills. It does not only mean speaking comfortably in front of someone but feeling confident and believing in your thoughts and yourself.
Communication and presentation both are interdependent skills in both college days and professional practice. A key to good communication is listening. Being a good listener is a foundation of being a good communicator. Good listening skills will aid you to learn and respond precisely under various circumstances.
A good presentation is an amalgamation of verbal and written communication along with positive body language and explanatory skills. Good communication is a key to fostering relationships which is very important in professions like architecture to collaborative, respectful, and productive networking.
Working In Team
I would like to break the delusion of many by this point, that Architect-as-solitary-genius professional amongst all and the reality is that architecture is a field of a multitude. You will work in a team in most of the scenarios. And for this, we are well-rehearsed ourselves in college projects and group case studies aplenty.
Though it is not an easy task to work with various mindsets altogether, it is an absolute learning lesson about how to deal with people, I must say. It may sound banal but good teamwork skills can be a lifesaver to further employment. In an expedient sense, they likely aren’t hiring you for your creative brain and hardworking self but because they want someone who can work with the team to get various things done.
A good team is able to work more efficiently by being perceptive, as well as receptive to the different needs and responsibilities.
Creative Thinking
To be able to think differently is a god’s blessing truly and a need for a profession. An education in, and knowledge of, creative thinking can be applied to any field which requires problem-solving. Architects are taught from day one to look at every problem from all angles, research about it, analyze it, and try to think of an efficient and unique solution for it. The solution might not be significant every time but it always leads you to think differently. And that makes the Architecture field distinctive.
Read. Research. Analyze.
Did you properly learn how to learn? Because learning is an illimitable process for life and a widely applicable skill. No architect is born with inbred design detailing in monuments, but if you had to write about them for a history case study you are a bit aware of research strategies.
Not just only in history, if you want to design your project in some specific concept, you have to gather knowledge first. And this knowledge is a result of continuous research and analysis of things you learned. Application of learned and researched things in practical work is the most vital part of it.
Being Extrovert and Broad Minded Person
This is by default a product of the architecture campus. Letting go of my social and academic Inhibitions was the major transformation that happened to me. Architecture schools forcefully demand you to do absolutely ridiculous things to just bring the final result out of the project.
I still remember taking site measurements in crowded filthy public spaces, measuring the width and height of urinals in gent’s toilet for Working drawings of toilets, and so on. I completely ignore how absurd I will look or feel while doing all of the above, but it leads to immense confidence, better presentation, and less public awkwardness and social anxiety.
And last but not the least at all…
Being Patient
There are hundreds of frustrating and demoralizing situations in college days and in practice too. These five extensive years taught me patience extremely well. It can be anything from a redo on the sheet, not so perfect renders by V-Ray, or even being the last roll number in juries which check your patience utmost. Patience is an ultimate skill for non-turbulent academic life and efficient professional practice. Putting all the efforts and waiting for the results is a task but a valuable skill for general life too.
