Life of an Architecture Student - II
Life of an Architecture Student - II
Introduction:
This is in continuation to my 3rd post titled "Life of an Architecture Student". That post was supposed to be an overview on how life for architecture students is, but I've come to realize that it only focused on the cons and the dark parts of it so here's the pros of being an architecture student.
Firstly, you have to be interested in architecture to get into this field, you cannot choose this field just because you like arts or you like drawing/painting. None of that matters, you have to like architecture as it is, then and only then will you get to experience these good parts of it.
What is architecture? It's designing buildings, places, spaces, rooms, landscape. It's drawing a working plan for a certain project. For that, you have to know how a space works, you have to have the technical knowledge for the subject to design a functional, appropriate and aesthetic structure.
What do you learn in B.Arch. :
- how to draw starting with how to hold a pencil and how to align a a drawing sheet,
- how to create technically correct working drawings,
- how to design a space,
- softwares needed for digital presentation,
- lighting, ventilation,
- practical topics like water drainage, pipelines, elevator placement, wiring,
- about construction materials and which to use where,
- communication skills and presentation skills,
- everything from which direction should the window be facing to how big a toilet has to be for a person to shit comfortably.
- colors, sizes, proportions, psychology, geography, history, math, physics,
- and so much more that I probably forgot after the lecture ended.
Benefits:
Architects have to learn about everything, it's strange that we're always broke instead of ruling the world. An army of sleep deprived, OCD driven architects ruling the world, what a world would that be. Anyways, one of the best benefit of this degree is that you will get to learn a lot. You get to explore in so many fields, while learning architecture, your each finger is dipped in different fields and you get to explore them as your liking. You are introduced to new things, new terms, new media, new techniques. It's just a world of unknown territory and you are free to explore everything. Architecture really widens your perspective.You get to meet interesting people throughout the process, I'm not talking about my classmates, they are chaotically interesting but the architects. For me, architects are very interesting beings, they are weird but they are smart, they could look like dementors from harry potter and will sketch the prettiest drawing you have ever seen. Most of them are introverts but are always found in social setups because they need clients. All architects have survived this depressive phase and made out the other way so that's very admirable and some of them are still fighting their own wars. So, yes you will meet tons of different people with different views and it's always a nice experience meeting these beings.
You get to visit beautiful structures, You get to witness architecture in all it's glory. You get to travel, you have no idea about what kind of experiences you can have while exploring structures. Sometimes, architecture makes you feel things, whether good or bad, but it has an impact on you. When I was researching about 9/11 memorial for an assignment, I cried bad, I read about it and I saw it's pictures on google. I haven't even been there but after reading about the design methodology I just started crying, the thought that went behind designing it, the tiniest detail that the architect has taken into consideration, the memorial didn't just mourn the loss of people but the loss of two glorious buildings. I remember feeling impotent in the moment. I was telling myself that I cannot do this, I don't have the potential to create something so impactful. I'm inadequate to design such structures. I cannot even come close to what this is but there's only one Taj Mahal and one Eiffel Tower so I don't have to beat them or reach there, I just have to be me. So, yes, you get to travel.
Not just about physically visiting buildings, but even digitally, for research purposes you get to learn about different structures around the whole wide world, you get to learn about architects present or past. While learning design, a lot of research is involved, you have to keep looking at the past for what has been done, be inspired from that to design something that will still make sense 20 years down the line. Like, Norman Foster said "As an architect you design for the present, with an awareness of the past for a future which is essentially unknown". So, you get to research beautiful masterpieces, which you wouldn't in any other field.
Your observation skills increases, you start noticing little details like the texture used, carvings, tiling, furniture ply, you start noting down all the details in your mind, you start relating it to what you learned in class. You remember how your professor grilled you for using the wrong thickness and now, some architect has made the same mistake in real life and it's not even that big of a deal because the world hasn't collapsed yet. You notice how different risers of different stairs hurt your legs in different ways. So. your noticing skills enhances greatly. That helps you in becoming a good architect and a good detective, if any last minute change of career.
This is not life of an architect
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's not. Read the title again.
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