0003 So You Think You Want to Study Architecture?
The Brief:
Welcome back Ladies and Gentlemen to the Architecture Student Diaries where it is my mission to help you kill it in Architecture school whilst making you, the best you in the process. In the following post I will be talking to you about making the decision to study architecture, and helping you to decide whether or not it may be the career for you.
Today I am going to discuss seven different topics regarding the decision to study architecture, these include the following:
Why are you looking at architecture
What does it take to be an architect
What are the traits of an architect
How hard is architecture school
What did you study in High School
How old are you
Do you like coffee and sleepless nights
Now, let’s get into it. Class is now in session.
Why are you looking at architecture
You have finally made that life defining decision about what career you are going to go into; it may have been a choice that you made when you were 8 years old like me, or it may have been a spur of the moment decision because you had to put in your university preferences and ran out of time… Either way, you have made the decision to try your hand in architecture, but why? You may love looking at buildings or drawings houses, you might like the idea of being able to create something that will remain long after you have gone, or maybe you have a passion to change the world for the better, well it’s a good thing you chose architecture, because if you stick with it, all of these dreams are possible futures for you.
What does it take to be an architect
The career of an architect is one that is open to near endless possibilities, the different directions you can go in architecture provide you with a profession that you will never get bored of. There is another reason that you will never be bored however, and that is because, generally you won’t have the time to be bored. Being an architect, as with being an architecture student, is a highly time consuming job with likely many overtime hours. The good thing though is that if you put in the time and effort to become an architect, even if you are having to put in those overtime hours, generally you will be enjoying the work that you are doing. Being an architect requires dedication, passion and a willingness to constantly adapt and innovate as the world changes.
What are the traits on an architect
Architects are very peculiar beings, who to the outside world may seem a bit odd, although architects are also generally perceived by society in quite high distinction. We are the people who shape the world after all. Architects are people born with a quality of exploration and a bottomless void of intrigue. If you are someone who walks into a building and starts looking at the ceiling and touching the walls, while your friends don’t even notice it, or you are someone who walks through a city constantly tripping because you were looking up at the detailing on a window; you’re probably on the track to becoming an architect. If you are the person who looks at a building and thinks ‘this would look better like this’ or ‘they should have done that’, then you are probably an architect in the making. If you are passionate about creating things and you’re a bit arty and eccentric, then you are on the right website, so enjoy the journey.
How hard is architecture school
Architecture school will be the most challenging educational experience you undertake through your life, there is no point denying that. Growing up you hear people say that university is easy compared to your final year of high school, for some courses this may be true, unfortunately however, architecture is not one. Architecture is much harder. In architecture school time frames are short and deadlines are crucial and more work is asked of you than you think physically possible. It is for a reason though, the staff aren’t just trying to kill you from exhaustion, even though it feels like it sometimes. However, if you work consistently through each assessment and don’t let yourself fall behind you will be okay. The real stress and problems come when you fall behind and start running out of time, the last thing you want is for it to be the night before your final presentation for the year and have not even started your page layouts. This would lead to you staying up the entire night working on them and being so tired the next day that your friend needs to buy you a triple shot coffee only for it to have no effect… I definitely wouldn’t know what this feels like…
What do you need to study in High School
It is not generally integral for you to study certain subjects in high school in order to be accepted into architecture courses nor to succeed in the course. Although, some may help. Generally architecture courses require you to complete a brief provided by the institute and submit it to the university as an application; the best applicants are then accepted. This approach to intake though is becoming less common as there is no way for the universities to truly know that the students did the work and did not have someone else do the work for them. Due to this, it is likely that the main criteria required for acceptance will be based on your overall final scores from high school.
Generally if you are planning to study architecture in university, studying subjects such as Visual Communication Design, Art and Photography will help you in some elements of your university schooling and many of their skills are transferable. Other subjects that would be advantageous would be a form of math, although studying architecture does not require overly intensive math skills, another would be something along the lines of a Drama class as it will help to build personal confidence in yourself and allow for less nerve enduring experiences when presenting to audiences.
How old are you
As I have spoken about before in past classes, architects typically do not reach their peak until they enter their 50’s. This is not necessarily due to experience in the industry for a long period of time, but rather more due to the expanded life experience and worldly understandings that allow for their architecture to truly be of a deeper quality. This means that architecture is not a profession that is bound by age, you could be designing at 25 or 95 and still be creating incredible work and this is why architecture is a career for life, not just a portion of it. As stated above, architecture has a near endless stream of routes that can be taken and moved between throughout your years of work. If you are reading this as a mature aged student and are unsure whether you would be able to undertake the course alongside fresh faced twenty something year olds, you sure can! There is no reason that you cannot start studying architecture at 18, 28, 48 or 68 as long as you have the passion, it is possible. The only thing that you will need to look out for if you are in the older category is that you will need to be technologically capable, as much of the coursework is on computers in modern universities. Do not think that skill by hand will be unnoticed in architecture school though, as generally if there is an incredible hand sketch next to a computer model, the hand sketch will get more recognition. You’re never too old to be an architect.
Do you like coffee and sleepless nights
Being an architecture student and being an architect, are energy intensive professions, not in the way of physical strain experienced by an Olympic marathon runner, but instead in mental strain. A design is never truly finished and there is always going to be some way that it can be improved through iterations, which means that throughout every assessment and design venture your mind is constantly working and developing ideas even without willingly knowing it. Due to this it is likely that you will find yourself becoming tired quite a lot of the time, and this means that you will need something to keep you awake during late night study sessions.
Typically for an architect, the solution (unfortunately temporary) is coffee. Lots of coffee. Of course, there are other temporary solutions such as energy drinks, however, personally I would never recommend consuming energy drinks for several health reasons. This is however, open to your discretion and there are many architects and architecture students who depend upon energy drinks, but as I said, personally I do not recommend this option. If you are not a coffee drinker, green tea holds a decent amount of caffeine and can assist with your tiredness. Another option is something such as hot chocolate where the sugar content can help boost your energy levels, though, as with all these options, the results are only temporary, and consuming large amounts of sugar can negatively affect your health, as with energy drinks.
Sleep is a crucial aspect of our lives and is necessary to perform at our optimal levels of efficiency and effectiveness, however, as you most likely have realised by now, architects are a unique and talented breed. Through necessity we develop the ability to function off very little sleep when required. Now, I am not recommending limiting your sleep, and I do recommend avoiding all nighters as much as you can, but sometimes it may come down to an all nighter having to happen in order to make a deadline. This may happen in architecture school or in architecture practice, however, it is more likely for this to occur during schooling. Architecture school is renowned for ‘crazy students’ that are still in the studio building a model at 3:30am, but as long as you have some good tunes, a coffee and some other archi students with you, you will find a way to make it fun. Don’t tell your teachers I said this, but 3am trolly races through the studio are a great way to break up the night…
Final Notes:
Deciding to study architecture is not a decision to be taken lightly as it is not only career defining, but also lifestyle defining. Studying architecture and becoming an architect is definitely not for everyone as it is a profession that is built for a certain type of person who thrives under pressure and is passionate about thinking outside of the box. The years of study are highly demanding as with life post-graduation, but if you are the right type of person for the job you are going to enjoy yourself. It does not matter how old you are or whether you studied the right subjects in high school, as long as you are willing to put in the effort and consistently that is required. Architecture is such a rewarding area to study and work in, and if you are currently sitting on the fence about whether or not to take the plunge and sign up to study it, and this post has not scared you off, I wholeheartedly recommend architecture to you.
Ladies and Gentlemen, class dismissed.
Iain Colliver, SONA, YBA, GKIHS
