0017 What Not to Learn
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. There are several things that an architecture student must learn in order to find success in their future career, these include the likes of sketching, laws and codes of construction, and how to communicate a design to a client; there are however a number of things to learn that should be avoided at all costs. Our focus in today’s article will be deciphering which habits, traits and lessons are best forgotten, or better yet not learnt at all.
Below is a breakdown of what we will discuss in today's lesson:
One Good Mark Means You Can Slack Off
Not Going to Class is Okay
Bad Habits from Online Tutorials
The Wrong Countries Codes and Laws
You Need to Put Your Health Second to Succeed in Architecture School
The Most Expensive is Always Best
Plagiarism is Okay
Not Being Environmentally Friendly is Okay
Now, let’s get into it. Class is now in session.
One Good Mark Means You Can Slack Off
It is common that when someone starts university or a new year of university, they will put absolutely everything they can into the first assignment and be given a terrific mark for their effort; though, maintaining this then becomes an issue. It is integral that once you start getting good marks that you do not get a big head and presume that you are a really talented student and then begin to put in less effort, if you do this your marks will begin to slide downward. Succeeding in architecture school is just as much about commitment to the work as it is to being creatively or artistic. You cannot put in minimal time and expect to get good marks, so please ensure that if you get a good mark early on, you put in the time and effort to maintain these marks; your tutors will be expecting this from you now.
Not Going to Class is Okay
I have written a fair few articles now, and I am almost certain that by a long shot, telling you to attend classes has been the most recurring topic. When people enter University, they often decide to attend minimal classes, in some courses this may be totally okay and if you stay on top of the content you can still do well; in architecture school however, this is not the case. Students begin doing this because university attendance is not policed like it is in high school, your teacher isn’t going to call your parents and ask where you are because attendance is your choice. To be transparent I will note that some classes in University do have mandatory attendance as a marking criterion, though I have never come across this in architecture school. This is not to say however that a tutor in your studio may not be more inclined to mark higher the students who attended classes and put more effort in.
Elon Musk, one of the most successful and brilliant people in the world attended as few classes as he could in University and clearly this did not stop his progression, and in some units, you will find that only a certain percentage of attendance is required to pass the subject, as Elon found. Because of this it is easy for students to become lazy with this new found freedom and never attend class, you cannot afford to risk this in architecture school, specifically in studio sessions. To make the most of your course, gain the best feedback and to get the highest marks, you must attend classes.
Bad Habits from Online Tutorials
When you are creating a 3D Model or are drawing something on AutoCad and you get stuck, what is the obvious thing to do? Look up on Google or YouTube how to do what you can’t, right? In theory yes, in best practice, no. It is very common for the people who upload these tutorials to not be trained professionals in the software and thus may be using incorrect or inefficient methods that if you follow, you will pick up and then use. These bad habits can cause issues later in life once you are a working architect in a firm, you may do something the way you learnt on YouTube and ruin a computer model that is for a client coming in that afternoon to meet. Now you have angered your boss, have to recreate the whole thing whilst learning the right way to do it and have this all done in a few hours. This is not exactly an ideal day at work…
The best way to learn skills like this is to utilise professional tutorial and learning sites and databases such as LinkedIn Learning (formerly known as Lynda.com), MasterClass and Skillshare. Typically, subscriptions to LinkIn Learning are free through your university. Using sites such as these provides you with professionally created tutorials by industry leaders who will teach you the correct methods to use. So, next time you get stuck, use a professional site and not YouTube.
The Wrong Countries Codes and Laws
It is important as an architect to understand and be able to design to your local codes and laws for safe and legal construction, so read up and take it all in. Laws and regulations differ depending on where you are in the world and it is important that you use the ones relevant to the site you are designing on. Laws will change country to country, state to state, suburb to suburb, and it is even possible for one house to have different requirements to the house next door; thus, it is very important that you do your research as legal issues may arise if the wrong regulations are used. In the fourth year of my course, I was undertaking a group assignment on Contract Administration in Australian construction. When we went to collate the groups work it was found that the entirety of one member’s information was sourced from construction law in Papua New Guinea and thus was completely irrelevant to our assignment. If we hadn’t fixed the problem before submitting, this could have been a major mark decrease for us and if we had done this in practice when actually building a structure in the real world this could have led to serious legal repercussions. So, in short, make sure you are using the correct locations information for your work
You Need to Put your Health Second to Succeed in Architecture School
Through the workload of architecture school, it is very easy to forget to eat… and sleep… and shower… Architecture assignments can be grueling and take several long nights, however, it is extremely important that you look after yourself at the same time. Missing a meal once because you were totally consumed by a sketch is okay, but if it is becoming a habit, it is something that you need to change. In order to succeed in architecture school, you need to be able to put in maximum effort and if your body is not healthy, this is simply impossible.
A body that is running off a lack of sleep and or a lack of fuel (food and drink), cannot function at optimal performance and this means that you cannot produce your best work. It is integral that you eat, sleep and exercise the amount needed by your body if you want to pass architecture school. Now, showering is not necessarily something that will help you pass, but it is something that your studio group will thank you for... and it definitely can’t hurt your grades!
The Most Expensive is Always Best
Falling into the trap of assuming that the most expensive product always being the best is easy to do yet is commonly wrong. Architecture supplies can cost an absolute fortune, and for some items this is totally justifiable, however not always. Yes, a good set of Copic Markers can never be matched, but you may have to take out a loan to buy them… There are several other brands that can be found for a fraction of the cost and will for the better part do the same thing, though maybe for a shorter period of time. There are many items similar to this ranging from pencils to rulers to tracing paper, it is all matter of trial and error.
Plagiarism is Okay
Please do not simply look at the heading of this section and believe what it says as plagiarism is most definitely not ever okay. Plagiarism is an offence under not only university rules, but also legally in some cases. You cannot copy someone else’s work or product without either altering it or giving credit to the creator (the requirement differs depending on the situation). You must not get used to plagiarising work because it is unlikely that you will ever get away with it and if you do get away with it once, you will not get away with it a second time. Once you get caught for plagiarising work in university, your name gains an asterisk next to it that will never go away and ultimately can lead to expulsion from your course.
Not Being Environmentally Friendly is Okay
If you are a recurring reader of The Architecture Student Diaries you have probably noticed that the Environment is a cause that I care about greatly. This cause should be something that everyone cares about greatly, especially those of us who have the ability to alter the built environment (architects). The natural environment does its absolute best to defend itself and prosper, but unfortunately, the human race makes it difficult for the earth to do this and that means that we need to give it a helping hand. Working in a manner that is environmentally friendly as possible is a simple and effective way to give the earth a little bit of help.
The simplest ways to do this is to minimise waste: don’t use too much paper and recycle what you can, use your supplies for as long as possible and don’t buy new ones just because your current items are getting a bit old, and of course responsibly dispose of supplies and technology. I personally have moved to become as paper free as I can, this included stopping using physical paper books for university notes in favour of digital notetaking on my iPad and laptop. Not only does this change assist the environment, but it also creates a more efficient workflow and ensures that I will never lose my notes as they are synced to Microsoft’s cloud service, ‘One Drive.’
Final Notes
Becoming a successful architect takes decades of life and professional lessons, some of which can feel tedious and some of which can be rigorous; this is simply what it takes to make it in our profession. As you will be learning these lessons from so many different people and places, it is possible that a bad lesson or habit might slip through the cracks from time to time so it is important that you can recognise these to fix them as soon as possible. The above list provides you with some of the most common bad lessons and how to avoid them, so, take them on board and do your best to use them to your advantage. If you think you may have learnt some of these bad lessons along the way, it is time to start fixing them to make you the best architect you can be.
Ladies and Gentlemen, class dismissed.
Iain Colliver, SONA, YBA, GKIHS
