Itâs that time of year again; rural Universities have started classes and urban Universities will start soon. Architecture school is an extremely demanding major requiring different skills and a broader range of tactics to successfully navigate. Here at the BUILDblog weâve put our combined 18 years of university architecture school experience together and weâve come up with a list of 10 critical items we think youâll need to tackle academics and shoot out of Architecture school without all the baggage.
1. There is no substitution for hard work.
If youâre not a hard worker the remaining nine bullet points probably wonât make much difference to you. The study of architecture requires that you be productive and diligent. Youâll miss good parties; friends will look at you incredulously as you head off to the studio on a Friday night. Stick to it and be industrious.
2. That you have to pull âall-nightersâ to get your projects done is a fallacy.
Itâs simply not true. Youâll be told differently from students higher up the ranks. When they tell you that âthereâs just no way around all-nightersâ they will be holding a cigarette in one hand, a triple grande coffee in the other and they will have a look on their face so morbid that it will seem more appealing to simply change majors. Donât believe them, theyâre delusional. Work hard, work efficiently, work with self discipline. You donât have to pull all-nighters to produce exceptional work in architecture school. The students who have supposedly âbeen up for 3 nightsâ always seem to be sleeping on the couch in the library during the day.
3. Nobody likes hearing a presentation from a zombie.
Practicing how you present yourself and honing your communication skills are just as important as the architecture you are discussing. Get a bit of sleep the night before presentations and crits (refer to #2).
4. Crits arenât always about architecture.
Thereâs also less at stake during crits than you might think. Youâre going to have jurors that love your projects, jurors that hate your projects and everything in between. Often, jurors show up with their own agendas â the thesis of that book they just published, their latest project they feel the need to defend, an axe to grind with another juror, who knows. What you should know is that these things are beyond your control. Present yourself well, listen to and respect the jury and at the end of the day donât worry too much about what they think or donât think. Weâve seen some exceptional presentations and we never saw anyone being offered a job on the spot. Conversely, weâve seen some presentations go disastrously wrong, and there were never any real-life consequences. Crits have less of an emphasis on the design; itâs an opportunity to work the kinks out of your presentation skills before youâre actually talking to a client â at which point there will be consequences for a poor performance.
5. You are the CEO of you.
In academia we would occasionally come across the professor who tried to steer our projects in the direction of their own personal agenda. Sometimes thatâs for the best and sometimes itâs not. Obviously the appropriate path depends on the professor and the context â but just because a professor has a vision for your project doesnât mean that you need to follow suit. Use your judgment â those same skills of persuasion and tact will come in very handy later in your career.
6. Youâre paying them, not the other way around.
A good professor should receive your full respect â after all, theyâve forgotten more about architecture than youâve ever learned. At the same time you are paying tuition to be taught and professors should be held accountable for your education. If youâre not getting what you want out of a class or studio it is up to you to voice that concern and your professorâs to address it.
7. Get more mileage out of your hard work.
We were often prohibited from using the same work in different classes. For instance, the same photographs of an architecture project could not be used in both an architectural studio and a photography class. Such practice was considered double-dipping and deemed unacceptable. We never agreed with this â itâs not the way the world works. In our practice we donât take separate photos for Dwell, Met Home, Sunset and Architectural Record. We take the photos once and send them to everybody, as well as use them on the website and the blog â otherwise weâd be up all night. Obviously there are examples of abuse and itâs important to be judicious about the issue, but weâre fans of getting the most mileage out of hard work. Be clever.
8. Your portfolio is not the Holy Grail.
Portfolios are important, no doubt. They are not, however, the most precious object on the earthâs surface. Craft it, refine it, use it, leverage it and realize that someday it will be collecting dust under a pile of construction documents in your office. It is a tool useful at a certain period in your life, it is a stepping stone. It is not more important than how you think, who you meet and how you operate in the world. Most of all donât expect other people (like non-architects) to give a crap about your portfolio â to them itâs 20 pages of pretty pictures with a leather cover.
9. Diversify
Take some classes in real-estate, business or engineering. You will need these perspectives more than you can imagine as an architect.
10. Donât bore your non-architect friends with archi-speak.
If youâre not careful, by the time graduation comes around the architects will have degenerated into a cult, locked away in the studio with their own language that nobody can decipher. Get out of the studio from time to time and leave the archi-speak at the door. The lawyers, MBAs and pre-med students you talk to over beers at the bar will be your clients someday â donât scare them off.
References: M. Arch. Columbia University â01, M. Arch. University of Kansas â96, B. Arch. Washington State University â96, B.A. Washington State University â95, B. Arch. & Engineering â95, M. Arch. Washington State University â07, B. Arch. Washington State University â06.