Initially, Architecture School was overwhelming. In my early
assignments I struggled to learn the new design ‘language,’ to manage
the intense studio hours (goodbye to mum and dad for a while), and deal
with the tough criticism – with barely a passing mark, I was lucky to
make it through my 1st year! Then there were the ‘super-students,’ those
who appeared to achieve the unattainable: draw in plan, section AND
perspective, as well as eloquently communicate and sell their ideas.
Six years on from this tough beginning I graduated with high
distinction, achieving the highest overall aggregated marks of all
students in the areas of History, Theory, Construction, Practice and
Design. I was the University of Technology (UTS) winner
of the most Outstanding Design Student in 2010, awarded
a scholarship to study in L.A. and was also nominated by UTS for the NSW
Architects Medallion in 2011.
Today I reflect on my time at university (or college for my US
readers) to recognize that the most important lessons didn’t come from
the curriculum, but from what I discovered along the way. In no
particular order, here is what I uncovered about surviving and achieving
in architecture school:
10 things you don’t get taught in Architecture School:
1: Forget about Winning or Losing
Architecture is undoubtedly subjective and therefore your tutors will
tend to find value (or lack of) in things that you don’t (or others
don’t) and vice versa. When you stop focusing on what other people do
(or think) then you will become more capable of focusing on your
individual design value and agenda. Ultimately, by ruling out the
process of comparison you begin to define your own standards and
measures of success which, in my case, is greater than the perceived
expectations that someone else will place upon me. You therefore create
your own benchmark for success. Document your work well and find a good
forum such as pushpullbar.com for
presenting your ideas and being open for criticism and growth. Always
be satisfied with your achievement, irrespective of your mark and of
those around you, part of what makes architecture so exciting is the
fact that everyone contributes uniquely to its perception, discourse and
practice.
2: Your tutor is your client
Similar to a client, your tutor needs to see, understand and be
convinced by your design process and resolution. You need to be able to
convince your tutor that your design is well-considered; at minimum,
addressing the requirements of the brief (see 4: Break the rules). In a
design competition the firm that best communicates their idea through
various mediums will often win the job, and in the same way, the student
who best communicates their idea in architecture school will likely get
the highest mark. It is also important to be professional, your tutors
are likely to have many responsibilities outside being a teacher and
mentor so show them that you respect their time by considering their
advice seriously and by working hard. If you need extra help, ask for
advice, visit their office or catch up in a cafe, just be present and
invested.
Taking the time to know your tutor (like you would a client) will
give you a greater understanding of their knowledge, values and
motivations. By understanding what their methodology and interest in
architecture is you can best gauge how they can help you, what you can
learn from them and how to approach and pitch your design strategies.
3: Play the Momentum
Many great leaders in business (including Donald Trump)
talk about the importance of establishing and maintaining momentum.
With momentum it is difficult to stop, while without momentum, it is
difficult to start. Tutors hope to see progress every single week and if
you start developing your design from day one without stopping, it is
unlikely you will feel the need to pull an all-nighter before submission
time (this being the quintessential anti-momentum). The most successful
projects are unlikely to be developed in just 1 night and design tutors
are well aware of the students who haven’t slept based on the
thoroughness of their project. Without momentum, students are not able
to achieve the same kind of thought processes with consideration and
continuous design iterations that the students with momentum have.
Maintaining this will also eliminate the need for major last-minute
design changes that often do more harm than good. Last-minute changes
are usually less resolved and less likely to be communicated
successfully.
4: Break the Rules
It is important to think of the design brief as your minimum
expectation; tutors establish the brief to ensure students address
particular challenges and important considerations relating to the
design subject. There will be a number of rules which are outlined in
the brief; ‘the house must be 2 stories high’ or ‘you must have 6m
setback from the road.’ However, if you have a better solution, break
and/or negotiate the rules – but always understand why. Curiosity will
lead to discovery, which in turn will lead to questioning: so why does
the house need to be 2 stories? There is never only one answer rather
university is about speculating many and asking the right questions.
There is far more value in a student who strives to find solutions
that challenge the status quo than in one who simply meets the rules
without considering why they’ve been established (and what they do) in
the first place. By doing this you think about how architecture works as
opposed to how it looks. When it comes to the design brief, rules are
made to be broken; and when done so successfully you will stand out from
your peers, as well as generate a more valuable discussion for
learning.
Many architects who have won major competitions (look no further; Bernard Tschumi)
have done so by breaking and/or negotiating the rules, to communicate a
design solution, or perhaps a problem (even better!) to the jury or
client (in your case tutor) which stood out from the competition. By
bringing unexpected agendas and obstacles into view, architectural
proposals can re-order the traditional logic (see Arakawa and Gins) and allow the jury or client (or tutor, or the public) to find unexpected value.
5: Have broad influences and mentors
When studying Architecture it is quite easy to isolate all of your
influences and mentors to people who directly work in the industry.
While it is important to have these people available to guide you, it is
important to have many influences and mentors from outside the
industry. This allowed me learn from people with vastly different
perspectives and considerations and to then apply this thinking back
into architecture, creating a broader and more interesting forum for
discussion and negotiation.
I often did self-guided subjects where I could write my own design
brief to explore such topics of anarchy and architecture and social and
political agendas in architecture because this is what most interested
me. It is also possible to do subjects outside architecture by taking
units in anthropology, biology or ceramics, for example, allowing you to
naturally broaden your skill-set, personal resources, and way of
thinking about architecture (think of Shigeru Ban’s unique weaving aesthetic), and even better is Architecture inspired by Science Fiction or Fantasy.
One of my favourite architects Andrew Maynard often talks about the “storm trooper detail”
in his work, which is a white surface with black detailing revealed
beneath. Limiting your influences can quite simply lead to producing
designs that look generic because one can only imagine the reproduction
of what they know or have seen. Having broad motivations and influences
will allow you to constantly inform your peers and tutors and to keep
them engaged in your projects and processes by showing them a
perspective which is unique and outside their own.
6: Have cause and conviction
Be passionate about something to motivate you through university and
into your career. Game changing Architects advocate a strong cause and
with precise conviction. In their protest for what they believe they
don’t stand in-front of the car, they are behind the wheel driving.
Admittedly, at one point or another, every architecture student finds
him or herself dragging their heels. As soon as you feel that you do not
love what you’re doing, it’s time to stop, question why and
re-evaluate. Redirect your process or motivation and don’t let anything
get in the way of your love affair (see Louis Sullivan’s essay,“May Not Architecture Again Become a Living Art?”).
Don’t feel like you are doing the work because you have to, rather you
should do it because you want to and allow your energetic attitude to
inspire and lift your peers. Why bother trying to drudge through any
part of the process?
7: Up-skill
Your tools, techniques and methods of communication will
significantly affect your ability to communicate architecture. You need
to develop strong visual, verbal and written communication skills.
Through concise yet relaxed storytelling – communicating, his idea,
process and resolution Bjarke Ingels is a master when it comes to winning competitions, in an interview with the New Yorker he
describes himself “as a true extrovert. Your capacity to communicate
ideas is your hammer and chisel.” Something as simple as mastering
Google search, CAD programs, or getting models laser cut can save hours!
8: Build meaningful relationships
The relationships you build, both in and out of school, represent the
beginning of defining your views and finding your own path in
architecture. Many successful architecture partnerships are formed
between people who met in school. (see Asymptote Architecture or Hurzog & de Meuron)
But beyond keeping a reliable group of go-tos, think of everyone you
encounter during school as a potential connection for the future. Seek
out events and happenings that will expose you to other people in the
field. Having conversations with as many people in the industry as
possible will open up the most opportunities for you to grow and form
new professional friendships and partnerships, taking you places not
possible without.
9: Learn project management
As an architecture student, one of the first things you find out (and
last things you learn to figure in) is that everything will likely take
three to five times longer than you expected. This is also
unfortunately common in practice and generally Architects need to be
better managers. I believe this is because architecture is both a
qualitative and quantitative process which helps to negate the ‘finish’
line. Not ever did I feel a design project was ‘perfect’ and likewise
Architects on every project wish they had done something (or many
things) differently. “Parkinson’s Law dictates
that a task will swell in (perceived) importance and complexity in
relation to the time allotted for its completion.”- Tim Ferriss, The Four Hour Work week.
Understanding the perceived importance of a given task will
effectively allow you to direct your focus on the right things, at the
right time, allowing you to make smart decisions on where to spend your
effort, time, money, resources and so on for maximum gain. For more
guidance on study hacks and optimising the use of your time check out Cal Newport’s blog and 99U.
10: Don’t expect the outcome
Students often limit their projects by anticipating certain aspects
or the design outcome far too early on in the process. If you are too
focused on a fixed result, then you are denying yourself the opportunity
to discover what you could not have expected. When you anticipate a
given outcome, your research, equipment, processes and focus will
naturally be managed in a way to best meet the anticipated solution. By
contrast, if you try to set yourself up for the act of discovery,
embracing what serendipitous events come up along the way, you will
begin to tap into the tacit and often highly subjective insights,
intuitions and hunches of individual thought and expression. I can tell
you now that to be surprised by your own, idiosyncratic work is far more
satisfying than any mark.
You will need to find your own way, be engaged and proactive, no one
can teach you the answer, you need to discover and create. ‘A lot of
people never use their initiative because no one told them to’ Banksy.
Like I said back at number 1, there are no winners or losers –
architecture is interesting because it is after all capable of surprise!
I hope everyone studying architecture, or planning to study
architecture finds my advice helpful. For anyone who would like to learn
more about any of my points above please feel free to email
linda@archi-ninja.com. For anyone who has finished architecture school
or currently learning things along the way Id love to hear your own
experiences and advice in the comment section below.
Cite:
Quirk , Vanessa
. "10 Things They Don’t Teach You in Architecture School" 09 Oct 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 28 Oct 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/280028>
I was running along the six-mile loop in Central Park on a cold
winter day when I passed the southern most end of the park where I
noticed a large number of miserable looking pedicab drivers huddled
together to keep warm. Periodically one reached out to a passing
pedestrian, but no one seemed to want a ride in a bicycle-drawn
carriage. It was too cold.
And then, to my surprise, a little further along the run I saw a
pedicab — with passengers in it — circling the park. The reason this
pedicab had been hired instead of the others was immediately obvious.
On both sides of his small carriage hung signs with large letters that
read "HEATED SEATS."
In any highly competitive field — and these days every field is
highly competitive — being different is the only way to win. Nobody
wants to sell a commodity and nobody wants to be a commodity.
Yet, even though we all know that, most of us spend a tremendous amount of effort trying not
to be different. We model ourselves and our businesses after other
successful people and businesses, spending considerable money and energy
discovering and replicating best practices, looking for that one recipe
for success.
Here's the thing: if you look like other people, if your business
looks like other businesses, then all you've done is increase your pool
of competition.
I was working with American Express in 1993 when Harvey Golub became
the new CEO. He wore suspenders. Within a few weeks so did everyone
else. In our corporate cultures, we school, like fish. We try
especially hard to fit in when we worry about getting laid off. Maybe,
we think, standing out will remind them that we're here and then they'll
lay us off too.
But fitting in has the opposite effect. It makes you dispensable.
If you're like everyone else, then how critical to the business can you
be?
That's how my friend Paul Faerstein lost his job. He was very
successful at fitting in. It was the early 1990s and he was a partner at
the Hay Group. He was a good consultant — I learned a lot from him —
and for a long time he acted like the other partners. He sold the
projects they sold. Billed the hours they billed.
Then, in a year and a half, Paul's mother died, his brother died, and
he got divorced. He couldn't keep up his sales or his billable hours.
And here's the important part: he didn't bring anything unique to the
table beyond those things. It wasn't that he couldn't, as we'll see in a
moment. But he didn't. So he lost his job.
Trying to distinguish ourselves by being the same as others, only
better, is hard to do and even harder to sustain. There are too many
smart, hard working people out there all trying to excel by being the
best at what everyone else is doing.
It's simply easier to be unique.
Entertainment is a great example. In a field with a tremendous
number of beautiful, sexy, talented people, what are the chances that
you'll be noticed by being even more beautiful, sexy, and talented?
But, Susan Boyle was different. She broke the mold. Which is why her YouTube videos received over 100 million hits. If she looked like every other aspiring singer, would the world have noticed?
If you're 60, don't get a facelift and pretend to be 30. Embrace 60
and use it to your advantage. According to a tremendous body of
research, talent is not inborn, it's created by practice. Which gives a
60 year old a tremendous advantage over a 30 year old.
But even in our diversity-focused corporations, it's hard to be
different because we have cultural norms that encourage sameness. That's
why we have dress codes. And expressions like "don't rock the boat."
My advice? Rock on.
That's what Paul eventually did. After he lost his job, Paul
realized that he was never fully himself as a partner in the Hay Group.
He had more to offer. He wanted to connect more deeply with his
clients, help them achieve things outside the scope of the Hay Group's
offerings, and engage with them on issues beyond the bottom line.
Now,
his name is Paramacharya Swami Parameshwarananda (you can call him
Swamiji for short). He is the resident spiritual master at an ashram in
Colorado. His change might seem drastic. But it was easy for him
because each step he took was a step toward himself. And now he
couldn't be happier or more effective. He serves on various boards and
leadership councils and is a driving force behind several educational
and humanitarian projects around the world.
He's still doing many of the same things he did as a failed
consultant in New Jersey, but he's more successful because he feels and
acts like himself. In his words, "I'm living my inner truth." And he
is indispensable. Not simply for what he does, but for who he is.
Now, I'm not suggesting you go live on an ashram in Colorado. For
most people that would be absurd. And copying someone else who's
different won't help. You'll never be as good a version of someone else
as you are of yourself.
How can you move closer to contributing your unique value? What are
your "heated seats"? Can you be more effective by being more yourself?
Face it: you're different. And the sooner you realize it, the sooner
you embrace and leverage it, the more successful you'll be. The same
goes for your business.
That's why one pedicab driver with heated seats can stay busy all day
while the others huddle around each other, fareless, trying to stay
warm.
