4trees

After going the rounds of open houses and college visits I've learned that Arch students are rarely seen out on campus, and rumor has it, not often in dorms. Folks in general on campus say Arch students have such huge workloads, they are always in studio... As a non-arch person (parent) this seems like a hellish college life, yet when I look close at the kids in studio I see glued thumbs, paper cuts, and some sleepy eyes, yet no real agony in the faces and no one has palmed me a scribbled note saying "help me escape". I'm beginning to think that either they actually like being there, or they are hostages forced to smile and engage the casual studio visitor. My question is, are you prisoners being held captive or members of a secret society and there by choice? Once visitors leave and the door is locked closed are you all beaten into submission, or does the music and colored lights come up and party time begin?

Seriously, I know you all must be hugely devoted to your chosen profession, and even I can see it's a tremendous workload requiring commitment and long hours. My real question as a dad about to release my only child into your realm is, do you ever have time for college life?

sashimi46

in order to go into architecture, you need to really really like it. those who are in it do it because they have a passion for it..and those who don't probably dropped out already.

architecture school unlike most other schools don't assign work in such quantitative ways. you can do as much work as you want or as little as you want. developing a good idea is often very time consuming which is probably why students stay in studio for so long. there is never an end to an idea so you can constantly develop it and improve upon it. i personally really enjoy what i do. it can often get stressful especially with other work to do but since i'm developing my own idea and in always in need of creating new ideas, i don't mind staying in studio at all.

first year students i think tend to struggle the most because they're not used to the new way of learning yet. but throughout the years your son (should he decide to continue pursuing arch) will learn to be more efficient and make time for himself. i think to learn how to multi-manage and be efficient is very good for future practice.

lastly, it's always important to do something else to balance your life out...whether it be a club, or fraternity, etc.

noopsgnitaenam

I totally agree with what sashimi said.

Arch students do spend lots of time in the studio, but there is also a lot of time that is spend doing other things that most people just don't realize. If you talk to the profs about this, they tell you that studio can take up this amount of time, but you can still do a lot more once you learn to time manage and priotize, and not stay up working all night long.

rick12

I always tell people that architecture is more like a cult than a profession. The tearing down before building back up, the sleep deprivation, and that sense of having gone through it together. In college I was on the varsity rifle and lacrosse teams, but there is no doubt that my life revolved around studio. The friendships that you make while spending countless sleepless hours together are some of the strongest that you will ever have.

Studio is also a good test to see whether someone is really meant for the profession. If you find studio to be a grind that just keeps you from doing the social activities that you really enjoy, then you need to find something else to major in. At the state school where I did undergrad we started studio with 195 students, and by the end of the first year we were down to 95, very few actually failed, they just realized they did not enjoy the experience and got out.

If your so is meant to be an architect he will relish the experience, It is something al of us have been through.

rick

The Popinjay

I totally agree.

I don't know many other majors which challenge you as strongly as architecture: not necessarily mentally, as I've never felt the material we learn is particularly conceptually challenging- but physically. Deadlines take on new meaning when you constantly feel their pressure when they may even be weeks away.

I am hardly ever in my dorms- I leave for class early in the morning and I don't come back until I almost have to wake up the next morning. The nature of the work forces me to organize my time to the last detail, and even though we undergo daunting, long hours or even days in studio, only to be criticized in pin-ups, it's worth every minute.

I look forward to all nighters and collaborating on projects with my friends. My best experiences so far are in studio. It's where we bond- I find myself spending all my free time with them too.

It is said that in architecture there are no due dates, only deadlines- that is, your work is never finished- you constantly have work to get done for the next project.

I'm constantly discovering new things about myself: knowing how long I can stay awake continuously and still do quality work, how to juggle my non-arch classes, how to fit in tiny naps here and there, or resourcefully purchase and recycle supplies.

The hard work pays off though, and like the others said- if you're destined to be an architect, you'll stick with it. My studio culture is, for lack of better expression, simply awesome, and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

KandKsmom

4trees, thanks for starting this thread. As a mom of an aspiring arch student, I was wondering (and worrying) about the same things. r

ick12, you said that you were an athlete in college as well as an arch student. Can that be done today? I know that at NC State, the arch school tells potential candidates that they cannot do DI sports and enter their program. But at other schools I don't know if this is the case.

Do any of you arch students find time to be on club sports teams? Like sashimi said, I think it is important to find balance and stay physically healthy. Hopefully if s can be a good manager of time, he can make time for some outside the studio fun.

noopsgnitaenam

You can do sports as an arch student. I know someone from Cornell that played football. It all depends how you manage your time. If you want to play sports and do arch, you might have to give up sitting around wasting time talking or something like that. It all depends how dedicated and motivated to arch and sports, and if you are to both, or whatever you want to do, you can succeed.

laurstar07

im on 2 club sports teams at cornell: figure skating and synchronized skating. really, the key is about time management. it also gives you an excuse to get out of the studio

sashimi46

yeah anything to get you out of studio is nice..fraternities..clubs..sports..a girlfriend/boyfriend haha

RyanMac

Kind of hijacking this thread but whatever, it's a little on topic:

I was talking to an architect who got his B.Arch from UMinnesota and M.Arch from MIT. He said that one of the most valuable things he got out of his BArch design studios was integrating older students with younger students - that is, having everyone almost work together, or at least not completely separating older students from the younger.

He said that seeing older students' work helps you have some sort of precedent/bar for yourself and what you should be striving for, or above. I'm not sure how any of you feel about that, but what has the experience of you current students or now-architects been in this regard? Did/do you feel like you had/have "access" to older students as helpful resources? Is this worth taking into consideration when picking BArch programs?

noopsgnitaenam

I agree with that. You learn a lot of your classmates and it is always good to see what other students outside your classes are doing.
With all the arch programs, you should have access to seeing what other years are doing, since usually there are spaces set up for showing work and you'll have friends in other years.

sashimi46

very important. get to know upperclassmen and observe their work. at my school, 1st year studios sit right next to grad studios and other studios are mixed around and it's great because you are constantly being exposed to different types of work.

talk to upperclassmen a lot too because they can provide helpful crits and you can learn a lot from them

kjofkw

I always feel like a voice crying in the wilderness regarding architecture studio. The hours are insane, but I feel it is an unnecessary disservice to both the students and the profession. Most of the rest of the world does not function that way. Even the architecture business for the most part, does not function that way. It can be a cult as Rick described, and it can be a mixture of fun and work. There are benefits, the biggest in my opinion is cultivating the ability to work on teams. But non-stop work is also unhealthy, and unwise. (my personal 2 cents). You can love a field, and still maintain sanity -- and regular hours. Studio work is never done. Something can always be improved. The same could potentially be said for surgery -- with disastrous results. Non stop hours encourages inefficiency, rather than efficiency. I also think it would be far more useful for the education (AND for the profession) to encourage students to view the world from the eyes of other professions, and that means taking other courses including business classes, computer applications (outside the architectural ones), understanding materials (from an engineers point of view), etc. Archi. students need to meet students outside of the architecture studio, where ultimately most of the clients will be coming from. We SAY that architecture covers a wide realm and crosses many disciplines, but most schools focus solely on studio training, to the detriment of anything else. I know of one studio where students were encouraged to fail their outside courses, so that they could focus totally on the studio. In my opinion, that is dangerous.

Just because it is tradition, does not make it right, or beneficial.
Yes...I am an architect.

so_ein_quatsch

Merely my observations, but I actually know of many firms which have pulled or are currently pulling all-nighters. Toshiko Mori even lamented about her inability to join her firm in all-nighters because of family obligations, as did Ponce de Leon of Office dA. I think one reason why people are so attracted to the studio culture is the close-knit community you form with others. Though I do agree with kj, it is a slightly dangerous trend.

RyanMac

It's kind of worrysome that architects in their mid-twenties have to invest so much time in their firms - what about starting families? Isn't there some statistic about architects being married extremely young, as in early twenties, and usually to other architects? I guess it's hard to explain to a spouse that's not an architect that you "need" to stay in the studio all night lol.

Oh an so_ein, I guess it's because you go to school in the area (I'm from Boston), but you mentioned Office dA - Tehrani's work was some of the first stuff I started looking at when I got interested in arch. Their work is pretty awesome.