14 things I learned in Architecture School (Day 9- being grateful for EDUCATION)
This article is part of my December 2020 Gratitude series that help me end this year on a more positive and inspiring note.
There is only one thing I get asked more often than "Why did you study architecture?". It is "Why are you not doing architecture after studying it?".
My dream of becoming an architect came early in my teenage years. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. I just knew I loved math, history, art and playing Sims and Caesar III. I did not know how to draw but learning more about architecture made me realize that this is what I want to study. It was a combination of creativity, science and serving people. Little did I know that I would be laughed at by a Czech professor after showing him my drawings. I aced all of the science-focused tests, but unfortunately, I was not able to draw still life. Therefore not meeting the expectation to be accepted and I was also told that I will "never be an architect". To be honest, the professor was right, because I am not one now. Now I am grateful for that because it turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me.
Luckily, no one is stopping me when I decided on achieving something. So I researched other ways of getting to architecture school. For a year, I enrolled into a Civil Engineering course to "not waste" the year I had to wait to re-apply and I used it to learn more about the technical side of things. Which was a total disaster and It helped me realize that I really don't want to study architecture the Slovakian/Czech way. I searched and searched, and it turned out that the UK did not force you to do tests to apply to architecture school. You just send them your portfolio and a cover letter. I got 4 offers.
The following years were one of the most influential years of my life. I love learning, and I wish everyone had an opportunity to have such inspiring teachers as me. Teachers, that make you fall in love with the subjects and help you find the things you are the best at. As much as I would argue for everyone taking a gap year, I would wish everyone studied at least a BA degree of something they enjoy.
It might not be a popular opinion. It might be seen as a waste of time for some. But I come from a place when every single day, I am grateful for my education and the people that made me who I am today. That is why I am sharing the things I learned while trying to become an architect. Also, the reasons why I don't think even a minute of those 3 years were a waste of time. Even though I decided to pursue a different career path.
The way to creativity is sitting down and creating
First thing I quickly learned was that we will be creating on a daily basis. Putting out ideas constantly, most of which will be horrible, some of them mediocre and very few good. That is also when I learned, that you don't wait out for great ideas to just appear from out of nowhere. No. You sit down and start playing, sketching, creating. You have to turn up with something at the tutorial and that something leads to a conversation about either trying a different approach or continuing to develop what you currently have. And you keep moving forward with every single attempt. Please note that this is how we, ordinary people, function. I am not talking about those blessed individuals that make everything look great without even trying.
Killing my darlings
Trying a completely different approach is also a lesson in itself. You think you come up with something decent, bring it to a tutorial and the teacher disagrees, gives you valid reasons and tells you to look at it from a different perspective. At first, it seemed to me like a complete waste of time. But learning to "kill my darlings" was crucial. Not getting attached to ideas as something that is part of myself, something I put my heart and soul into. Even after 2 weeks of work, I sometimes agreed with the teacher that things didn't work and got rid of it. Of course, this was much later when I grasped this concept. Throwing out work is never a waste, as it always gives you practice. Not hanging on unproductive ideas and realizing mistakes quickly. Invaluable!
No idea is original or unique
There are successful project, concepts and approaches that work. Trying to come up with them from scratch is a complete waste of time. The real creative process lies in learning from precedence and combining different ideas. It will always result in something original. Anything you are looking for was definitely thought of before, just find it, adjust it and make it work for you. This applies to any discipline - graphic design, photography, marketing, fashion, music, business. That is why people create case studies. They are shortcuts. Use them.
Seeing beauty in ordinary things
This is also a fun little exercise that I still like to do. When you look at something, try to think about what you like about it, what you don't and what could you change to make it better. This is what I learned in drawing lessons. The teacher always asked us to describe something in words and made us look so closely at things others did not see. It taught me how to capture the significance of ordinary things.
Expressing ideas through different mediums
I do not consider myself an artist. I also can't draw, which understandably comes as a shock to everyone. The first thing that people assume about architects/architecture students is that they can draw beautifully. I just know how to draw something in scale and proportionally accurate. But it is not beautiful. It only serves as being useful. When it comes to expressing my ideas on paper and presenting them to others, I had to find a different but still compelling way. I used photography to capture the essence of a place, I used model making to explain the spacial qualities of the streets, and I used collages for explaining concepts. Then in my third year on a trip to Northern Italy, I was promised by my tutors that they were going to teach me how to sketch good enough. I did believe it was possible. But they did! I can’t wait to share this story with everyone one day. The important thing is that communicating thoughts and articulating ideas is just as important as having them.
Giving and getting feedback
During the year, we had personal tutorials with teachers twice a week and then we had crits. Crit is a review in which you get critiqued in front of your studio group. Or anyone walking by. Your tutors are joined by teachers that do not know your work and offer feedback from a different perspective. We were also encouraged to give feedback to fellow students. It was all so very stressful. But after a while, I got used to presenting my work and articulating my suggestions. The right mindset is not to take anything personally. Usually, when a drawing is poor, you know it anyway. When it comes to getting feedback on ideas, everyone's interest is to help you make the project as good as possible. It is also a great lesson in having a good reason behind design decisions. Otherwise, you will get stuck in a loop of just doing pretty things instead of useful things and architecture is about serving people, not only the eyes. Well, that was at least why I chose my school because that was their approach to design.
The thing I need to learn now is how to accept feedback on my personality. I often get very defensive. But I am working on it!
Public speaking
The stress was always mostly about speaking in front of 10-30 people. The time before and the first minutes are always the worst. But if I prepared well enough and practised the presentation at least 3 times, I earned the confidence I needed. I learned to always prepare. The worst thing is that we were all presenting work after an all-nighter spent model-making and a stressful morning in the print shop… A recipe for disaster. The moment I started treated them as a conversation with the audience rather than presentation, everything changed.
Getting over myself
Being a student of architecture means, spending a lot of time outside in cities studying existing architecture. It also means sitting on floors, sketching in public, walking around the same building for hours, stroking walls, taking pictures of totally random cracks and ornaments, carrying huge models across London, measuring floor tiles in the middle of the street or even counting chewing gums. I learned no to care about what I look like to strangers. This was also a huge help with my first attempts to vlogging. Somehow it gave me confidence and a sense of personality and helped me with not caring about general awkwardness and therefore relieved anxiety.
Researching, skimming and writing
We had 3 modules in school: Design, Technology and Critical and Contextual studies. And we were really asked to think critically and contextually. Producing vast volumes of high-quality work were inevitable. Some medical students might be laughing at this, seeing we only had 3 modules. But design took about 80% of the time and tech another 10%. So in that 10% left for writing and research, we were forced to absorb information very efficiently. In the beginning, most of the essays I was writing were about topics I had zero knowledge of. I learned how to research, read quickly, take notes and write with confidence. There was no other way around it. I loved everything about this module.
Thinking about how I am thinking
The most valuable thing about research and essays was understanding how I structure my thoughts and absorb new information. Thinking about my arguments, criticizing them, understanding other's points of view… We talked about feminism in architecture, racism, anthropology, history, economics… We read a lot of books and articles, and then we spoke about them.
I wish I could go and hug my Critical and Contextual studies teachers right now. In fact, I wish I could hug all of my teachers. Maybe we would have fewer flat-earthers and anti-waxers if everyone had an opportunity to be challenged this way.
Managing my own time
I was lucky because I just moved to a new country, leaving all of my friends and family at home. That is a lot of time gained. In the beginning, I had no idea what I got myself into. In uni in Slovakia, we had every single minute planned, and most of the work was mechanical. We knew exactly how long things were taking. In London, we had probably 15 hours of teaching during the week, and the rest was time for self-study. We could manage the time as we wanted. The briefs usually did not specify the amount of work or pages required and most of the exercises were open to interpretation. Having a routine and weekly plan was inevitable. The thing that seemed to work the best for me was having uninterrupted blocks of time for each module. I still use this for everything I do till this day.
The 80:20 rule
Pareto principle is an aphorism which asserts that 80% of outcomes result from 20% of all causes for any given event. When deadlines were getting closer, I tried to identify inputs that were potentially the most productive and make them the priority. All projects consisted of creating a lot of work to get ideas across. This could be models, digital visualizations or hand drawings. Applying the 80:20 rule was about prioritizing my tasks and honestly assessing my own abilities. It was important not to get stuck on unnecessary details and understanding that nothing is finished, nothing is permanent, and nothing is perfect.
Always having a backup plan
At any given time, something could go horribly wrong, and hours of work will be wasted. This includes accidentally destroying models, erasing files, print shops out of business or ruining an SD card. Or something as stupid as The Tower Bridge being closed, causing 30 minutes delays for the whole of London. So I had a backup plan for almost everything. Always photographing my models after finishing them, having backup photos on the phone, saving files to clouds and hard drives…
Teamwork and leadership
This was the biggest slap in the face for me. In Slovakia, we did not work in groups in high school or University. I was not used to being dependant on other people time schedules and work ethic. The schedules I could deal with, but the work ethic was very hard for me. You need to understand that I was the most excited person in the world that I was given an opportunity to study Architecture. In London! After being rejected so many times and struggling at Civil engineering, it was a dream come true. When I was put in a group where people were forced to study by their parents, it was excruciating for both parties. Luckily, there was Pip.
Pip was this girl that intimidated the shit out of me. At the beginning of the first year, we were assigned a small project, and out of 130 people, they showcased 5. Pip was one of them. She was so special that even teachers were discussing their decisions regarding curriculum with her! And then the first project groups were announced, and I was with her. I was so afraid to come to school that day. The whole time I was thinking about how I was going to ruin her project and let her down. 7 years later, Pip is one of the most influential people in my life, and we created great things together. It turned out that there are things that she admires about me as well! It is one of the best feelings in the world, when someone you respect, respects you back.
She taught me how to work in a group, respect the process, delegate, lead, make decisions together and that there is no shame in not knowing and asking for help. She gave me confidence, she gave me feedback. Most importantly, she made me believe that I could actually be good at this architecture thing. Our projects always turned out to be super fun and never ever stressful.
I learned that it is about the result, not about individual contributions. Everyone holds a different role in the team, and it is the team-leaders responsibility to nurture what people are best at. Luckily the leaders were always assigned, so there were no power games in Uni. It always came with some disappointments, blaming and swearing… But it also still turned out to be a great experience and a great insight into other people's processes and lessons on how to deal with different personalities.
NOTHING IS FINISHED, NOTHING IS PERMANENT, NOTHING IS PERFECT.
I came in as tabula rasa. I knew nothing about the design process, feedback, group-work or writing. Towards the third year, I was able to master a lot of things, and I can proudly but incredibly humbly say, that I ended up with a first-class degree. Not because I am a talented designer, but because I was a quick learner, I loved what I was doing, and I had incredible people around me that inspired me to do better every day. Still to this day, I think that learning how to take criticism for work, the ability to argument decisions and formulating feedback for others are some of the most valuable lessons for life.
As my friend Stephen also pointed out, this whole journey was also a valuable lesson in itself. It was about learning the things and learning “the self” in doing them.
