10 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Got Into Architecture — Part 1

How to study architecture the right way?

When I got into architecture, no one told me how we should approach our undergraduate education in architecture. So these are some learnings and dos and don'ts from the mistakes that I made when I was in my undergrad.

Let's get right into it

1. Don't just focus on making things “look” and “sound” pretty!

• I understand that architecture is a creative profession and there is a lot of conceptualizing and talking about how there is a philosophy and metaphor in your design.

• Focus on learning the practical aspects rather than just getting lost in conceptualizing.

2. Learn software. Period

• Sure, hand-drafting and presentation skills look beautiful and have a charm of their own. But, when you go into the outside world and start working, hand drafting skills has very few merits.

• An architecture office daily works mostly on different applications like AutoCAD, SketchUp, 3DsMax, Revit, Lumion etc. So make sure you start learning it as early as possible.

• Also, this is where all the money lies. Plus, who knows, you might find your passion in being a 3D Visualizer!

3. Try to do small internships besides your academic internship at a very early stage itself.

• Whenever you get that semester break, apply for a two-week internship. The smaller the firm, the better. A smaller firm means more scope of work, which will give you a lot of learning opportunities.

• This is a great value addition to your resume as well.

4. Get your drafting and detailing knowledge right.

• Because once you start working in an office, trust me on this, no one, absolutely no one has the time to sit and teach you about how to do line-weights in CAD and how to represent a truss detail in a section or how to do a presentation sheet in photoshop.

5. Please Read.

• I know it doesn't look very important for architects to read, because we are always involved in making drawings and presentations.

• Also, we are trained to put less text in our sheets and convey more through visual language. But it is very important to read for architecture students, not just the books which have a lot of fancy pictures of buildings on them that just talk about concepts, but also the books which talk about technical drawings, structural details, software guides etc. So go into that library and grab a book or two about how to draw that landscape detailing or the book full of drafting details.

6. Case Studies

• Whenever you get a chance to do case studies, literature or live, do not just focus on the concept of the architect, and the evolution and the process.

• As much as it is important, it is crucial in your early stages itself to understand how they made that wonderful design practical on the ground.

• So try to always dive deep down into how it was done, what kind of techniques, building components and structures were used.

7. Watch YouTube… A Lot!

• When I say this, I don't mean that you should watch just entertainment stuff and software tutorials.

• There are so many resources for architecture students out there on YouTube which will seldom come across.

• Watch portfolio reviews by architects working in huge companies, see those videos that document the progress of building a house or iconic buildings.

• There are even videos on how a particular kind of staircase is constructed and installed.

• Listen to architect's talks, which will help you understand their process as well.

8. Visit construction sites whenever you can!

• Don't just look at already built buildings and be like wowww!

• Whenever you see construction happening, even if that is of a small house, while you are on your way to your college, try to understand what they are doing there.

• This could be even the tiniest house you have ever seen in your life. But still, try to understand the progress, what materials are they using, how fast is the work happening. This is one thing that helped me a lot. Although, I wish I made a conscious effort to see more sites.

9. Do not ignore that climatology class next time.

• Next time when you go into climatology class, and your professor starts talking about passive and active cooling techniques, try to closely understand the information.

• Then go through some books and projects to see how that is used in actual projects. This will empower you to design more functionally at later stages in your career.

10. Please don't say things in your jury like my building design was inspired from the canteen 'sandwich’ is just sad and nonsensical.

• I know that there is a pressing need to sound like a philosophical intellectual when you are in your design studio. If you can read and educate yourself to come up with brilliant concepts, GREAT!

• But don't put all your time into that to a point where you don't have time left to do the actual drawings and design.

Parting Thoughts

Question yourself a lot on how things work in the real world rather than making crazy structures in your memory palace. At the end of the day, people hire you to make buildings where they can live and work. So it is very important to know, as architects, how you can make buildings work while pushing your creative quotient to its maximum potency. Before learning to create an iconic parametric structure, we need to know how to create a space with just four walls and a roof. So in part two, I will talk about more of the dos and don'ts, but as for now I will end the blog post here by saying 'Basics First'.