Archi School for Dummies

Welcome to Architecture school! This week, Five Foot Way brings you a virtual Architecture-Freshman-Crash-Course or, if you like, The-Architect’s-Revision Chapter One. These are things that might have slipped past your ears; things that you never really latched onto. Well we say now’s the time to grab hold of some of these tips that we’ve collected over the years… Part one starts here, look out for Part two in the distant future on Fivefootway.com.

[Image from Newsday.com]

1. Inspire, and Get Inspired
If you don’t psyche yourself, you’re definitely not going to get the crit panel psyched! Ever wondered why the eloquent ones always got away with above average crits? That’s because they probably looked and sounded like they should. Try to look and sound like you actually believe and see promise in whatever you’re selling on crit day; and things might turn out more positive. Of course, that’s not an excuse for lame ideas.

2. Don’t take all day to brainstorm.
It always helps to throw ideas around with a colleague or friend (as long as he knows what he’s doing). Talking about your design and your process helps to get things out in the open fast, rather than one massive one as ideas can quickly go cold. You might find yourself saying things about your design you never knew were hiding in that dusty closet called your brain.

3. Get off that computer; Get off Sketchup for a while!
Sometimes it’s not about edgy graphics or flashy parametric designs. Everything starts from the fundamentals; and so should your design. Lots of people have used programs such as Google Sketchup to kick start their designs - it doesn’t work for everyone. More often than not, you’re going to find yourself stuck because all you’re doing is finding out what acrobatics the program can do instead of what ideas your mind can conjure up. Get off that computer, and think already!

4. Sketch. A lot.
Lots of people almost always start with ideas that they’ve scribbled down in their sketchbooks (or their neighbourhood walls). Whenever I get an idea I just make sure I get it down on paper. This always helps as whenever you’re stuck at a later date, you don’t have to go out and buy another book, just refer to your own! Don’t just keep it to ideas though, put URLs, book titles, words, and all the sketches down that you can. It will develop the skill of translating your thoughts from head, to hand, to paper; which can be critical in architectural design.

5. Read a lot too.
It always helps to know what’s happening in the world out there; before you get stuck under your drafting table at school, encrusted in an impermeable shell we know so fondly now as “my project”. By staying up to date with the world’s happenings, your insights become enriched with the current, giving you and ‘your project’ more potential to springboard into the future. Newspaper and magazine photographs could trigger a thousand creative sparks.

6. Start laying stuff out early.
Don’t wait till a fortnight - better still, the night before submission, before you start arranging those beautiful hand-drafted perspectives or 24-hour renders on your panels. Do it NOW. By knowing what your so called deliverables are, and how you’re going to be arranging them and displaying them, you can start to envision and construct your project around the mode of presentation that you’ve already settled on. Fret not - there’s always time to think about and rearrange or redesign your presentations to best get the essence of your project across to the crit panel.

7. Keep those directories neat. And name those layers!
It pays to be organized. Always try to use as many layers as you need when working in Photoshop; avoiding merging them too early! Imagine having to undo the last 50 steps (this is sometimes impossible) just because you “wanted to change something” in that wonderful composition you took 50 hours to do.

8. Know when to stop. STOP!
Knowing when enough is enough is an essential skill. As time goes on you will get better at knowing when a project is at its peak. Not every cake needs a cherry on top.

9. Justify yourself.
If you ever absolutely had to make a statement with your work; or be controversial, tongue-in-cheek; many a crit panel would give an outright “NO.” Try giving them a persuasive and valid reason for your decision, however, and they may feel more inclined to let you go with it.

10. Don’t over sell your project.
Be up front and clear about what your project is about. The last thing you want to do is make the client think you’re the best thing since kaya toast, and let them down at the critical stage of the semester when your project fails to deliver on the very promises you made.

Stay tuned for more tips on surviving Archi School, here on www.fivefootway.com

JJ is co-founder of 5ft Creatives and is currently based in New York.