10 life tips for architecture school

hello students are you ready to be thrown into  a pool of the unknown you will be critiqued and   criticized in front of your peers you will work  long days and long nights endlessly many times   without knowing what you are looking for you  will have to do the same things over and over   and over again your project will haunt you from  the moment you wake up to the moment you sleep   if you're going to sleep that is if you're  ready for this then sit tight because in this   video i'm going to give you 10 life tips that  i wish i had when i was in architecture school   just over 10 years ago when i was just 18 years  old i decided to make the biggest investment of   my life and applied for architecture school  i spent about seventy thousand dollars and   six years of my life drawing sketching getting  criticized for my work and falling asleep   in the computer lab it's kind of crazy  when you think about it with any other   type of investment you would want some kind  of certainty in the success of the outcome   but when it comes to our education we kind of  go into it with blind faith don't get me wrong   i am very happy that i made that decision 10 years  ago and i can't imagine myself doing anything else   but recently i have been thinking about how i  could have maximized the returns on my investment   and how different life would be if i knew 10  years ago some of the things that i know now   so in this video i want to talk about 10 things  i wish i knew or thought about before starting   architecture school focus on building meta skills  as well as your hard skills so i remember this one   time i was working on a project with a classmate  and i was just really frustrated because i felt   like he was not really contributing on the  design and i just felt like he wasn't really   pulling his weight i'm sure you are also gonna  come across a situation like this because there   are a lot of group projects and everyone kind  of has different standards and everyone has   different ways of working you know and some  people are just not that great to work with   but when you leave school and work in an office  this is something that principals or project   architects have to do every day you know they need  to teach young interns they need to explain things   to clients and consultants and every day we're  solving problems that are not just design related   but people related so these kind of unfortunate  but inevitable group situations are kind of the   perfect opportunity for you to practice how  to communicate and also how to inspire people   and how to explain things and i think these are  all skills that are gonna become very helpful down   the road develop a skill that you can monetize  when i finished architecture school i had around   50 000 in student loans and my  starting intern salary was 50 000 so   my mindset was to do everything and anything  possible to pay this back as fast as possible   so i started looking at like looking for side  work like i knew how to draft i knew how to   do renders i knew how to take photographs so  i told all my co-workers and everyone i knew   that if they ever needed any of these things  i could do it for a really really good price   and so i started getting some work here and  there but what i didn't realize is that the   work would take way more time than i had  anticipated because i wasn't actually that   good at any of them compared to a professional  i also didn't know how to charge properly   to compensate for my time so it actually took me  um a couple tries to get to a level where i could   actually like offer my services  professionally for a decent fee if you are   someone who wants to offer some side services  check out places like upwork and fiverr and see   what level of competence is out there and how  much you can charge for them something else that i   learned is that you should try to get into  the habit of setting your own price and   asking what you think you're worth obviously  do the research but one of the things that i   realized makes a really big difference in  your fee surprisingly is not necessarily the   um the quality of the work but it's actually  the quality of the service so if you are   able to communicate with your clients really well  give them timely responses and feedback you'll   get great reviews and you can charge a lot more  this is especially prevalent now where you have   people charging like literally five dollars for  a rendering so i think the communication and   the service actually makes a really big difference  and i was actually pretty surprised about this too   there's just so many ways for you to make  money these days that's not tied to your   job and architecture school is a really great  place for you to explore some of those skills   but it's your job to make it specific and unique  enough for it to be marketable grades don't really   matter this might kind of come as a surprise but  unless you're applying for scholarships or awards   grades don't really matter in architecture school  as long as you pass everything i used to get so   mad about getting a b because um asian but uh  i realized after graduating that people just   really look at your portfolio and nobody really  cares like you gotta see instructors and maybe   this is kind of a contentious argument because  of course like you want to do your best work but   if i knew this in architecture school i feel like  i would have done a couple things differently   for example if it came down to sitting down  and like really understanding something versus   finishing an assignment on time but like really  fast for a deadline so you gather your friends and   you pull your resources i would have chosen to sit  down and like really understand the problem and   the solution even if it meant getting a lower  grade in the assignment you always think that   you're going to come back to it and go over  it later but you rarely do so if i actually   knew that starting out i think my strategy for  school would have been a little bit different   iterate and document the process design  is an iterative process so don't be one   of those people who falls in love with their  first idea really good designers are able to   iterate through different options and change  their design drastically really quickly your   design is going to change as you try different  options and you might circle around and come back   to your initial idea but because of this it's so  so so so important for you to document the process   sometimes it's not about the idea but the process  and how you got to that final point and i've also   mentioned this in my how to create an architecture  portfolio video that in fact the thought process   is what firms are more interested in seeing not  really beautiful renderings because beautiful   renderings are so common these days understand the  law of diminishing returns just because design is   an iterative process it doesn't mean that you  should work on your project without any time   constraints and i think the law of diminishing  returns is just as applicable in design   and if you don't know what it is it's an economic  theory that tells us that after a certain point   you will have reached an optimal level of capacity  and adding any additional inputs will actually   reduce the returns on the inputs so this over  here is you right in the morning or right after a   coffee break you're pumping out your drawings and  iterations and here maybe you go and have dinner   and it's starting to get late and it's 3am and  you can't remember what you've been working on for   the past hour your computer's starting to crash  and you're forgetting where you saved your file   i've been there and i remember it like yesterday  try to understand your peak times and when you're   the most effective i think everyone kind of has a  time when they're the most effective and everyone   also has the time when they're the most creative  when i was doing my masters i realized that i was   a better writer in the mornings and that i could  come up with more interesting design solutions   in the evenings so once i actually started  implementing this into my days and started   building a routine around it i was just  so much more effective and i was getting   so much more done and i was getting so much  more quality work done learn from your crits   i remember this one time i had a pretty pretty  bad crit and i was fairly upset about it not   just because i worked on this thing for days and  nights on end not just because my worth was so   intimately attached to this project not just  because the juries poked some really fair holes   into my project but because i was not really  able to answer a lot of the questions that   that they threw at me i was so upset that when the  crit was over all i wanted to do was just go home   shower and go to sleep i just really wanted to  erase the memory of that entire crit from my mind   when i woke up i made it a point to go through  the notes that my friend had taken for me   and look at the project objectively and this is  actually the project that eventually led to my   thesis project which i won the aia henry adams  award for i think crits are possibly the most   critical learning moments of your project  because you have your group of juries most of   whom have never seen your project before and  they're reacting purely to your presentation of it and it's a fairly accurate assessment of your  design and your ability to communicate your ideas   and you will have bad crits that's for  sure and you'll also have good crits   what's really important is that you think of them  as an opportunity to get critical feedback on your   work and on your thought process and you you learn  from that and you will continue to have crits   after school and into your career so it's really  important for you to have a growth mindset about   this actively ask questions and engage your profs  so school is an environment and probably the few   phases of your life where you're gonna be  surrounded with people who have much much much   more knowledge than you and at the same time their  whole job is to teach you stuff don't be afraid   of asking dumb questions remember that saying he  who does not ask a question remains a fool forever   meaning you might look stupid asking that question  in class but if you don't ask it you'll never know   the answer when instead you can just try to get  over the fear of looking stupid in the moment   and honestly the chances are if you have that  question it's very likely that other people have   that question too learn how to communicate your  ideas clearly so what i've learned over the years   of working in the field is that the architects who  become principals and partners they have one thing   in common they are incredible communicators but  i feel like we're not really taught to do this   enough were kind of thrown into the deep end  which is also why some presentations can go   really badly even if they have amazing projects if  you're interested i actually have a few videos on   presentation techniques i'll leave it right here  as a general rule of thumb try to spend some time   before a deadline to think about how you are going  to present your ideas and please don't just wing   it build systems around your workflow and stay  organized so this might sound a little boring but   this is one of those things that's gonna save  you so much time and energy down the road   and if you've been doing this regularly for a  few years it's gonna it's gonna provide you with   a library of knowledge that you can access  anytime so there's certain processes that we do   very regularly like producing renderings  or laser cutting or taking notes   where a lot of the steps in the process  can be replicated so for example   when i'm doing a rendering i first try to identify  which materials are worth rendering and which   are better to do it in photoshop and my camera  settings preset for my exterior renders and i   have a preset for all my interior renders so that  i don't have to go in and like adjust the settings   every single time and in post-production i have  all my people and materials saved in a folder   and all the people are divided into different  folders based on what they're doing i always try   to save them in the same spot every single time i  think one of my biggest regrets in life is that i   didn't start taking proper notes at an earlier  age i would write things down in my notebook   and when i ran out of pages i would just get  a new notebook and eventually forget about the   thing that i learned and written down so now i  track everything all of the new information that   i learned into notion into separate categories  so that i can look it up later because if there's   one thing that life has taught me it is that you  should never trust your brain to store information   of course there are certain things that  cannot be turned into a system or are not   worth turning into a system but i think it's very  important to kind of always have this mindset   build good relationships you can't  get through architecture alone   that's a simple fact architecture is a social  profession you need to bounce ideas off each other   you need that person who's gonna tell you that  your idea is [ __ ] you need that person to go on   late night snack runs with you you need that  person that you can complain to about your profs   if you're working in studio you will naturally  kind of develop these relationships because studio   is kind of this like crazy magical environment  that's very hard to replicate anywhere else   so that's a part of what you're paying  for when you go to architecture school   there's all these people working on their own  project like drawing cutting gluing and putting   things together and taking them apart i can't even  recount how many times i've had like breakthrough   moments in the studio architecture is also a  very small community compared to other fields   that once you get into the workforce  a lot of people know each other   or is once removed your friends in school are  going to be the people that you're going to   enter the workforce with you so eventually they  are going to become your professional network and   you know there is no better way to tell if  somebody is going to be a good co-worker and then   like doing a project with them um or working  through those late nights and studios together   you'll you'll know exactly what that  person looks like when they're sleeping you'll know what they smell like  when they have really bad meal and you'll know all of  their poor eating habits yes   i still have friends from architecture school from  like 10 years ago that i would vouch for because   i know their work ethic and i know that they're  going to be a good fit at any firm so although in   this video i try to focus on maximizing  the returns on your investment in time   and energy the most important thing you will  actually get out of architecture school is not   really something you can buy with any amount of  money things like lifelong bonds and memories   and like appreciation for beauty and like a  life-changing experience that you won't be able   to get anywhere else it's not going to be easy  or fast but it's going to teach you perseverance   amazing work ethic it's going to teach you to  trust in your own abilities you learn to work yeah you learn how to work work work yeah hello darkness my friend i've come to talk with you again if you  are just about to start architecture school   or maybe you're already a few years in um i'd love  to hear which of these things resonate with you   and if you are an old fart like me and you've  already graduated are there things that you   wish you thought about before you started  architecture school that you could share with   the rest of us let me know down in the comments  below i'm really curious to hear what you think you

Channel: DamiLee

Views: 161,879

Keywords: architecture, architecture student, architect, female architect, life of an architect, architecture life, architecture school, archinect, career, career in architecture, architecture students, 5 things to know before starting architecture school, architecture school advice, architecture student tips, design school, what an architect does, being an architect, steps to becoming an architect, surviving architecture, college advice, how to architect, how to conceptualize a design

Id: 2rP9d-OdcE0

Length: 20min 56sec (1256 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 11 2021