Studying Architecture: A Review of First Year
Hi guys! Welcome back to another post. Since we’re about to go into our second year of studying Architecture, we thought that this is the perfect time to look back on our first year at university and share our experiences with you. We’ll give you guys a general overview of how the year went.
Hello everyone! Sude is up first. Generally looking back at how the first year went I think I would say I’m only just satisfied. Moving onto the reasons why.
I’ll briefly talk about my marks. I am happy to say that I achieved above a passing grade in all my modules meaning overall my work was above average. My marks also show a difference between the first and second semester. I can definitely see that I made huge progress between the two terms. To see a progression through my marks was really rewarding. It meant that I was truly learning and acting upon feedback in order to produce better work and my tutors clearly picked up on it. This applies specifically to my design modules. Although I can say that I hope for even better marks in the upcoming year. Unlike exam based degrees, other than marks and grades you can really see how you’ve improved by looking at your work. The growth that you see looking back on one year makes you question where you’ll be at by the end of the course.
When it comes to the content that was taught, for me, it was 50/50. On some occasions, I was really engaged with the topics e.g. Arts & Crafts lecture in our history module, whereas other times I felt a growing dislike for certain topics. I kind of expected this at the start of the year, especially with our history module. I personally have a love-hate relationship with history, so I’m not surprised. Although I can say that I approached all lectures with an open mind in order to appreciate the content before deciding on whether or not it interested me. I think we can agree that not everything in architecture will satisfy everyone. In no doubt does this mean I regret or didn’t enjoy studying architecture. Design modules were extremely fun. You get to meet fellow students and inspire each other. The environment we worked in whilst working on projects really showed itself during the year. There were many studio journeys that we would take to see what other students were up to or maybe to nab an idea or two from them. The studio floors were just a great platform overflowing with creativity. I think the only minus from design modules was that I learnt the hard way how important studio tutors are. I think students should try to find the right tutor for them. If you’re ever dissatisfied with something got to do with the module or your tutor, always know that there’s someone out there that can help you out and solve your problem. You are not learning for free so don’t just push the issue aside.
So overall, I am happy with how the past year went. I definitely had my ups and downs. It was really a rollercoaster of emotions. Having not experienced anything like this before made it even more difficult to adjust to but it was definitely a fun journey. Now to prep for second year. New students have fun at freshers! You definitely have a jam packed year ahead of yourselves and anyone coming to the University of Westminster, me and Elif will be working with our freshers week this year so maybe we’ll get to see you there! :)
Hey guys! It’s Elif here and I’m going to talk about my first year studying architecture. My overall experience was definitely a rollercoaster of emotions with an overwhelming and very rewarding outcome.
I started this course with little to no confidence or belief in myself that I could complete the year to my own standards. This outlook was mostly owed to a disappointing output of results in comparison to the amount of effort I put in my a levels. Not seeing the outcome of all your efforts can become very demoralising so seeing how far I’ve progressed throughout the first year to achieve the results I did made it all worth it. In terms of my marks, I was ecstatic to average the same mark across all 4 of my modules with design being my strongest by 4 marks. However, having similar marks in design studio for both semester 1 and 2 does not mean that I didn’t learn any new skills because that would be a lie. Semester 1 had a very different dynamic and work style to semester 2.
Semester one for design was a trial and error period, the steepest learning curve I’ve had in awhile. It tested my patience and determination. I felt as though I had been thrown into the deep end of the course with the first two briefs, which was group work. But after that, I learned to balance my working schedule between university and home, I started the first individual brief we had that semester and I felt a lot more comfortable. In the first few weeks I was unlucky to have a group that didn’t have the same drive and work ethic as me. This was disheartening because I really wanted to do well and I have always believed the stronger your foundations are the easier the advanced learning will be. So this was difficult, which made me realise who you work with is just as important as the work you produce yourself on an individual brief. Semester two was easier because I had understood how to approach the brief. I had learnt a lot of skills and a lot of the context of what goes into a portfolio. I increased my experimentation, tried new materials, made more models and challenged myself in design. Being more comfortable with softwares like Photoshop and InDesign was definitely a contributing factor to this.
Design studio for me consisted of having 1-1 tutorials and just sitting with my earphones in and getting on with my work, whilst having the option of asking my tutors questions when needed. Having friendly studio peers and a very supportive tutor made a huge difference and I could not have thanked them enough for making first year design such a positive experience for me. I think having a tutor that you get along with is very important. Another module I really enjoyed was Technical Studies which was formatted in a series of lectures. This was my favourite module alongside design as I tried to combine the knowledge of construction into my design work for my second semester brief. Our lecturer made it easy to understand and very interesting , hence why I never missed a lecture and made sure to engage in the work. History is more of a difficult topic as there were some lectures where I tried to fight off the sleep, but then there were somewhere I couldn’t take my eyes off of the presentation. So it really varied throughout the year.
Overall, I definitely had a handful of lows as well as highs throughout the year but all of it was worth it. I genuinely loved and enjoyed every moment. I got asked many times as to why am I trying so hard because first year “doesn't count” and my answer still remains the same for second year. I’m not working hard for anyone but myself. This is my opportunity to prove to myself, before anyone else, that I can do it and I can achieve what I want to. From this year's results I saw that I truly can do it, all it takes is belief and hard work. First year will test you in so many different ways. It is going to be hard work, but by preserving you can get through it. As I move onto second year, I hope all the new architecture students good luck. You can definitely do it! Have fun, work hard and if you need any help or have any questions we will do our best to help you :)
Last but not least, it’s Linda! Hi everyone!
My first year of studying architecture at university was the most insecure year of my academic life. But I loved (almost) every minute of it. I felt on edge throughout the whole year, but I wouldn’t have made it through to second-year without this internal pressure I had to succeed when I felt like all the odds were against me.
First-semester was a huge learning curve for me, perhaps the biggest one I’ve faced so far. I started off the year optimistically, which was probably what got me through the first design brief (my least favourite). However, I found that I couldn’t really grasp a bigger picture of why I was doing what I was doing for certain deliverables. Whilst I understood that our first brief, where we drew our peers at a 1:1 scale on massive sheets of paper, was designed to help us grasp the concept of human scale, I didn’t fully internalise it until second semester. Barely passing my first-semester design module highlighted flaws in my work ethic and workflow. And maybe I had to get salty at a master’s student during my first crit who asked me “Why?”, so I could learn that “Why not?” isn’t the best way to respond.
Unfortunately, I can’t look back at my furnitecture or bothy designs and say that I’m proud of my work, or that it represents who I am as a designer. I just wasn’t happy with my work. I hated how everything turned out, I spent more time figuring out how to do things than actually doing them, and I didn’t really take the opportunity to experiment as much as I could have with my work. But this experience was necessary for me to go through in order to put more into my second-semester designs. I only shared my design modules and cultural context module (for first-year this was basically architectural history) with Sude and Elif, but had technical environmental studies (TES) as opposed to their technical studies module (which I still attended). TES was probably my favourite module. It was the perfect mixture of site visits, sketches and inspiring lectures in a small classroom setting. We studied the thermal, daylight and acoustic performance of buildings which I’m aiming to fully incorporate into my designs over the next 2 years.
History was a hit or miss for me. Some days I found myself falling asleep to descriptions of famous Renaissance buildings; other times I felt motivated to be as daring as the deconstructivists who curated unimaginable forms in our built environment. Nevertheless, it turned out to be my best-scoring module. Although I was glad that I got good marks at least somewhere in first year, another part was disappointed, questioning whether I was in the right place, scoring lower on the most important element of my architectural education. We had to design a sculptor’s studio in the second semester, and I engaged with this brief more passionately than the others. I kind of knew what I had to do, putting my skills together from the previous briefs like producing more in-depth site analysis to making better use of precedents and studying them more closely. Studying under lockdown was a strange experience. I didn’t think I’d be hearing the voices of my tutors in my own home (over video-call, of course). We had to get used to uploading our work digitally and overcoming technical difficulties, but somehow, we made it through submissions. I was grateful that I saved a couple of extra hours that would have gone towards my commute to put towards my sleep (even though most all-nighters remained in my schedule). It was a painful few weeks waiting for our final results, and I hated my design by the end of the semester. But I did much better than I expected, and looking back now I can say that I gained so many skills and improved so much, I was so harsh on myself as a result of my insecurities.
Overall, my first year of university was fulfilling in ways I didn’t expect it to be, both creatively and in terms of mentally strengthening myself for second-year. There may be things I wish I had done differently, but it’s only made me more determined to do better for the upcoming challenges I have remaining before I can call myself an architect.
We hope you enjoyed reading about our first year experiences studying architecture and that you can take something from them. Make sure to check out our other posts on the website and follow us on Instagram @archidabble to be updated on anything blog related! If you guys also have any suggestions or questions make sure to get in contact with us through our email, dabbleenquiries@gmail.com or through our Instagram DMs/comments.
