Studying Architecture: A Review of Second Year
Hello ArchiDabblers! Welcome back to the last post of this academic year, where Sude, Linda and myself give a general overview of our second year experience studying architecture.
Sude
Before I start discussing my second year review, I wanted to look back on what I mentioned in our first year experience post. I briefly mentioned the collaborative environment of studio and how much I had picked up on my progress throughout the year. So you can imagine how much COVID-19 has affected these things.
To begin the year, our university had virtual rooms set up with all the tutors that made up the second year design studios. At Westminster, we have the chance to select our top 3 studios among the 7 although you are not guaranteed to be put into those 3 in the scenario that they are very popular. I had placed down 3 studios, 2 of which I didn’t mind being placed in. In my case, I was put into the 7th design studio which focussed on a new way of living. The brief was based on domesticity throughout the whole year but had its own twist in order to get the studio thinking outside the generic home. To begin with, I didn’t know how much of an interest I had into domesticity but as the year went by I realised that the word ‘house’ or ‘home’ had shaped into a new meaning without directly tackling the concept. The brief really had me thinking about why we live the way we do. I didn’t sit there trying to dissect what made up a home but went with the flow and allowed myself to be influenced by my research. In the first semester the site research I had done was the main driving factor for the project and in the second semester, my occupants were what formed a new domestic. My first impression of the brief was very literal which led me to be confused and stressed since I was struggling with how everything tied into this idea of a new domestic but when I gained more insight in which all of this was taking place in, I realised that it was more than just coming up with a new definition to a home. It started to become more natural to design without thinking I was restricted to inventing a new concept for what a home was.
Moving onto dealing with the majority of the year being held online. I mentioned earlier that I liked the collaborative environment which studio days provided in our first year. All of the possible interactions between tutors and students were obstructed due to the virus. The main effect this had on me was the struggle of becoming motivated to produce work. There were many moments where I sat in my room repeating to myself, “I don’t want to do this anymore” or “Should I have frozen my studies until next year?” and sometimes “I’m not capable of doing this”. I hadn’t realised how much I would subconsciously be inspired and motivated by all my fellow archi-friends until we were faced with online tutors. Having this fear of missing out part of me had put some more pressure in the back of my mind constantly questioning, “Have I fallen behind?” or “I wonder what everyone else's work looks like”. This wasn’t a healthy stance when trying to obtain good marks in the middle of a pandemic. I do, however, appreciate the efforts from my tutors in trying to do what’s best for us. Becoming responsive to emails, constantly asking us how they could help, and asking for opinions on online learning. This was definitely an upgrade from last year.
Another opportunity that the university provides during the second year is the chance to study our second semester abroad. Around October of this academic year, I had sent off my portfolio to study 5 months of the year at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. At this point in time, I had spent hours of research on how to deal with visas, transferring from home to campus, understanding Hong Kong as a city and also familiarising myself with CUHK. Long behold, the very next day after sending off my portfolio I received an email confirming that all student exchange programs in relation to CUHK had been cancelled due to COVID-19. Now I’d like to believe that everything happens for a reason but on that day I couldn’t help but question “how has this actually happened?”. A little bit of context, one of the main reasons for selecting and further accepting my place at the University of Westminster was due to them having an accredited course that allowed you to study part of the degree abroad. I had been aware of this opportunity during sixth form and always made the effort to drop an email to the head of the course to make sure I wouldn’t miss the applications. So when I saw the cancellation email… my heart sank. I am over it now but I do still question every once in a while what it would have been like if it was to have gone ahead.
Our technical modules, especially our site diary, allowed us to venture into architecture in action. During our design modules we are the designers behind the drawings but when you visit a construction site, you see what happens further along a project with those drawings. I think that was the most enlightening part of the site diary. I would recommend really paying attention to the technical module lectures and applying your knowledge into your site diary to fully understand the full process of a project.
Finally, the history modules. I think I was the least engaged with these modules mainly because it consisted of group work and the content lectures were all pre-recorded. We had live lectures dedicated to architectural research methods to help with our essay further along in the year. I’m not the type of person who’s willing to comply with others' standards so when you are tasked with group work, it’s a pain trying to get everyone on the same page to obtain the same quality of work. I’m sure everyone aims for good grades but everyone is satisfied with different results. My advice here is to prepare a cohesive plan amongst your group early on and have routinely catch up sessions to make sure everyone is still clear on the deliverables and how to obtain them. In the worst case scenario, contact your tutor if someone in your group is not taking initiative since this will affect your mark once submitted.
Overall, enjoy it. Take advantage of your creative freedom at university, as long as you can justify your reasons. Raise awareness to an issue rather than dealing with consequences later on in the year. I’m pretty sure I had mentioned this last year too and I still stick by it. When it comes to skillset, I would suggest familiarising yourself with some form of 3D modelling software, preferably Rhino, and rendering method. You could use VRAY to capture realistic moments of your proposals or capture your Rhino model to process a collage through Photoshop. Improve your page presentation. I cannot explain how much I wish I had improved my page layout skills in order to achieve that ‘wow’ factor in my pages. I’m referring to more than just alignment, fonts or and font sizes; Being creative with your page layouts and sustaining a theme takes a lot of skill. I suggest compiling page layouts that you can refer to on Pinterest for different sorts of research pages.
All in all… do what makes you happy! Do not compare yourself to anybody else since everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Something you may be really good at could be someone else’s weakness. You need to realise that nobody starts from the same level of skill in architecture. This is why we learn from each other best rather than comparing ourselves to one another.
Elifnur
Hey guys! It’s Elif here. If I was to describe second year in comparison to the first year of architecture school, I would say it’s been like no other year of education and a combination of factors like covid-19 and remote learning has definitely added to the struggle. In last year's post I described my experience as an emotional rollercoaster but I now realise that I didn’t understand the magnitude of the phrase until this year. Second year has challenged me both mentally and emotionally and I think this would have been the case regardless of the pandemic.
When I started second year in September, as sude explained above, the first thing we did was put our preferences for our studios. This is where I made my first mistake. My first preference was the only studio that had sparked any interest in me, which was an issue as I want to enjoy my education and the brief I'm designing for. Then I put my second preference as a studio which I didn’t mind, but my last choice was a studio that I didn’t really understand. The tutor liked using complicated vocabulary to describe the brief, which at times felt confusing, but no other remaining studio stood out to me either. When the studios got announced and I found out that my friend had got the studio we both wanted and I got the studio which I put as my last preference, I was devastated. It was disheartening because I didn’t have a distinct liking towards the brief, which scared me. Did this mean I wouldn’t do well because I didn’t quite understand the studio summary and the brief didn’t appeal to me? I’ve always thought you are likely to do better in something you enjoy, so this created so many thoughts in my head and I’m someone that usually just accepts and tries to make the situation work, because everything happens for a reason, but this just caused me to break down for the first 3 weeks of the semester to the point where consoling myself by saying ‘just do your best with what you have’ and ‘it is what it is’ wasn’t enough.
After seeing my studio mates and tutors in person a few times, with better explanations and some discussions, I was feeling better about my situation. . Once I got over the initial hurdle of understanding the brief and starting the design work, I began to find myself in the flow of things becoming more comfortable with the work I was producing. Becoming comfortable with the brief, really helped me to feel confident in my EDS which was another submission that was linked to our semester 1 design module.
History in semester 1 consisted of a presentation and a group workbook, which shockingly did not run smoothly. To be completely honest, despite not accounting for much of my grade, the presentation was an awful experience. My tutor blatantly insulted me in front of the rest of the group saying I had rushed the work, where I spent time visiting the building and using the different research methods, and then he continued to refer to my presentation in someone else's feedback as a bad example, which was contradictory to the mark I received later. This combined with connection problems, which again stemmed from remote learning, just became another negative experience to add to my list of things that were going badly. At this point I was honestly questioning myself whether I had made the correct decision to continue my studies during a pandemic, but this wouldn’t last long as I genuinely do love studying architecture and just because I’m struggling it doesn't mean the outcome of this year is going to be unsuccessful (to my own standards). The first time I had felt a sense of relief or even something to be proud of was when I received my formative mark for design studio. It was comforting to see that despite having such a rough start to second year, I was still able to produce the quality of work that I usually do and that I was actually going to be okay. Seeing my work pay off really motivated me over the christmas holidays to get other modules, like site diary and history finished, but to also start the second semester brief with a better mindset.
The second semester came around quicker than I anticipated. It was yet again a different experience to the first semester. Initially with the applications I had made during the summer I was expecting to go to Australia, Melbourne institute of Technology, to do my semester two exchange program. Whilst I knew this had been cancelled for a while, when second semester came around, I was still bummed about losing out on such a good opportunity. My studio’s second semester brief was a continuation on the semester one site. Whilst the occupants were different, we were encouraged to link both semesters together as the client was the same. As I previously mentioned, I went into semester two with a much better attitude and more confidence, despite all of the learning becoming remote and a strict lockdown looming over us. Whilst I felt happier with what I was doing, this time I realised that with design everything was happening so quickly. So I had just finished my history essay, which went really well and design development was well underway. I found myself feeling unmotivated and I think this was mainly due to the fact that I was at home all the time and usually in the studio you would be surrounded by others working. This is when I decided to use the university's limited availability to work in the library with hopes of feeling more productive, but also this is when I got a job with the university. So I was balancing work, my studies and a decent mental health trying to make it through to the end of second year.
Whilst I realise that my tutors and I have a different approach to the design process, I’m thankful that they took the time to reword things, organise extra studio presentations from previous years, set up extra sessions to explain how to incorporate dds into design and they were responsive over email which was super helpful in the last lead up to submissions. They understood that everyone had a different level of skill and encouraged you to try new software and methods of design, which I appreciate.
Whilst it may feel like there were more negatives than positives as you read my experience, looking back, a lot of these situations forced me to improve my existing skills, for example with software’s, time management and my design process, but also to go out of my comfort zone which helped me as a designer as you won’t always be completing projects that you love and sometimes you have to do what you’re given and make the most of it. I completely agree with Sude and think if there's anything you want to do to improve over summer, make sure it's software related as it not only makes your life so much easier, but it's more efficient and effective as a visual representation. To conclude, even if you’re not necessarily happy with your choice in brief or studio or any other affecting factor, make what you have work for you and remind yourself this is all temporary and it will be over. Stress can be good to motivate you to work but there’s a limit to that after a while it becomes mentally and emotionally draining where you will not enjoy what you are doing. So be kind to yourself as second year is difficult, and remember it’s a learning process not everyone will be at the same level or have the same learning curve.
Linda
Last but not least, it’s me, Linda. I have to say, considering how I felt at the end of first year, it was nothing compared to what second year had in store.
For those of you who don’t know, I study BSc Architecture and Environmental Design, which means my course is structured differently to both Sude and Elif’s degree. I had four short projects this year: two briefs in each semester that followed on from each other. Personally, I enjoyed this structure because I was able to explore a variety of projects and cover different scales and typologies of architectural and environmental design. There were a lot of new challenges and experiences, from dealing with group work to becoming more skilled in software like Rhino. I really developed an interest for this software, and it’s something that I really want to commit to learning properly over the summer.
The scope of our briefs revealed the different applications of the skills I was gaining to the built environment as a student of AED. From an urban intervention and a temporary pavilion in a park during first semester, to the design of a second skin and a retrofitting project of an existing high rise accommodation building for second semester, I really learnt the importance of my course in the industry and how we can reshape architecture to address and respond to environmental issues. Having design tutors as well as guest lecturers for our technical modules from different backgrounds in the field also broadened our horizons and gave us different perspectives from which to approach our work.
We didn’t just learn the principles and the theory behind environmental design (which was what we mainly did in first year), we gained the skills to quantify our building performance and be able to prove that our designs actually have minimal environmental impact with regards to daylight, thermal properties and ventilation considerations, just to name a few. This gave me confidence that I have something of value to offer when I graduate and look for a role as a Part I.
However, second year definitely came with its difficulties. As much as I was passionate about the projects we had this year, I also struggled with my work, particularly in the first semester. I can’t pinpoint when everything ‘fell apart’, but I found myself failing my January draft submission for design. It didn’t come as a surprise; but I just couldn’t understand why I ended up in a position like this. I couldn’t come to terms with it: I made it through the first year, I’ve never ‘failed’ this badly before, so what happened?
Feeling this way also affected my extracurricular commitments relating to architecture. I felt as thoughI wasn’t in a position to give advice and share my experiences for the blog, when I wasn’t what I considered ‘a good example’ of an architecture student to look up to. There’s only so much you can update during a crit lead up when a large portion of your day is spent stuck in a rut or dealing with brain fog. I had also signed up for a role for our architecture society at university: similarly, I doubted whether I deserved the role considering my performance academically.
I became pessimistic by the end of the first semester. My failure in design studio was followed by grades I wasn’t happy with in my other modules: technical environmental studies and a history submission. I vowed to do better for the remaining half of second year, because I couldn’t let myself fail at the summative submission point as it would determine whether or not I would get into third year. This was the point when I truly understood why people talk about ‘surviving’ architecture school.
Second semester was a blur. The outcome of first semester pushed me to try and make up for my grades and it paid off. Despite the constant stress and worry that I wasn’t doing enough, or rather I wasn’t doing good enough, and the feeling that my contribution to the group wasn’t valuable, the third brief of the year was the best mark that I had received. The final brief came with mixed feedback, but at that point I was just grateful that it was one less module to worry about hindering my chances of progressing onto the final year of my course.
Second year taught me a lot about myself. I saw different sides of myself under pressure and with multiple commitments. Whilst I think to myself that I could have been more prepared for the year, nobody has enough foresight into the future to tell what challenges are going to come your way, especially during a pandemic to which the world is still adjusting to. Regardless of whether COVID was about or not, I still think I would have experienced the transition between the two years as strongly as I did. It felt like Year 1 was my first year as an architecture student, and Year 2 was my first year studying as an architecture and environmental design student.
At the time of writing our first year reviews, we had the whole picture of how the year went. I could say that the doubts and struggles were worth it in the end, because I knew I made it through to second year. We haven’t got our grades back for second year, and personally I found this year more academically turbulent than the last. What I described in this post is just the tip of the iceberg of how the year went, but there are still things that I hope new second-year students can take away from reading this.
Here are some things I would suggest if you’re going into second year soon. Develop your interests both inside and outside of architecture because feeding these into your projects is how you’re going to become passionate about your work. It would be useful to make a decision whether you want to hand-draw your work in the upcoming year, or go digital with your work so you can develop your skills/learn software accordingly. If you’re an AED student, familiarise yourself with Rhino and if you can, make sure you have access to a Windows computer or laptop. Most importantly of all: rest and work on yourself whilst you have the time, because you have an intense year coming up ahead of you. Good luck!
And with that being said, we come to the end of our second year experiences post. As much as everyone advises architecture students to improve skills over the summer break, it’s also the best time of year to fully rest. Try to balance your time well so you don’t feel like you haven’t taken time off working because the next academic year will definitely be harder than the previous.
But don’t worry… we are on this journey together.
Talking about journeys, this is the last blog post for this academic year. We will be going on a hiatus for the blog until September where we will be back, well rested and with amazing content for you all!
We will also be going on a hiatus on Instagram but this will only be up until the end of June. After that, we will be posting like usual every Monday on Instagram so make sure to follow us on @archidabble
We will definitely be updating through our Instagram stories to refresh everyone on how ArchiDabble will be operating over the summer break :)
Until then… have a nice summer break!
