Life lessons

I learned in

Architecture

...
school
When I think of architecture, a very different image comes to the forefront of my mind
than the one that used to appear years ago. It wasn’t until high school that I realized I
had a soft spot for design. I started to indulge in design shows of all sorts on TLC and
HGTV. I realize now that the design you see on television is just one are of the multi-
tude of fields in design.

My inspiration for design often comes at the most random of times. A few years back,
I designed a very simple bed frame made of clean lines and hard edges. At the time,
modern forms and straight lines intrigued me. I cannot give you the exact reason for
why that style appealed to me, it just did.
I decided to enroll at NDSU in the hopes that I would make it into the architecture
program for my sophomore year. I toured the main campus as well as the downtown
campus and fell in love with the idea of designing architecture for the rest of my life.
I quickly discovered that “because I wanted to” was not an adequate explanation for
my design decisions.

The first year of the architecture program consisted of courses in design theory, design
studio, and drawing. For my very first studio project, I was asked to create a teahouse.
Before I could begin my design, I was also required to read a one hundred-page book
written entirely about the Japanese tradition of the tea ceremony.

I quickly recognized, but didn’t so readily embrace, that architecture school was noth-
ing like I had envisioned growing up. Looking back now, I can honestly say that Archi-
tecture school isn’t really about architecture at all. To me, it’s more about finding out
what works best for me as a designer and giving me the resources to take my style in
whatever direction I find most suitable to my needs.
 1
You can’t believe
everything you see
on TV
College quickly taught me that nothing is ever as easy as it looks. Television design
shows are a big instigator of misguided perceptions. One of my favorite shows in high
school was While You Were Out which aired on TLC. During the one hour of airtime,
the target (usually a spouse) would be lured away for an entire weekend. The con-
spirator would then let the design team into their home for 48 hours and together
they would make over a room for the person of interest. At the end of the weekend,
the spouse would come home and the one room in their house would be completely
made over. What viewers do not realize is that the design team meets with the con-
spirator prior to the taping of the show to learn more about the potential target –
what they like, what their fashion tastes are, etc. Then, the lead designer goes back
and comes up with a design that is going to fit the needs of the person, designs all the
furniture, and plans everything out prior to the start of the makeover renovations.
The same scenario is easily applicable to my experiences at architecture school. Go-
ing back to the example of the Tea House, I learned that studio projects sometimes
appear to be a walk in the park. However, when I fully get into the design and build
process, I often hit many brick walls of resistance. The final week before the proj-
ect is due is often referred to as production week. At this point, most people stop
evolving their designs and they “complete” their project based on what they have
at that time. The design may not be as finished as you would like but now is the
time to start producing your final drawings and building a scaled down model of
your design intentions. It sounds easy enough to draw up the floor plans, transfer
them to paper, and build a model based off that. However, when you start to build
the model, you quickly realize that sometimes you have to improvise because not
everything is going to translate directly from the plan to the model. It may not be
until you start building that you realize one section of your plan is physically impos-
sible to construct. Another important lesson I’ve learned is that design and craft
are a lot more time consuming than you may think. I have spent three hours work-
ing on one set of stairs for a model that would appear to only take fifteen minutes.
2
Architecture
school isn’t really
about Architecture
The process for designing that is often used in architecture can also be used in many oth-
er applications. Everything starts with an initial concept and then from there you have
to decide what form is going to be most suitable for the ideas you are trying to convey.
For me, baking is a lot like architecture. First you need to figure out exactly what it is you
want to make. Perhaps there is a particular occasion coming up and you need something
special. From there you can start to figure out all the ingredients you will need to make
a complete batch of cookies or an entire triple layer cake. At this point, you could do one
of two things. You could stick to the original recipe and reiterate the same cake out of
the book or you could add your own style turn it into your own personalized creation.
Architecture is much the same way. You can start from a base model of what you want
the end to look like, or you can use that base model as inspiration for your own design.
Through my experiences, I have found that inspiration for design can come in any
way, shape, or form. Often times, I’ll see something that will spark an idea and I will
begin to develop my concept from there. Throughout the entire process, though, my
ideas are constantly changing and growing. The end result may not look anything like
what I had originally planned, but the idea behind the design is embedded in there
somewhere. I think this can be easily applied to all types of design, whether is be
automobiles or desk furniture. The lessons you learn at architecture school and the
methods you develop as a designer go beyond the design of buildings and life forms.
 3
Some things cannot be taught
in the classroom
Before we can talk about education, it is important to look at learning. Schank’s (1994)
article titled “Goal-Based Scenarios: A Radical Look at Education” suggests that the
main problem in schools is the curriculum. He argues that natural learning is how we
learn best. It gives us motivation and goals to accomplish only what we want to ac-
complish. To support his claims, Schank recommends a curriculum that more closely
resembles learning in the real world. Often times in school, we are encouraged to
learn and study things that our teachers want us to learn but not necessarily what we
care to learn. Schank’s concept is important to keep in mind when we want students
to succeed in school. It is safe to say that interest is a terrible thing to waste. If we
want students to care, we have to teach in a way that invites creativity and personality.
College has taught me the value of learning by doing. High school was all about get-
ting a well-rounded education so that you were prepared for college with a variety of
technical expertise. After being accepted into the architecture program, I was excited
to narrow in on my love of design and harvest the skill set necessary for a professional
degree in architecture. College career-based courses offer a chance for students such
as myself to really develop all the necessary knowledge for a particular degree. The
classes are a lot more hands on and the retention of information is a lot higher when
you actually have a chance to carry out some of the processes you are learning about.
You can read and write about precast concrete all you want but until you actually go to a
pre-casting plant and see the forms being precast in front of your very eyes, you will not
understand the depth of it. A picture is worth a thousand words but a demonstration is
worth a thousand more. I think it is safe to say that everybody learns better by doing.
The journey you take to get there is more
important than the place you’re trying
to get to

4
I’ve taken away a lot more knowledge and life gain from the processes I’ve gone
through to get to an end. From this assignment alone, I’ve learned that nothing ever
turns out the exact way you envisioned it from the beginning. I can also relate this to
my time here at college. Before starting the architecture program, I assumed I would
be learning the cold hard facts about how to build and building and make it stand
for thirty years. Nowhere in the description of architecture did I read that I would be
learning how to harvest my own design skills. At the Bartlett School of Architecture,
professors Alexi Marmot and Martin Symes (1985) teach a pilot course to the third
year students of the undergraduate program. They call it the case-problem approach,
which exploits the strengths of traditional teaching methods while remaining firmly
based in real architectural problems. Students encounter a variety of cases intended
to give them a glimpse of some situations they may face in the future where social
understanding is essential. Each case involves a clear problem requiring urgent atten-
tion in which no one solution seems right yet something must be done immediately.
The students and educators carefully consider the likely ramifications on the
building and those involved in the development. Through this method of learn-
ing, students learn a great deal from the frank and open extended discussions.
Having said that, I want to add that maybe students need to stop worrying so much
about how each course will or will not prepare them for their future endeavors. Pos-
sibly the real focus of school needs to be about the interactions we have and the
people we meet. I have learned that sometimes a seemingly irrelevant course can
help my struggles during the most unsuspected times. Having a blank slate in terms
of technical expertise and practical knowledge allows me to invoke my creativity more
freely. I have also come to realize that some things don’t always turn out the way
that have helped me to succeed at another thing later on down the road. It is im-
portant to you originally planned. However, the lessons I’ve learned through failure
of one thing have helped me to succeed at another thing later on down the road.
It is important to understand that the final product of your efforts is not going to
teach you anything. The effort you made to get to the end is where the real value lies
in learning. Looking back at the Tea House project from my first year, I gained a lot
more depth and knowledge by my willingness to learn from my failures along the way.
 5
Your work is never
complete
Ever since I was younger, my whole goal in school was to get to the end. Every time I
started an assignment, I couldn’t wait to finish it. I was more focused on the final prod-
uct than the work I had to complete to get to the end. This lesson goes hand in hand with
the previous life lesion that the journey you take to get to the end is more important
than the actual end. Through the process of designing, I quickly come to realize that
there is never enough time to do everything that you want to do. In that sense, your
work is never complete because there is always something more you could be doing. I
have found that even in college, there is always ten more things I could be working to-
wards instead of sitting in front of the television watching my favorite shows. The work
you produce and the amount of time and effort you put into it is completely up to you
as a designer. I use the word designer lightly in this case. No matter what the task, you
are always in control of the outcome therefore you are the designer. It also ties into
my next life lesson in that nothing ever stays the same. I’ve learned through multiple
projects that there is always more you could do to advance your design or paper. Life
is constantly giving me lemons and so I’ve got to keep making lemonade with them.
 6
Nothing ever
stays the
same
I am a place in my life right now where my views seem to change from one day to the
next. The ideas I came up with last week and the things I once drew inspiration from
do not have the same meaning they once did. I have learned through school, among
other things, that life is just one big journey. I do not know where my journey is going
to take me or what I am setting out to do. The only thing I am sure of is that I am un-
sure. I have also learned that it is important to take advantage of the things that mean
the most to you when they present themselves to you. Architecture is very much the
same way; it is dynamic but not static. It is constantly changing with the trends of
the times. Everyday there are emerging concepts that continue to evolve and grow.
A decade ago, green design and sustainability were virtually unheard of. Now, ev-
ery firm is striving to meet green building codes in one way or another. One way
that firms can gain recognition for their smaller footprint on the environment is
through LEED certification. According to Flora (2009), it has been nine years since
the inception of LEED. She also states that just as with any useful tool, LEED needs
to be periodically updated and evaluated. Like anything in this world, education
and practice need to be able to adapt to the times. The architecture profession is
going to need designers that can go above and beyond what’s already been done.
Flora, R. (2009, September 1). Perspectives: a lifelong learning pathway. Retrieved
from http://www.edcmag.com

Marmot, A., & Symes, M. (1985). “The Social Context of Design: A Case Problem
Approach.” Journal of Architectural Education 38(4), 21-31. Retrieved from
http://www.jstor.org.

Schank, R. C. (1994). “Goal-Based Scenarios: A Radical Look at Education.” The Journal

of Learning Sciences 3(4), 429-453. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com.

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