26/10/2017
10 Steps to be a good Architect
1. Core Values - Get basics right
The basics have to be right. Values define you and your design work. You will make what you think and what you think is going to be a reflection of your values.
Values you must have are honesty, integrity, transparency, pursuit of excellence, hard work, innovation, mutual respect and accountability for own actions. It is tough for any one person to have all of these values, or even a mix is some proportion. You must have at least one of them, which gives you an identity.
2. Be a better Person
Be helpful to your classmates, juniors and seniors. Empathize with someone, who is not as good as you and is facing a difficult time. Share what you have liberally and it will come back to you. When your friend is stuck in design, offer to help. You may just have to listen to them, let them speak. That itself will provide your friend with chance to look at things in a new way.
3. Skill Yourself – Technology and Manual
The best time to pick up a new skill is while you are at college. You know what you are good at. Complement your skills well and choose to spend your time wisely. Every day, there are new tools and software being launched. Get to know them and more importantly use them in your construction and design work.
Learn about BIM, 3D modelling and graphic packages. Understand how data is analysed and make sure you know what’s current in the IT world.
Do you know about Big Data? Architecture is one profession where there are so many variables and consequently large quantum of data. Being able to make use of the data and process it into knowledge is what you should be able to do, in all your work.
4. Learn to Make Right Choices
Choices are what make you and shape your work. Good choices result in a good product. Bad choices result in pain and misery. Making a choice is a habit, which is cultivated over time. When you make a choice you draw upon past experiences and your wisdom.
There has to be a conscious effort in the method to arrive at decision making, always keeping in mind your principles. Your value system should reflect in the kind of choice. So, if you like nature and natural materials, then obviously your design will showcase the beauty of natural material in all its glory.
5. Explore
Each individual is special and has uniqueness. Build upon it and strengthen your personality by exploring as much as you can. Try new things. Be ready to take risks, if the event promises that you will learn something.
If you like photography, then travel and see new places. See, how photography can intersect with building materials and create a photo montage to share with your friends in class and on FaceBook!
6. Choose your Specialization
Excellence comes with developing a specialist skill. Pursuit of excellence is what can give you an edge over others. Find out what your mojo is and then work towards it. If history and conservation interests you, then you are destined to be a conservation architect. If management is your forte, then Building Engineering & Management should be your calling.
Identify your interest early and then in small steps walk towards your goal. You should be clear as to what your specialization should be around the time you do practical training.
7. Plan your Life & Career
When you joined Architecture, you made the biggest decision of your life. In some way, you laid the foundation of where you would like to be professionally. You should spend the five years in Architecture, further deciding what you want to do.
You should be glad, that as a budding professional you have a year more in the safe environment of an academic institution. Decide what your long term goals are. Whether it is money or fame you want to chase, with the accompanying price or anything else. Figure this early.
You can always alter course along the way, but there has to be a path you have to walk. You can’t be aimless or ramble through. Think what makes you happy and pursue a career path, which will give you opportunities to find peace and happiness.
8. Thesis!
Thesis is the single most important event in every Architecture student’s life. It can be the most engaging and inspiring time, if put your mind to it and try to bring out your best. Every student likes to do a good thesis. You need to start thinking about a topic at least a semester early and have a faculty guide you; in aspects apart from the end design.
It can be the best educative experience and put in as much hard work and effort as you can, even if you do not intend to be an Architect later on. Nothing can be more painful in later years to regret that you did not try it well. This is a golden opportunity to find your inner self and live it up well.
9. Practical Training
By the time you come to PT, you are 80% Architect. Hopefully you have a clear idea of where you are headed professionally. Choose an Architect who will polish your final round of education and provide you with higher insights of the profession. The stipend you will get or the place you will stay is inconsequential. Start your search for work a year in advance, so that you will land up when the time comes.
Remember that applying late may result in a “No Vacancy”!
10. Take Risks
Finally, take risks. Dream Big. Have no regrets of having not tried. It is better to fail and have learning than not having tried at all. What is the worst which can happen? You will still get another chance, while young. You will have learnt to stand up and work for your goals.
You can take bigger risks when you are younger as the responsibilities are less and the price which you will pay is manageable. So, if you want to work with that NGO making mud houses, go ahead. If you want to pursue animation, go ahead.
Just think and move forward.
