AIArchitect

OMG I can't believe this! tinyurl.com/37mgcy8

Great share :)

Hello, You should be aware that this particular page is not showing up properly on the BlackBerry Browser (I have a Pearl). Besides, I’m now visiting this website on my pc, Thank you

I like the views expressed here and it encouraged me to write about my passion that I have been hiding for years. I am ME by profession and have spent 25years in product design in varied industry; automotive, white goods, bio-medical. I always had this passion of designing residential houses, have helped friends and families and planned my own home. I do not have a formal education in Architecture but have used most of the CAD packages used for product design to do the planning.

I would like to take up a course that provides me the necessary tools to be a professional architecture specialising in residential area (green). Would like to start as a PTimer and if it works out well may become a FTime freelancer. I don't mind on-job part time training too if it provides what I am looking to do in the future.

Any sugestions are much appreciated.

Is this Sara Ford from Canyon?

I was in my 30's when I went back to school, after 20 years in the hair business. However, I arrived at IIT a modernist, having been trained in my twenties at Vidal Sassoon. It was not as big a leap as you might imagine. I agree, this is a very exciting time to be in the building industry, and yes architects are only a part of that process. One of the most valuable lessons from both Sassoon's and IIT is the reverence for craftsmanship that is the unifying element across dicsiplines and trades, and what makes a great project.

Does anyone know how many archiecture schools there are in Vietnam (both state and private)- I need to compile a list of these.

Does anyone know how many archiecture schools there are in Vietnam (both state and private)- I need to compile a list of these.

Learn CADD/BIM and go back; you are never too young for school.

I went back to school through UCLA’s Masters (MArch II) program after I was licensed in the early 90’s; my emphasis was urban design and design theory & methods – both can be used towards a PhD. The first area of learning emphasis is where I needed improvement on from my under-grad work and the second was my first love. At the end, I was nearly depleted financially but well worth it . Of course there was a recession going on (especially in California) so my idea was when work is really slow, re-tool. If there is ever another downturn like that one and I was out of work, I would do more post-graduate work maybe in the areas of planning, real estate dev. or construction law. I often joke that if I won the lottery, I would go back and do a PhD. in architecture at MIT. The point here is that each of us during our working life has that perfect time for a professional sabbatical.

Being almost 50 now and fortunate to start out in the profession just before the CADD era, I went through my initial training by manual drafting; however, I embraced CADD in the late 80’s. Even when the firm I was working for at the time refused to get into to it, I went out and bought my own 386 with a math co-processor and the program DataCadd to learn it on my own. A few years later at UCLA, they were working with solid (digital) modeling; even though that was not my learning area of emphasis, I still did a great deal of self-directed work in CADD and 3-D modeling. With my informal and formal learning, I know CADD as well or in some areas better than most of the under 30 aged staff in our office.

Beyond the great design freedom allowed in school and on a more process, cultural and socioeconomic note, UCLA turned my thinking/problem solving processing around. Beside being required to develop a very clear process on tackling any type of problem from building design to forecasting office production needs 6 months out, I was indoctrinated into the idea of the “Architect as the informed reader” instead of “Architect as the (lone) author” as was preached in my under-graduate curriculum. This idea that the architect is part of the team where we are inclusive of others thus avoiding disenfranchising those with direct and indirect interests in a project has by necessity become commonplace now; the idea that there is socially constructed spaces as well as physically constructed spaces was foreign to me back then. At one time very much resisted by the profession, these current practices of the team approach and inclusivisum of others were relatively new if not unheard of 20 years ago.

I am convinced that if our client’s perception of the values derived from our services and other benefits that we bring to the table is to remain high thus resulting in the profession continuing to grow, then the way we do business must progress with technology as well as the changes in how we relate to others with interests in the projects we design. In order for that to happen, we as individual practitioners must re-tool current skills and continually learn new ones of both a tech and “soft” nature. I say we as more seasoned architects must stay current with technology or expect to get run over by the Gen Xers or Ys of which most will be our future clients or understudies. Learning both informally on your own and/or within formal education settings (schools) is a lifetime endeavor for us and many other “knowledge” based professions; however, in an academic institution, your full time job is your studies (most advanced programs require you be in “residency”) and the leaning process is not only accelerated but also gives you rare and priceless glimpses into the future on trends 10 years down the road. If you have the means, by all means go back to school. It is well worth it!

Remember Lou Kahn claimed that he was “just an old student."

Jack Andersen, AIA

To Mr. Carpenter, skip AutoCad learn Revit!

Once led to the fountain of knowledge it is impossible to leave. I never actually succeeded in leaving architecture school behind. I still experiment, collaborate, take on challenges, meet new friends and miss the old ones with whom I have lost touch. I practice life long learning and continuous education as a life style.

There is no desire to be a student at the University of Washington again, but I would like to go back and teach.

I attended Cal Berkeley in the tumultuous 60's ('64 - '71) when Charles Moore was the Chairman of the Department and Sea Ranch was a fresh, new idea about intentional community. B. Arch '68, M. Arch '71. I avoided going to Vietnam by the luck of a lottery draw (I had 3 kids at the time) and found the freedom to create my own curriculum in "interdiciplinary studies" by combining architecture, sociology and education.

Berkeley offered me access to inspiring faculty, but placed the responsibility on me to make the most of it. I graduated with honors and found that there was no work. Needing to support my family, and having been trained as a carpenter by my carpenter-father, I created my own design-built practice at a time when this was a total innovation. The hands-on experience I got personally constructing 46 projects in the SF Bay area and supervising another 70 with an eventual staff of 20 tradespeople, has gone much farther than my time at Cal to ground me in the basics I needed to become a successful residential architect.

I suggest the we open a dialogue about apprenticeship in the profession and I further suggest that the most valuable learning needs to happen in the field rather than the classroom. Theoretical and condensed experiences may fit the academic mind but they fall short of preparing a creative student to become a guide in a profesion where the increasing complexity of codes and construction can be overwhelming.

Rather than creating more and more CE experiences in the classroom model, I'd like to see the AIA invest in reasonably-paid apprenticeship programs for graduates with construction firms. This effort would go a long way in closing the percieved gap between designing and building and create greater respect for each profession in the other.

I agree, architecture school remains a time of experimenting, comraderie, and challenging learning. The commonalities create almost an Athenian community of citizens, with similar goals and interests that bond for life. I think perhaps mid-career architects should return for retreats on occasion to remind ourselves of those values, how to walk the walk so to speak and then return to practice renewed, with a stronger sense of our architectural roots.

However, on some days at these retreats, I would add other disciplines to the mix, business folks, public servants, home schoolers, teachers, artists, lawyers, and so on. They can benefit from the studio experience, and we can learn to open our eyes to the social, cultural, and political domains to see the world holistically. Maybe we will learn a bit faster to promote sustainable communities and remain leaders who truly shape the future of cities. By engaging with others, our voices might become more finely atuned to needs beyond design, economics, environmental, and technical concerns, all crucial, but not all encompassing.