Arch 101

How to get through architecture school.

Jordan J. Lloyd

Design is not a talent, its a skill Have hobbies Understand rules, then break them Good learning trumps good grades Take risks Ask the right questions

Part 1: Fundamentals
The following six ideas are what I think represent the essence of how to get ahead in architecture school. From breaking the rules to taking time off, I hope to challenge your assumptions about the design process.

Design is not a talent, its a skill

Creativity is a skill and a habit. You need to learn and practise the skill, which then becomes a habit. - Edward De Bono, How To Have A Beautiful Mind

A talent is a natural aptitude towards something. A skill is the ability to do something well. Skills can be taught, but needs to be practised again and again until you can do it well.
Unlearning Design is very much a skill, as it is an application of creativity. Of course, having a good eye helps, but by training yourself to think creatively and applying that skill over and over again, you will become a good designer. To a degree, what you learned in school must be unlearned first in order to get the most out of your training as a designer. I say designer because I do not make an assumption that you will actually end up being an architect. There are a number of reasons for this, but its mainly because an architecture degree is such an amazing foundation for a career in, well, just about anything; from politics to product design to fashion. 4

What I mean by unlearning is not the subject matter you learned at school, but the way in which it is taught to you. As you will find out, the best applications of creativity occur when you can make connections between seemingly unrelated things, and being able to make these connections is a valuable skill to learn and practise. The 10,000 hour rule Theres a theory about becoming an expert in a particular skill popularised by the author Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers. Gladwell says that you need to do something (be it play a violin, or think creatively) for 10,000 hours to become a master at your chosen skill. So thats 6 hours practise every day for the next 5 years. Doing something for 10,000 hours doesnt cut it, however. Computer scientist Cal Newport asserts you have to do what he calls deliberate practise - put simply, quantity isnt enough. You will need to specifically practise thinking creatively and applying those skills, challenging yourself and learning to become critical about your work in a constant feedback loop; the experts put in about three and a half hours of deliberate practice every day, broken down into 2 sessions. Its not just about putting in hours, its what you do with those hours. Quality trumps quantity. Some good news Many experienced designers at this point will argue that you also have to possess a great deal of talent. Whilst this is true, talent is only what seperates the very good from the very best, and even that comes down to your opinion. The content in this handbook will set you up with the thinking skills you can employ to become a good designer. The best thing about what is coming your way, is that your design projects are the means in which to practise your skills over and over again over the next several years. Start practising your design thinking skills from day 1 and hone your design expertise over time - your projects are the perfect way to exploit learning your skills. 5

Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, its really how it works.
- Steve Jobs, inventor, co-founder of Apple, Inc.

Have hobbies

Have a good time, all the time. - Viv Savage, Spinal Tap

Architecture school will demand much of your time, whether or not its time-tabled or not - its very difficult to not work after a while. Having hobbies will keep you sane and make sure you dont lose your friends.
Balance your social life with your work Probably one of the hardest things to master given the amount of work a typical design student does. The hard bit is not always about doing enough work, its actually not being disciplined enough to take time off to hang out with your friends and family. A hobby in your evenings and weekends will give you additional skills you can apply to your work in many cases, and they also allow you to meet new people and expose yourself to career life enhancing opportunities. Have fun and spend time with friends, life isnt just about your work. A hobby that takes your mind off work is encouraged. 7

Understand rules, then break them

I dont believe in no-win scenarios. - Captain James T. Kirk, U.S.S Enterprise

Rules often give you a good structure to develop. After all, you wouldnt be interested in sport if they didnt have any rules. Design is no different, but sometimes rules need to be broken.
Why learning the rules matter Rules are a means to allow people to participate in a community; so learning the rules of football for example, allows you to get the most enjoyment out of the game, whether or not youre playing or watching it. On the other extreme, laws and moral codes are a set of rules that allow society to largely co-exist peacefully. In design, especially when you are starting out, learning the rules allow others to understand where you are coming from. To be effective as a designer, you have to understand the rules and values attached to your projects, if only as a starting point. 8

Ever tried designing a house with no rules? Its incredibly difficult. Without rules your outcome is purely a matter of your own taste, which doesnt really stand up to critical review, and therefore is far from the best way of doing things. When to break the rules Rules can help you to plan, organise and develop a project, but sometimes they need to be bent or broken in order to communicate your ideas effectively. Some of the worlds most famous artists like Picasso or Van Gough were heavily criticised for their work in their time, because they looked like childrens doodles. They were both in fact master draftsmen, being able to draw and paint astonishingly realistically. However, painting realistically did not convey their ideas about representing the world vividly, or from a number of different view points. How did they do it? They broke the formal rules of composition and medium in order to communicate their ideas. Thinking inside the box David Gianotten from the Dutch architecture firm OMA talks about thinking inside the box. Thinking inside the box means analysing every single rule and constraint a client or a project gives you, so that you can find ways to develop your project that adheres to the rules; but produces spectacular and unexpected results. David adds that breaking the rules is best reserved only when the final results are extraordinary. I have a friend who once had to design a Museum of Textiles for his major project. If he had followed the rules like everyone else, he would have designed a boring archive of artifacts made from textiles. What if I were to not represent the past, but also the future?, he asked. The end result became an archive that contained its own massive greenhouse to create tropical conditions. Why? To breed a Madagascan spider whose silk would be harvested to create next generation textile products for military and civilian applications, which is an extraordinary result. In order to bend or break the rules effectively, you must understand them first, and know when to break the rules.

The Battery by Bjarke Ingels Group is designed entirely by exploiting danish building regulations regarding the heights of new developments in the city.
Project name The Battery Bat Faste Batteri Architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) Designed 2006 Description The Battery links three different neighbourhoods in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, with a mix of uses - from a hotel to offices, shopping and leisure facilities; connected together through a bicycle lane that weaves its way through a new public park space. The spectacular shape is determined by following Danish building regulation rules for heights, exploited to provide maximum commercial return. 10

Images BIG

Maximum heights for buildings in Denmark are determined by the distance to the adjacent buildings of the site.

By flipping the distance silhouette 90, the maximum height of a proposed development is generated entirely by the building regulations.

By joining up the two silhouettes, the maximum volume the site can achieve is specified.

Primary connections, views and arrival points between each side the site are also plotted...

...cutting out chunks of the maximum volume. The red lines are fill in the areas left, and are expressed as a series of floors.

The end result is an extraordinary piece of architecture that has been generated entirely from thinking inside the box.

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Good learning trumps good grades

A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to. - Banksy, graffiti artist

Grades, much like IQ tests, are a measure of how you stack up to a particular value system. There are many value systems, so focus on what you will learn; not the grade you want.
Grades are a consequence, not the aim One of the most common questions I get asked by students is what drawing/idea/design will get me the best grade? For a start, thats an incredibly complex question to answer. More importantly though, is that its not the best question to ask. The thing about education, and the reason why you spend so much time, effort (and money) into it, is that you are here to expand your knowledge and your skill base. A far better question to ask is what drawing/idea/design will expand my knowledge? You can be forgiven for wanting to achieve high grades; after all, you most probably have come from a school system 12

that has stigmatised mistakes and rewarded those who conform to the academic curriculum. You may have got an A* in biology, but unless you happen to be a urologist, is it worth remembering in extreme detail how your urinary tract functions? If you jumped in at the deep end and begin to do things to satisfy your own thirst for knowledge, rather than wait to be told what to do (or worse, do things because it will satisfy your tutors), you will do well. In same cases, a good grade is a consequence of something you do for yourself. In other cases, you may not get the grade you were hoping for, but at the very least you satisfied your own curiosity. There are different value systems Grades are simply a representation of doing well in a particular value system, and there are many value systems. If we were to talk about intelligence, having an analytical mind for example makes you intelligent, but so does a synthetic mind (being able to combine seemingly unrelated things), both of these are useful in architecture. Likewise, let us consider a typical office block. From an architectural value system, we may judge it as boring or non-descript, but from an economic or profit value system, it may be considered exceptional. The result to shoot for of course, is both. What grade you get at the end of your degree is largely determined by two things: Firstly, it is determined by competency in certain areas set out by your countrys architectural governing body. Secondly, it is assigned by your tutors who have a very good idea at well you are doing. Look out for #1 Expanding your knowledge and having a good attitude towards learning for yourself will get very far indeed. Your tutors will notice when you go out of your way to expand your knowledge, but this is secondary to what you will be getting out of it. Its far more important to focus on what knowledge or insight you will gain, rather than get a good grade. Use your initiative. 13

Take risks

If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. - Jim Rohn, entrepreneur

Risk taking is an essential part of the design process. Without taking risks, progress is never made, at best it will lead to a whole new way of doing things; at worst, a failed risk is just one more life experience.
Embrace failure From an early age we are taught to believe that failure should be stigmatised and should be avoided at all costs. Failure is a natural part of learning, and its really not the end of the world! Even if you think you have failed, you have merely found a way to not do a particular thing (and even a failure in one context leads to a success in another). For some reason many people think that taking risks will amount to failure and therefore build in a risk aversion mentality. A risk that has been successfully pulled off will lead to great things, and the down side is you fail. Big deal. Pick yourself back up again and keep going. Its better 14

to try and fail, than not try at all - now thats a real failure, as avoiding risks at all costs means you will never progress. Take risks all the time and fail often. Analyse the reason why something didnt work out for you and move on quickly. If something is not working out, do not be afraid to walk away. Saying no is a very difficult thing to do, but if your gut instinct is telling you to not persevere, chances are there may be a much better way of doing things. Over time you will know what works and what doesnt work for you, and be sure to capitalise on your successes. More good news The one magical thing about being in architecture school is that you are free to take huge risks with little consequence. Taking a risk for example, with a new kind of structure for your design may not end up getting you a top grade, but at least it didnt get built, fall down and kill anybody. Better to take risks and push your creativity to the limit, and then edit out what would or what wouldnt work later, than design conservatively from the very start. Exploit the opportunity of a relatively consequencefree environment in which to undertake as many design experiments (both successful and failed) as possible. One last thing An experiment thats gone horribly wrong is simply one more experience to notch up to your developing life experience, and therefore is never wasted. It is important however, to make sure there is some sort of record of your failed experiment. For you, its a good reminder of why something didnt work, but more importantly, at some point that risk you took that didnt pay off, may well lead you to a success in another endeavour (more on this later). Undertake as many risks as possible whilst you are in the safe environment of your school, move on quickly from your failures and be sure to capitalise on your successes. Whats the worst that could happen? 15

Ask the right questions

Technology is the answer, but what was the question? - Cedric Price, architect

Design is not an exact science, and the right answer usually doesnt exist. The trick is to ask questions that reveal a course of action for your design process to produce the best outcome.
There is no such thing as a wrong answer Design is a pretty grey area when it comes to absolutes. We know that 3x3 = 9, which no one can refute, but a curved roof compared to a flat roof is not the right answer; it just may be the most appropriate answer to a particular context. One of the most fundamental skills to learn as a designer - arguably the most important - is the ability to ask the right questions. There are many reasons this is important, but two of the most fundamental ideas arising out of this statement are: a. What people say they way want sometimes is not what they need. And b. When you have settled on the right 16

questions to ask, the whole design process and final outcome arises out of answering those questions. Design is not the same as problem solving Another statement Im sure many designers wont agree with, but my personal opinion is simply that solving problems happen to be a consequence of the best designs, not the aim. For example: Post-it notes happened completely by accident. The manufacturer 3M didnt set out to solve the problem of people trying to write notes that they could stick anywhere temporarily. What actually happened is a chemist working at 3M developed a low-tack adhesive that didnt have any practical use, until a colleague used the adhesive to make a bookmark. In a very famous example, Apple, Inc. didnt set out to design a digital music player that was better than everyone elses- they intended to completely revolutionise how consumers buy and enjoy music. The iPod was just a product of this agenda, as was iTunes, Podcasts, and a whole plethora of things that make up Apples revenue ecosystem.

When you set out to solve problems, you are problem solving. Design really comes alive when it proposes new ways of doing things based on our behaviour, and increasingly, thats coming from re-combining what has come before us in a new context. Train yourself to ask questions Asking the right questions is a fundamental part of your design skills. Its not just about asking the right questions, but in addition when to ask the right questions. Think back to my example of the Museum of Textiles. The question wasnt how do I design a textiles museum, it was, What if I were to not represent the past, but also the future? By asking the right questions, you are engaging in a critical dialogue that will lead to a new (and better) way to doing things. 17

What does it say? What does it mean? Is wh thing? Do we want that? Why do we need t here, whats the message? Whats the take a you feel? Whats down below? How else can this? Whats that for? Who needs to know t that change behavior? Whats the payoff? W didnt know before? How does that work? W scrolling? Whats the simpler version of thi order? Why would this make them choose of this look like? Why would someone leav we saying this twice? Is it worth pulling att it clearer? Whats the obvious next step? Ho matter if someone missed that? Does that m better as a sentence or a picture? Wheres th here? What would happen if we got rid of t better? How can we make this more obviou we got rid of this, does that still work? Is it happened? Wheres the idea? What problem someones mind? What makes this a must h
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hat it says and what it means the same to say that here? If you stopped reading away after 8 seconds? How does this make n we say this? Whats memorable about that? Who needs to see that? How does What does someone know now that they Why is that worth a click? Is that worth is? Are we assuming too much? Why that that? What does a more polished version ve at this point? Whats missing? Why are tention away from that? Does that make ow would someone know that? Would it make it easier or harder? Would this be he verb? Why is that there? What matters that? Why isnt that clear? Why is this us? What happens when this expands? If obvious what happens next? What just m is that solving? How does this change have? - Jason Fried, Questions I ask when reviewing a design
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Fundamentals Summary

Design is not a talent, its a skill Creative thinking is a skill, design is an application of creativity; Skills need to be practised over and over again to achieve mastery; Align your project work with practising your skill in design Have hobbies Hobbies in your free time gives you structure from your projects; Maintain good relationships with people through your hobbies; Make sure to balance your social time with your work Understand rules, then break them Rules, like hobbies give you a solid foundation for design work; By understanding rules, youll know when to bend or break them if the results of doing this are extraordinary; Think inside the box to produce spectacular results Good learning trumps good grades Grades are a consequence of what you do, not the aim; Do the thing you will learn the most from; Grades are an indication of conforming to a particular value system, nothing more Take risks Risk taking is a natural part of the design process; Architecture school provides a safe environment to take risks; Move on quickly from failure, capitalise on your successes Ask the right questions Design is a grey area with no wrong answers, just better answers; Its far more important to phrase the right question; The answer to your questions will lead you to new and unexpected places 20

What is the biggest change in science over the last fifteen years? Its a movement from the search of universals to the understanding of variability.
- Malcolm Gladwell, author (the same can be said for architecture too)

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This document is a free chapter from my upcoming handbook for students called Arch101: How to get through architecture school. If you have any comments or are interested in publishing the finished version of this handbook, please contact me at the web address below. Topics covered Fundamentals Perception Ideas Learning Process Becoming unstuck Productivity Time Software literacy Communicating ideas Wall presentations Verbal presentations Writing Feedback Managing tutorials Beyond School Resources

2011 Jordan J. Lloyd. All material quoted material copyright their respectful owners and full referencing will be available in the final handbook. For updates, visit jordanjlloyd.me