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Does Architecture prepare you well for real world architecture work?

tlee55

I work for a design/build firm and I'm going back to school to get my MArch (1st yr) so I can become an Architect. So far what I have noticed in school is a lot of theory and very little practical stuff. I truly don't mind the theory stuff. I think that's the big picture of what I should be getting out of school. But I'm also very aware that in the future when I become an intern I'd probably being doing more technical stuff. Code research, drafting, construction documents, items that are very tedious, but necessary to keep the company doors open.

From your experiences does Architecture school prepare you for the real world of architecture?

  

 
Jan 22, 15 7:57 pm
Carrera

No. School is the ticket booth.... rest is self study and real life experience. 20/80 in my opinion.

Jan 22, 15 8:03 pm  · 
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midlander

No, it just points you in the direction you need to be to start learning for yourself. Different schools do have different levels of focus on this though.

I didn't much like school; but I've enjoyed working as an architect. Night and day difference.

Jan 22, 15 10:13 pm  · 
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senjohnblutarsky

Good Architecture schools don't teach you to sit in an office and read code books and do drawings.

Good Architecture schools do much more.  First, most people go into Architecture school with a lot of preconceived notions about architecture.  They've always had some thoughts about houses and the like.  When you get to school, they should first break your way of thinking.  Most of the ideas one has about Architecture, prior to school, are just bad.

Then, they should help you develop your thought process and develop your own personal approach to Architecture.  School should make you broaden your thinking.  You should learn to approach a problem with an open mind, and be given the ability to, once presented with a problem, design more than one effective solution.

If all the schools did was teach you to do drawings, we'd be no better than the contractor/developers who have filled suburbia with hell-houses.

So do schools prepare you for working in the real world? Yes.  But it's not on the shallow "they taught me to read code books and draw wall sections" level.  Anyone can read a book and duplicate wall sections.  The schools prepare you to easily transition into those things and do more. 

Jan 23, 15 8:31 am  · 
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No, not at all. In most ways it is like bizarro world where polarities reverse. Some schools are technological and some are design and others are something altogether different....but none of them are akin to the real practice and profession of architecture.

Jan 23, 15 3:22 pm  · 
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awaiting_deletion

Interns should NOT being doing more technical stuff like code research and construction documents,but they often do because guess what - their bosses went to architecture school and after 10 years of holding their fingers crossed still don't know anything about anything. Because you have to be very shallow to understand building code and how to get things built,that's what academics like to say don't they? . And what is amazing - most can't make a buildable legal set of drawings, not sure how that happened right?.........based on your experience grad school will be like it was for me, a way to get out the rut, break free a bit from the profession, a little free thinking session.

Jan 23, 15 6:28 pm  · 
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Wilma Buttfit

The education is useful, but incomplete. Plan to supplement your education with plenty of reality. 

Jan 24, 15 6:48 am  · 
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x-jla

like boot camp prepares you for war.  

Jan 24, 15 12:22 pm  · 
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toosaturated

School teaches you how to think and develop the fundamentals. Self-study, persistence, and practice is what prepares you for the real world. But it really depends on what you want to do after school.  

Jan 26, 15 3:04 pm  · 
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StarchitectAlpha

I think it perfectly prepares you! For every hour you spend learning something you will spend 16 making a model of it. Just like how for every hour you spend designing something or coordinating CD'S you spend 8 hours drafting it, because why the hell hire a professional drafter when you can hire an intern who'll leave the firm as soon as he figures out drafting???? The education model is messed up so no wonder the business model of a firm is too. 

Jan 29, 15 12:06 am  · 
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sameolddoctor

Fuck No!

Jan 29, 15 6:49 pm  · 
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