With final crits creeping up for many architecture students, there's no doubt that the agenda includes sleepless nights in the studio and personal health becomes second priority. Sad but true. In recent years, some students turned to social media sites like Tumblr to post snapshots of their peers seizing the chance to catch up on some ZZZs -- whether as a way to share their woes with fellow architecture students, poke a little fun at their friends, to procrastinate, or maybe even as a cry for help. The widespread social-media trend is nothing new (neither is sleep deprivation among aspiring architects), but what it reflects of architectural education and studio culture is certainly still up for debate.
As anyone who has gone through architecture school may already know, the studio provides plenty of room — and materials — to get some form of shut-eye while working on big presentations:
To any students going through this at the moment: Hang in there.
More photos here, here, and here.
Related: AIAS launches survey to reassess studio culture's broken status quo
14 Comments
OK, the last guy? Under the desk, Therm-a-rest, eyes covered? Total studio sleeping boss. You bring the right tools and any task is doable. I predict he will go far.
The guys just sprawled on the wood floor? Poor planning. Or maybe they're drunk?
As Justine said: hang in there, everyone! And if you seriously fear for your health, or if one of your studiomates or professors expresses fear for your health, *listen to them*. Don't hurt yourself, it's not worth it. You'll work better after getting some sleep, anyway.
I was once so sleep deprived pre-review...I had pulled 2 all-nighters in a row...had to quickly run home to change cloths.... I fell asleep behind the wheel, ran a red light, and car went up onto medium...could have killed myself and others...Luckily no one was hurt and car was only slightly banged up... Bottom line! DO NOT DRIVE! Its worse than being drunk. Just take it easy and get REAL sleep. Power naps are not sufficient.
Jla-X, I've had a similar experience sometime near the middle of 4th-year. I drove home at 5am, fell asleep and woke up seconds before plowing into a deer... I changed my work habits after that... still worked overnight, I just made sure I gave myself rest in the evenings before heading back to studio so that I was comfortable driving post midnight.
My work habits had me in from 8am-6pm and 10pm to 3ish unless there was a deadline. That's when the sleeping bag and mattress came in handy.
Stuff screwed me up so bad working all night that my clock got flipped and my body didn’t know day from night…for 40 years I couldn’t get up in the morning because my body thought it was night….not right that they still do this.
that shit is totally unnecessary, here is a novel idea: proper time management.
I'm with Chigurh - I never slept in studio, never pulled all nighters. Worked 30 hours a week between two jobs, was a teachers assistant, president of a student organization, had a personal life, etc. I'm not bragging, just saying with proper time management having great studio projects in a timely manner is completely possible.
Solution: Instead of staying up all night doing something like this...
Do something like this and go to bed....besides your grade will be higher.
Very funny, Carrera!
I'm not saying you HAVE to pull all-nighters, but my educational experience would have been much less valuable without the camaraderie and unexpected discovery that happens late at night in studio and during the sleep-hazy days in between. To borrow Ken's words, i wouldn't trade that experience for anything.
it's how you internalize architecture - a necessary path -
read Brian Tracy's "No Excuses" - the power of self discipline - doing what it takes instead of what is comfortable and expedient -
xenakis....the masochist strikes again.
From my point of view, i slightly regret that i did not have much of this "studio experience". I graduated far from US (yeah, reading archinect for a long time), and studios were mandatory only for the first 2 years and sometime later as part of workshops and guest courses. From year 3 students in my school forced (weak computer and software equipment at school) to work at home using "educational" or test versions of popular software. But there were some "overnight crunch" mostly as a consequence of bad time-management. For me and my "project must be done as best as possible" first year lead to a hospital with severe fatigue. But i was eager to be an architect, so i just started with proper time management and longer sleep by cost of movies, parties and videogames. And it ended well enough with GPA 4,8 and graduation project picked for a real construction. And no sign of fatigue for the remaining years as well.
"that shit is totally unnecessary, here is a novel idea: proper time management."
For both the student AND the professors.
was going to pull an all-nighter but the work is starting to slip...so 4hours sleep is planned instead....
SneakyPete, let me tell you about time management....working on 15-20 jobs at the moment, family, social life, etc...sometimes days need to be 36 hours long
in school my record semester - 23 credit hours, 3 part-time jobs (dorm security, dishwasher sorority house, FedEx truck loader) and lots of beer...and a funny pot story on a roof - we were convinced we could not be arrested since being on the roof is out of a ground plane police officer's jurisdiction - made a lot of sense at the time.
but you're right, I never understood the kids who had no job, 15-18 credit hours, and didn't sleep as they stared at their chipboard models all night...
you want to do things right in this profession under the ridiculous low quality fast paced production protocols, you are going to lose sleep, work weekends, no amount of time management will ensure your work is top quality!
bahhh.....at least its Friday.
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