Quick intro: I'm a former student blogger with a terrible track record of intermittent, hesitant posts. I started this blog without acknowledging my own fear of writing for an audience of architects. I was afraid of getting snarked at, so I did the worst thing--and said nothing.
I'm now a full-time designer, and I'm on a personal mission to lose that fear of writing, of talking in public, of being snarked at. So I'm restarting this blog. Here we go.
At this point, I'm sure you're dying to know what prompted this [I know, It's so fascinating!--yet another young person making a personal manifesto to say more! be more! achieve! exist online! be a blogger!].
Well, I'm not going to tell you. Instead I'm going to tell you what I'd like to blog about.
I'm interested in alternative modes of practicing architecture, or ways that you can apply an architectural education to other career paths. I'd love to hear your feedback--I know lots of architects and former architects and intern architects and aspiring architects are spending time doing other things. Whether to pay the bills or re-chart the course of the industry, I'm interested.
I'm hoping to do profiles on people that I think are doing great cross-disciplinary things, people that have 'defected' from architecture and are using their expertise in other fields, people that are practicing architecture in weird or unexpected ways, architects that switched into the profession from something else. If you have suggestions or thoughts, let me know!
If I'm covering already-trodden ground, I don't really mind. I'm not pretending that alternative practice is a ground-breaking idea. This is my own search for answers. This blog is epistemic [whoa, that's right, throwing around big words now]--it's about a process of discovery, which hopefully will be it's own reward.
Thanks for listening.
We live in uncertain times. Let's use the uncertainty to redefine the way we are valued and the way we measure ourselves, to create the context for the change we want to make.
Twitter: @NicoleFichera
8 Comments
Welcome Nicole! Sounds like your blog will be a really nice complement to our ongoing "Working out of the Box" series. It's an issue that is especially relevant given the state of the economy and the growing numbers of unemployed and underemployed architects. I'm looking forward to following your blog!
Thanks, Paul! I'm excited to get started. For me, it's personal--I'm going to go back to grad school in a few years, but my question is: for what degree?
The 'Working out of the Box' series is so interesting and positive. It's one of the reasons I decided to restart the blog.
Thanks to you personally for putting out the call for old bloggers to restart their engines. I'm looking forward to this.
I started reading, and immediately was captivated! Your story sounds like an interesting one, I'd definitely like to read more!
ariana--I really appreciate that! Looking forward to sharing more.
Have you heard about this?
http://www.cwarch.org/HTML/events/2010-2011/2011%20aDOT/2011_a.DOT%20POSTER.pdf
Opening was last night - TERRIFIC attendance!
Hybrid--That looks amazing! I also have never visited Chicago, and I'm dying to go. So it's going to be open for the whole month? I wonder if I could carve out a long weekend--it would be a great excuse to finally see Chicago in person...
Thanks for the heads up!
Nicole I teach Professional Practice and am constantly inspiring/terrifying my students with stories of other things they can do with their degree.
Former students and my favorites of alternative practice are PROJECTiONE.
We also talk about El Dorado, a more traditional firm who started with fabrication and grew their business with very alternative marketing ideas. Great profile in Architect magazine here.
And quite far afield, a friend of mine from undergrad who is now raising and writing books about raising angora rabbits - designing the entire process of a sweater!
Looking forward to your blog.
Sounds great- and so relevant for so many right now. I'm constantly wondering what if, and almost left permanently a couple of years ago when I couldn't find a job after graduating to set up a travel guide company which I still work on in the background. For now I decided to stick with and I'm doing my professional exams now... I Look forward to the blog!
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