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Are you an architecture student prepping for finals? Archinect Tips will help get you through!

2023-12-05T19:22:00-05:00

Final reviews for this semester are right around the corner. Are you a first-year undergraduate student embarking on your first presentation as an architecture student? Or are you a seasoned graduate student balancing school work, internships, and everything else in between? Regardless of where you are in your academic journey, don't let the stressors of finals overtake you.

Explore these seven Archinect Tips articles to help you find clarity and confidence as you prepare.

Facing a Jury and Presenting Your Work

You know your project better than anyone else, but is speaking in public holding you back from feeling confident in your project? Are you worried if your pinned-up work or model is missing something? Whether you're stressed about presenting your work, having a cohesive project to present, or facing a design jury, Archinect has you covered.

Architectural Foundations studio review. Image courtesy of Yale Architecture via @yalearchitecture.

Archinect's tips for students preparing...

Archinect's tips for students preparing for thesis reviews and studio critiques

2022-04-22T17:59:00-04:00

What comes to mind when thinking about studio crits, guest juries, thesis reviews, and final presentations? For some, it's a blend of adrenaline, panic, fatigue, and perhaps a hint of excitement. Of course, everyone prepares differently and has their own "method to their madness," but it's important to realize that crafting a strong presentation is a mental and physical balancing act.

Academic coverage is an essential aspect of Archinect's editorial lineup. Beyond our exclusive interviews with education leaders and showcases of student work, our special Archinect Tips section consists of an array of handy guides that can help you feel prepared for your presentation.

Previously featured on Archinect: Archinect's Guide to Presentations

So, students, whether this is your first presentation as an undergrad or a seasoned fifth-year moving on autopilot, it's easy to forget a few things. Below, we have gathered a list of tips and references to get you through the next few weeks.

Before we ...

BIG and UNStudio's investment in co-working platform SpaceForm signals a tide-change in architectural practice

2021-07-13T20:01:00-04:00

BIG is making a huge investment along with partners UNStudio and Squint/Opera in a new virtual platform that responds to the demands of the post-pandemic world with a digital presentation tool aimed at increasing effective collaboration on and reducing the carbon footprint of future projects across the world.

Video courtesy of Squint/Opera, UNStudio & BIG

The new project, called SpaceForm, promises to drastically reduce costs of project development by offering users the ability to present 3D models with up to 100 co-workers in real-time, saving resources with its multi-device ability to connect with widely-used visualization software like Rhino, Rivet, Sketchup, and Unreal seamlessly.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, firms had been mostly expanding their footprints, growing a web of connections between offices that has become obsolete in the minds of some thanks to the changes caused by the pandemic. Now, with the onset of virtual workspace becoming all the more apparent, BIG has cou...

Architecture students — read these 3 articles before your final review

2020-11-23T15:41:00-05:00

Finals are coming up and many students are anticipating the final review and all that comes along with it: presenting in front of a jury; receiving criticism; and the pressure, stress, and anxiety leading up to it. Additionally, the virtual nature of the presentations bring a new layer of consideration for students. There are many factors that go into a successful final review. Here are three articles that investigate some of the intricacies of presentations in studio.

Students presenting their work at SCI-Arc's 2018 theses reviews

The Architecture Student's Presentation Roadmap

The Architecture Student's Presentation Roadmap outlines some best practices for those communicating their work in studio. There are practical examples on how to outline a presentation and some helpful tips to keep in mind for the big day.

Richard Feynman

Complexity over clarity? What happens when we try to sound too "smart"

In this piece we debunk the myth that one must use complicated language to communica...

One key tip to nailing your presentation

2019-10-14T08:00:00-04:00

If there is one skill we learn as architects and designers, it's how to talk. We know how to dress up our ideas and present them eloquently and compellingly. As a result, we sometimes build a tricky habit of winging presentations. This happens in school and in professional practice. Most of the time it turns out well, especially for those more seasoned practitioners.

I remember the first time I went to a client presentation when I was just starting out. A colleague of mine and myself had worked diligently on a project for a lucrative client. On the presentation day one of the principals was going to present the design scheme to this client. We briefed him on the work we had done for maybe 5 minutes or so before the meeting. To my colleague and I this concept was very complex and nuanced, after all, it took us two weeks to figure out.

In that 2 weeks this principal maybe spent about 2 hours of time working with us on this project (which is totally fine, this is to prove to the poin...

Bjarke Ingels wants to "make the world of the future more like our dreams”

2015-05-13T10:21:00-04:00

Striking a balance between Steve Jobs’ product-launching gravitas and the bounding playfulness of a TED-talker, Bjarke Ingels presented a summary of his firm’s work on social infrastructure at the WIRED Business Conference in New York on Tuesday. Instead of displaying static plan sections and a PowerPoint from the last presidential administration, Ingels peppered his talk with creative imagery and a three minute, bass-groove laden video (replete with jaunty squiggle-style animations over live people) illustrating the underlying concepts of “The Dryline.”

The projects that Ingels briefly highlighted, including the Danish National Maritime Museum, the Hellerup Gymnasium, and the Vancouver House all explored how to integrate and amplify the social dynamics of a given space by encouraging greater connectivity among likely inhabitants. This was done in some places by innovatively inverting expectations of what a space should be (converting a dock into a museum, for example) or by creating...