Does your office more resemble an accountant's quarters?
Do you have a place to draw or sketch? If so, is it awkward? Or removed from your usual workspace - for instance in a another room?
Is it too much to expect for an architect's workstation to resemble the way an architect should work?
I am just an intern, but there is a serious problem in my office with model making. No one does it, and you can't do it at your desk. I am surpised on the amount of sketches and hand renderings that happen in the office though. There are some people who are very very good at it, and I wish I they could teach me or I could steal their skills.
I long for my desk space from school, which was a long flat desk (8'-0") which you could put and computer on and make models on, and a small drafting table (4'-0") which you can render and draw on or flatten (if you don't do that) and have another work surface. I have the same amount of space, but it is far less efficient.
Wasn't there an image gallery at one time for people to post photos of their workstations? I think it would be fun to have a gallery for people to post photos of their offices. Nothing too personal or revealing, but enough for us to see what different offices are like.
Myself, I work in a pseudo cube. L shaped counter around 2 sides with computer in center. Meager layout space on each side. Opposite side is a 4'-0" adjustable drafting table. Mostly used for layout but sometimes the mayline gets a spin.
i work at home. i have space to sketch at my desk, in my studio away from my desk, and other places in my house that i frequent. my favorite place is in my garden in my backyard. weather permitting of course
I have a U-shaped spacel, with my computer and monitors in one of the inside corners of the U. I usually use the leg to the right of the computer as layout space, where my phone goes, active files go, thingy with pens and other office supplies, etc. At the end of this is a bookcase that faces the other way (toward circulation space) so I have a tackboard on the back of it.
In the other corner of the U is my light table, and next to it my drawing board, with all my drawing tools over there too - so I just have to spin my chair around to draw. There are shelves overhead with my books, and a lamp below the shelves.
The middle straight part of the U is sometimes more layout space, sometimes model-building land, and at the moment just holding a lot of junk, because what I do not have is any drawers of my own.
My office has a very academic feel to it, from the dress code to the work methods. Lot's of scketches @ ones own desk/sometimes @ the teaming areas. Pin-ups/Critiques, and quite a bit of modeling going on (physical/virtual).
I posted an image of my desk area (a really bad one at that) in the image gallery. Typ. U with 2 people + share a lg. table in middle of U.
most of my work desks have been cubicles, but the ideal would be to have a few bookshelves, a flat desk with a computer and place to work on models, and a nice drafting table. i've never approved of the cubicle architect's office.
speaking dress codes, every one at my office (11 people-minus the 2 partners) dress like bums. jeans & sweat shirts even tshirts some times. i don't understand why the parterns let this go, there big name clients in all the time...
oh and my desk sucks. luckily we don't built models (never invisioned that while in school), its all cad all the time
We each have a "U" of flat tables to ourselves - not cubicles and not shared 2-person stations. We each have a drawing table and some wire shelving in our space. Most other items - file cabinets, bookshelves, flat files, etc. - are in shared space.
I think by mmm3's standards we also dress "like bums." This is mostly just because it's the proper attire for a lot of messy model building, a lot of crawling around in old basements, climbing ladders at construction sites and such. But it's also been our experience that - as far as any measurable reaction/result can be determined - our clients feel most comfortable with us when we are dressed similarly to them. As most of our projects are residential, most of the clients we see are professionals on their days off - i.e. very casually-dressed physicians, bankers, engineers...
We do tend to "dress up" for our few corporate and commercial clients, especially if we're meeting at their space - so as not to be out of place.
strawbeary, sorry for the late response. I work for the government so sketching at home or in a coffee shop is not billable. However, and this is the plus when I work on private commissions, it is listed as design time (i usually discount over the prescribed/estimated amount) - it pays for the latte's and blue mountain coffee needed to make the designs spectacular - buh hah hah!!!
Jan 12, 05 2:15 pm ·
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Do you draw, sketch etc at your desk?
Does your office more resemble an accountant's quarters?
Do you have a place to draw or sketch? If so, is it awkward? Or removed from your usual workspace - for instance in a another room?
Is it too much to expect for an architect's workstation to resemble the way an architect should work?
I am just an intern, but there is a serious problem in my office with model making. No one does it, and you can't do it at your desk. I am surpised on the amount of sketches and hand renderings that happen in the office though. There are some people who are very very good at it, and I wish I they could teach me or I could steal their skills.
I long for my desk space from school, which was a long flat desk (8'-0") which you could put and computer on and make models on, and a small drafting table (4'-0") which you can render and draw on or flatten (if you don't do that) and have another work surface. I have the same amount of space, but it is far less efficient.
Wasn't there an image gallery at one time for people to post photos of their workstations? I think it would be fun to have a gallery for people to post photos of their offices. Nothing too personal or revealing, but enough for us to see what different offices are like.
Myself, I work in a pseudo cube. L shaped counter around 2 sides with computer in center. Meager layout space on each side. Opposite side is a 4'-0" adjustable drafting table. Mostly used for layout but sometimes the mayline gets a spin.
i work at home. i have space to sketch at my desk, in my studio away from my desk, and other places in my house that i frequent. my favorite place is in my garden in my backyard. weather permitting of course
no I sketch in my sketch book!
Actually I usually sketch at home, lately I need solitude (or at least no ringing phone) to get the juices flowing.
jam-arch - do you bill for this time that you sketch at home?
I have a U-shaped spacel, with my computer and monitors in one of the inside corners of the U. I usually use the leg to the right of the computer as layout space, where my phone goes, active files go, thingy with pens and other office supplies, etc. At the end of this is a bookcase that faces the other way (toward circulation space) so I have a tackboard on the back of it.
In the other corner of the U is my light table, and next to it my drawing board, with all my drawing tools over there too - so I just have to spin my chair around to draw. There are shelves overhead with my books, and a lamp below the shelves.
The middle straight part of the U is sometimes more layout space, sometimes model-building land, and at the moment just holding a lot of junk, because what I do not have is any drawers of my own.
My office has a very academic feel to it, from the dress code to the work methods. Lot's of scketches @ ones own desk/sometimes @ the teaming areas. Pin-ups/Critiques, and quite a bit of modeling going on (physical/virtual).
I posted an image of my desk area (a really bad one at that) in the image gallery. Typ. U with 2 people + share a lg. table in middle of U.
most of my work desks have been cubicles, but the ideal would be to have a few bookshelves, a flat desk with a computer and place to work on models, and a nice drafting table. i've never approved of the cubicle architect's office.
speaking dress codes, every one at my office (11 people-minus the 2 partners) dress like bums. jeans & sweat shirts even tshirts some times. i don't understand why the parterns let this go, there big name clients in all the time...
oh and my desk sucks. luckily we don't built models (never invisioned that while in school), its all cad all the time
We each have a "U" of flat tables to ourselves - not cubicles and not shared 2-person stations. We each have a drawing table and some wire shelving in our space. Most other items - file cabinets, bookshelves, flat files, etc. - are in shared space.
I think by mmm3's standards we also dress "like bums." This is mostly just because it's the proper attire for a lot of messy model building, a lot of crawling around in old basements, climbing ladders at construction sites and such. But it's also been our experience that - as far as any measurable reaction/result can be determined - our clients feel most comfortable with us when we are dressed similarly to them. As most of our projects are residential, most of the clients we see are professionals on their days off - i.e. very casually-dressed physicians, bankers, engineers...
We do tend to "dress up" for our few corporate and commercial clients, especially if we're meeting at their space - so as not to be out of place.
strawbeary, sorry for the late response. I work for the government so sketching at home or in a coffee shop is not billable. However, and this is the plus when I work on private commissions, it is listed as design time (i usually discount over the prescribed/estimated amount) - it pays for the latte's and blue mountain coffee needed to make the designs spectacular - buh hah hah!!!
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