# 1 - Train yourself for extreme lack of sleep: This can be achieved by reducing your sleeping time as of today. You can set the alarm clock so that it'll ring a few times in the middle of the night and disturb your sleep. This should help you in acquiring some truly fucked up sleeping patterns which should be hugely beneficial in the course of your future studies/career

# 2 - If you don't drink coffee, if you don't drink or do drugs it's time you develop a taste for them now.

# 3 - Black will be the color of all your outfits. however white shirts and dark gray garments are also acceptable.

# 4 - Learn the official jargon i.e words such as 'deteritorialization' (did i spell that right??), you must start reading all French and German philosophers right away.

# 5 - Accept that good money is pretty much out of the equation, at least until you turn a certain age, namely when all your friends with business degrees start thinking about retiring because they've made enough money when you spent the last 15 years slaving for an architctural practice.

LOL @ doberman's post... sadly, its all true.

i've been through it all, and i still love it and couldn't be happier in any other career.

doberman good one, that's all the critical points covered.
I'll add ego - Extra Large. Liberal does of modesty are an essential balance.

Same here actually. I still think architecture is an amazing field, shame it doesnt come with a bit more money and less frantic schedules. that would make it even more rewarding. But hey, i guess you just can't have it all.

1. quit architecture/design school

2. use those funds/loans to travel & study cities for 4 yrs.

3. go to business school & make lots of friends/contacts

4. work for a developer & learn how to manage projects/construction

5. quit the developers office & take with you the best co-worker at getting new work from them, and begin a design practice hiring the youngest most design savvy kids from grad school

Yeah, true, an ego twice the size of Texas will definitely help as well.

Yup, all the points seem to be covered. I'd add that when you get hired for 40 hours and a salary based on that, it'll never really be 40 hours. So reduce what you will be making per hour by about 30% or so. But if your ego is big enough, you may just be able to block all of the reality around you and keep pushing. It's worked for more than a few.

Alright. I've got a head start on 4 out of 5 of doberman's top five. However, I still think I'm going to design my dream house, with a dream garage, to park my dream car, as I whip to Europe to oversee my dream project. I guess I should get started on number five and quit dreamin'.

I must agree with dioscuri. If only I knew then what I know now. Also, don't waste your time trying to network with architects. Associate with groups that may actually become clients.

doberman:lol, its all so true...


everybody seem to have forgotten the most important thing of all: marry a rich partner.

flw docet!

I just read the top in my office (only one other architect) - and they all responded with "good thing I never became an architect"

Seriously though...and sadly, I think doberman's post is all too serious...what are some things that might make one a great architect. I'm not up to date on famous architects and their road to stardom (besides the certain eccentricities that come from their specific situations) but is there some kind of pattern? Are there a few professionals, or even recent grads, with some experience that looking back on the years it took and wish that they had prepared in one way or another "if you only knew then what you know now"? What does it take to make sure that you never find yourself in such a position of seeming disrepute as the "CAD monkeys" (and I use that term solely as I see it used on this forum).

Screw the five topics, I'd like to hear anything.

In spite of all the tongue-in-cheek shit i posted yesterday i do believe architecture is an amazing field and i don't regret being an architect. By training as an architect you will start seeing the world that surrounds you in a completely different way, the ability to design space is an incrediblely rewarding feeling. So even if (like me...) you're just a cad bitch working for someone else you can still take part in competitions on the side and try to conduct your own research, with your own agenda etc, which is something that nobody can ever take away from you. I picked architecture out of a selfish interest in the subject and the will to understand what 'space' is ( a life long quest...), not as a career plan. And even tough i later came to realize that there are a lot of drawbacks to being an architect, this abilty to understand and design space is gratifying like nothing else. Now, that aspect of things might not be a good enough reason for you to undertake such studies and i'd fully understand that, but this was my 'serious' contribution to your initial post...

Thanks for the thoughtful post. This forum has brought to me a serious reality check, but even with serious reflection I don't believe there is anything that sway me from pursuing architecture. I believe that it is perhaps the perfect field for me. My passion for the theoretical aspect of architecture is enough to keep me on this path despite the "realities" and drawbacks of the profession. So, I wasn't looking so much for convincing reasons to pursue architecture but rather things that I can do to make myself a damn good architect while I'm young and have the time for such things. (i am currently working a job in Japan that allows me copious amounts of free time.)

This is as always, a classic. A little more than five
things, but pertinent nonetheless...

http://www.fat.co.uk/howto/

that's funny jetcetera!

Reality check for ya, guiggster - Some career lines don't understand or have to deal with the concept of losing money or even paying to do work like the constuction industry, including architects. Be prepared to not always move forwards, but laterally or backwards. Be prepared to be frustrated by things out of your control.

1. God complex
2. Drawing ability
3. Confidence and shamelessness
4. Endurance
5. Lots of wealth from independent sources / Wealthy Wife or Husband

Strawbeary, thanks for the reality check. However, the point is, I am at such an early stage that I have the time and the control to "move forward" right now. The question was how can I better prepare myself for what lies ahead, not how can I always move forward once I have become an architect--an issue that I imagine is wholly different and much harder to answer.

jetcetera, I have bought a copy of each design magazine. I can't find a remaindered store, so I have decided to move on to developing my mystique...

1. Hide like an alligator: you've got to be able to understand that sometimes the critics just aren't going to like what you've spent thousands of hours designing, and take it with good grace. Then you've got to be able to go interview at that person's office and still act like you're the best thing to ever walk through that door.

2, 3, 4, and 5,: any of the previously posted items...

guiggster - well then - practice drawing, draw everything to study how it looks, how it went together and how the shadows are made on it. Buildings, people, fruit, cars, whatever. Also, keep open minded, don't decide what architecture is yet, your definition will no doubt change.

Now thats some good advice. Maybe these things seem obvious but when you've been thinking all architecture, from grad schools to philosophy, your views starts to become so abstracted that its nice to just hear some solid advice to bring you back down to a more practical focus. Thanks.

....i only have two things, but the two most important
in my mind.

1. time management: lists are great, make a budget for your time -stick to it-learn to live by it, you'd be amazed how efficiency = more actual free time. and since time= money...well, you get it.... work on not procrastinating. there's actually plenty of time to get projects done in the real world or school, architects are just great at screwing off and wasting time till the last second....learn not to do that.

2. financial management: budgets are great, and as an architect/student you don't want to get yourself in a hole too deep to pull yourself out of (unlike law/business students, you won't be able to pay your loans off in a couple years out of school). take finance/business classes through college, learn how to invest money/IRA/401k/etc.etc.etc. you won't make a lot as an architect, but if you live within your means/invest smart/save smart, you'll actually do quite well.

oh, i guess one more.... spend as much time with your friends and family ('s) as you can and enjoy yourself, you'll never regret that later in life.......at least not as much as that 4 day-straight-charette that took 5years off your life... :)

gl

1. Explore - visit buildings, parks, tunnels, subway cars that interest you. Practice your observations skills, through drawing, photographing, tape recording, collecting rocks, whatever. The more you're able to digest your environment, what works about it and what doesn't work, what you like, what excites you, what you hate, the better designer you'll be. If you are in Japan you are luckier than most and already ahead of the game.
2. Listen - to be able to work with clients, city agencies, colleagues, this is an important skill. You will also need some negotiating and bullshit skills, but you at least need to listen first and then determine how you want to attack a problem.
3. Find mentors - people whose work you respect, designers, builders, craftsman. Find an internship or someone you can hang around and bug with questions. Ask how things are put together and what you can do to learn.
4. Read, go to lectures, museums - find out what people are talking about... this may depress you, as it does me, but it's necessary if you want your work to be relevant. Coming from a philosophy background, I think most of architecture theory/criticism is ridiculous bullshit, but I still love designing. There are many routes to take, and the more you learn about the field the better idea you'll have about where you fit in.
5. Cultivate some hobbies. You'll need something to take your mind off design when you're bitching about how much you hate your job and how little money you're going to be making...

We live in a cynical world, a cynical world, and we work in a business of tough competitors.

I love you. You -- complete me. I just had --

Just shut up. You had me at hello. You had me at hello.

I've really really wanted to believe that but (baaaaaad ego alert), I've discovered that inspiration and genius 'cannot be rushed'. Part of the design process is deliberate, but some of the process cannot be described, nor even traced in retrospect. I think this 'mystery of creativity' is understandable, because truly original design is one of those "To Boldly Go Where No Man Has Gone Before" things, and therefore cannot be described. (but why is some of the design process untraceable in retrospect?).

Another perspective. While the project is active (and sporadically after the project is "completed") ideas keep tumbling out. So the design is complete only in terms of the schedule, but in terms of concepts/ideas the design just slowly fades, wanders off into the dusk, or gimme a better metaphor.



learn how to invest money/IRA/401k/etc.etc.etc. you won't make a lot as an architect, but if you live within your means/invest smart/save smart, you'll actually do quite well.

no kids (as db said in the parallel thread "are we also going to be successful like...")

1. Learn to handle stress early on- your life will be full of it both from internal professional sources as well as external personal life sources which are affected because of your professional life.

2. Again w/time Management - you may think it's crucial in college but in the real world time = money and you don't have the luxury of blowing all your budget on working out 1000 different design ideas.

3. Always sketch/travel/explore/read - educate! Just because you got your degree and X number of cont. ed credits each year doesn't mean you will be a great architect. Always challenge yourself and learn new things.

4. Learn to live within your means - most architects don't and get very bitter about making little pay and working hellish hours. A good word of advise would be to give up on the material world and find happiness it something else.

5. Lastly, learn to be rejected by the opposite sex once they learn the truth about architects - low pay and long hours.

here's a healthy addition a gun license and a license to kill ala James Bond

1. learn to order a good bottle of wine <- trust me
2. learn to draw a great cup of coffee/expresso <- dual uses
3. black is the new black! Dress like a million if all you are worth are IOUs

1 grow up in national park in GOD's architecture
2 hate the "post industrial complex"
3 go navy and live surrounded by mediterranean architecture for 18 months
4 get a degree
5 live in your anti-thesis -suburban detroit

didn't you intend that for the cringe words thread?

ohhh nice Zinger e909!!

1. An MBA