"...you’re a gold miner, not a customer, and if you don’t get good at mining for gold, you will never be a good designer."

Yes! This is good.

I fear that this is inconsistent with the greater trend in higher education with too much emphasis on egos and micro-aggressions instead of confronting ideas and concepts that may make someone uncomfortable. I am concerned over the actions in Yale in response to a dimwitted Halloween costume suggestion and the measured response that sought to make a teachable moment about ideas and free speech not having to hinge on consensus or political correct safe speech.

The problem in Architecture is the blurred lines between Art, Engineering and Business with the latter two not getting as much support or interest in school. Design is sexy and how to run a business or detail a roof curb is not important is the message all to often delivered to architecture students.  I wonder how the next generation of architecture school graduates will handle themselves when they realize that they are in a profession that is part of an industry that has an aim to spend other peoples money and to, in many instances, do so in a way that is as conservative and frugal as possible so as to maximize profits and or preserve resources to operate an organization after the project is built. In school the word budget is taken as a micro-aggression and an insult and people leave school with no idea how much things cost and have a skewed perception of value in design as expressed in the built environment.

This is in no way to justify the horrid behavior that sometimes happens between faculty and students in studio, but sometimes you need to be challenged and exposed to ideas that you are not comfortable with.

Maybe we can start 3D printing the necessary trophies we will need to get over the emotional frailty that will be a part of the workplace. It is hard to emphasize with people who are upset on behalf of others especially when they are waspy Ivy league kids catastophizing  every little thing not the individuals who have a legitimate greivance

Over and OUT

Peter N

AHH...I remember for my third year last semester project I designed a love hotel for quickies, my course director didn't take too kindly to it in the review.

Flophouses and backrooms still need to be designed to meet life safety codes.

he didn't like the idea of people having sex, or just didn't like your design?  maybe they thought it was too 'traditional?'

He said it was too grim and I should of designed something with flowers and greenery, although I did put people having BJ's in my CAD plans. If you want I could post them.

i see.  i don't know why you didn't put some shrubbery in your hotel, but i guess i don't know the context.  i'm pretty sure people who like BJs also like some shrubbery.

Be sure to place the second shrubbery next to the first, only slightly higher so you get the two layer effect with a path running down the middle.

Every student architecture section and render needs pigeons that was a unwritten rule that everyone on my course obeyed to, did you guys have a similar thing?

archiwutm8- your course director probably was an idiot. he/she didn't know the shrubbery obviously needs time to grow and  appear in your plan. YOU not drawing it ahead of its' time, means you're a realistic designer LOL. just kidding.. yah it happened with me in my very first course of architecture..

I've said it here before, but one of my best, most important student moments came when design hero and legend Judith Chafee said to me, in her cigarette-roughened voice and with a pitying smile, "We (meaning design architects) need spec writers, too".

So harsh, and so wonderful.

Like my friend in sales says, you need to set a goal of getting a certain number of "nos" every day, not just yesses. That's how you learn and refine you delivery.  Welcome the criticism!

Welcome *constructive criticism...! we have to be careful to surround ourselves with the people whom we aspire to ....  people will always criticize you even if you were "Zaha Hadid", but you have to listen only to those you choose to listen to... ...  this reminds me with someone who always have problems with me because I write with my hand on my presentation boards while I am actually busy designing !

I've said it before but in my first crit review at architecture school, the dept head stops me to say "Those are the most god-awful drawings I've ever seen!" It was really unhelpful so I let it slide off my back. Idiotic.

That article was so ugh.

Donna, the example you gave isn't criticism - isn't it an insult? I'm all on board with criticism, but I can't help scorning professors who either a) insult students or b) merely judge a students' work without actually providing criticism—ie an explanation of some kind. It also drives me crazy when professors don't speak in a crit, but simply look disdainfully at a students' work. 

I agree to a limited extent with the argument of the article, but I personally think that it is crucial and wonderful for people to develop their own voice and pursue ideas that inspire and motivate them. The best work I have ever done was when my professors supported my explorations rather than try to control them.
 

Listening to your professor, and putting their suggestions into "practice" without your own critical thinking, should be the first, and last mistake any design student makes. It's a trap.

Stephanie: I'd love to know what about it you found so 'ugh'.

I remember in my first year we weren't allowed to touch a computer and use any type of CAD or photoshop. So here comes Eugene....he used his sorcery and everything is 3D rendered, modelled and drawn on the computer, professors were furious that he dared to disobey them. They told him he needed to know how to draw using a pen and paper, which he actually did and was very good at it but his argument was "If I have a computer why should I have to do it the long way?, a machine is faster than I am". It was fantastic, the professors were all furious and they started arguing and shouting at him.

To this day I don't know what happened to him but last I heard he went to Paris and went to a prestigious fashion school after.

haha, great story... some profs are so biased.

Listening to you clients and putting their suggestions into your work despite what you think is how this busyness works.

"If I have a computer why should I have to do it the long way?, a machine is faster than I am".

I'd counter that slowing down in the early stages forces you to be more deliberate in your choices, and that practice, over time, will make you a smarter designer. A fast machine is only as good as the under-developed brain controlling it.

Every school has a Eugene. Don't be Eugene.

The problem using a computer and rendering software during early stages is because those students just learned the software and they waste their time playing with cool new things and not focusing on the end product itself or the design process. 

Had plenty of students who used computers when they were specifically told not to, and guess what? If their design was great, nobody said anything about the use of the software, but when the design and the quality of the presentation was low (because they were still learning) then they go the Eugene comments. 

I distinctly remember having about eight different profs at school and they feel into 4 different camps, poets, modernists, critical thinkers and arts and crafts type.  Really odd for some schools to not have a single design ethos but mine was different that way.  Those who were successive were the ones who navigated the different directions and commentaries from the different profs,  it was odd but you had to learn what were important comments and what was trivial or something less important.  I felt early on that you had to decide what was important to you and then stick to your guns to defend it.  I also felt the profs respected you more when you could pick and choose and decipher the important stuff from fluffier comments.  

I still saw lots of student who took everything to heart from a few individuals, it was sad as they never learned anything themselves they could only learn what people told them to do..... currently siting in the back of some large office revising red mark sets.