I am looking for help and I'm reasonably sure of what I would like to achieve from my position, so I will dive straight in if that's OK.
Essentially I am a 27 year old who is currently doing an introduction to Architecture course as a way of testing out a career change. I have completed a degree in Politics from a respectable UK uni. Although I wanted to do Architecture from 16/17, I received some bad careers advice about school subject selections and what's required in portfolios. That aside I generally lacked the balls and felt that Politics was a "safer" option in terms of not have to potentially spend 7 or so years of money on training (7 now I understand as not necessarily a pre-requisite for working in the industry), in return for what I perceived in Architecture as early wage-earning prospects being pretty poor. This was particularly important as I was self-funding my course.
So I passed with a 2:1 and proceeded to be employed in business and finance roles at prestigious larger places (Oxford University, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton amongst others) which provided me with ACCA training and enough money to pay off pretty much everything I owed and save 6 months income. Again I understand that this is not going to look great commitment-wise, but I am honestly much happier for being now able to make decisions effectively with no short term debt burden.
*Note: potentially divisive point*
One of the major reasons that I did not want to get into architecture, is that I have no interest in grinding at Starchitect's offices to serve (big) corporate players on big money projects, or creating dream-houses for a paycheck. My real motivation is interacting and helping people.
I met a self-titled "community architect". He essentially described my dream job of solving social issues, in poorer communities, through architecture/design, using NGO funding which he sourced and managed. He was 32 years old doing a PhD in architecture, working effectively all his spare hours.
Now apart from being very attracted to this idea, I have absolutely no idea how to get to that position. He fully intended to go through all the Parts and create his own traditional practice (therefore completed undergrad and masters in accredited Architecture courses = Parts 1 and 2 + some traditional experience I understand).
My questions:
1) Is "community architect" a recognisable or common phrase for you and does it have a known place in the industry? Ie. associated with known firms/projects/etc, or known methods of entry (Or is this guy effectively grafting everything he can?)
2) For this type of work what do you think is the best line for me in my circumstances to take in terms of studies/experience (essentially I'm late to the party, but now committed with a reasonably rare and diverse range of skills for the architecture industry, with a good track-record for achieving in other areas)-
Ie. do I now do a 3 years undergrad?
Is there value in doing a masters in Arch or something else afterwards?
Is there any chance I could skip the undergrad and leverage a masters on what I have?
Do I even need to do any of this, or should I just try and wangle as much work experience as possible?
If you've made it this far then, thanks for your time. If you're ever in Cape Town, give me a shout and I'll buy you a cold one!
Sorry no one else has responded. It's kind of a long post...
I'm not surprised that your "community architect" is also in academia. I'm assuming he gets $ from his university, but I could be wrong.
In my mind, it would be hard to run a practice is so heavily reliant on fundraising that pays enough to live off of; nevermind one that make money. Some firms do it (mass design group might be a firm to look at) but if that's the only option you're giving yourself in this field then it's going to be hard to hit that target.
As for advice, I would spend some time working with this guy (volunteer basis of course) and see if you like the day-to-day work that is associated with that type of office. It would be a good way to see if you like the idea of that job more than the every-day grind. We tend to pick careers very aspirationally then get disillusioned when the job itself grinds us down.
If you're serious about making a leap to this (difficult) profession, test it out first, then revised your plan accordingly.
so you started in the UK and now you're in south africa? i imagine the education and licensing requirements are different. my experience with that side of it is all from the other side of the pond, so i can't help much there. however, i think where you intend to practice could make a big difference in how you go about making it happen.
i've never heard of a community architect. it's not the traditional path to take, but that doesn't mean impossible. if you expect your funding to come from ngo's, i would research them. find out how to get their money, and find out what they want so you can tailor your approach to get them on your side. money shouldn't be your only focus of course, but positive cash flow is one of the necessary parts to keep a firm operational.
once you've targeted the ngo's you think you might want to help, think about what they need. will you need a license to provide them the services you intend to offer? maybe a formal architecture education isn't required.
think through how you will be spending your time. will it be mostly chasing grant money, or sitting at a drafting desk, or are you going to be at a project site getting your hands dirty? what kind of project site do you think you'll be working with? refuge camps and medical centers? schools or sanitation in areas without much infrastructure? you might need to build a team, which would of course complicate things, but you might need more expertise than one person can really provide.
Career decisions to become a Community Architect - potential mature student (27)
Hi all,
Long time reader, first time poster.
I am looking for help and I'm reasonably sure of what I would like to achieve from my position, so I will dive straight in if that's OK.
Essentially I am a 27 year old who is currently doing an introduction to Architecture course as a way of testing out a career change. I have completed a degree in Politics from a respectable UK uni. Although I wanted to do Architecture from 16/17, I received some bad careers advice about school subject selections and what's required in portfolios. That aside I generally lacked the balls and felt that Politics was a "safer" option in terms of not have to potentially spend 7 or so years of money on training (7 now I understand as not necessarily a pre-requisite for working in the industry), in return for what I perceived in Architecture as early wage-earning prospects being pretty poor. This was particularly important as I was self-funding my course.
So I passed with a 2:1 and proceeded to be employed in business and finance roles at prestigious larger places (Oxford University, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Grant Thornton amongst others) which provided me with ACCA training and enough money to pay off pretty much everything I owed and save 6 months income. Again I understand that this is not going to look great commitment-wise, but I am honestly much happier for being now able to make decisions effectively with no short term debt burden.
*Note: potentially divisive point*
One of the major reasons that I did not want to get into architecture, is that I have no interest in grinding at Starchitect's offices to serve (big) corporate players on big money projects, or creating dream-houses for a paycheck. My real motivation is interacting and helping people.
I met a self-titled "community architect". He essentially described my dream job of solving social issues, in poorer communities, through architecture/design, using NGO funding which he sourced and managed. He was 32 years old doing a PhD in architecture, working effectively all his spare hours.
Now apart from being very attracted to this idea, I have absolutely no idea how to get to that position. He fully intended to go through all the Parts and create his own traditional practice (therefore completed undergrad and masters in accredited Architecture courses = Parts 1 and 2 + some traditional experience I understand).
My questions:
1) Is "community architect" a recognisable or common phrase for you and does it have a known place in the industry? Ie. associated with known firms/projects/etc, or known methods of entry (Or is this guy effectively grafting everything he can?)
2) For this type of work what do you think is the best line for me in my circumstances to take in terms of studies/experience (essentially I'm late to the party, but now committed with a reasonably rare and diverse range of skills for the architecture industry, with a good track-record for achieving in other areas)-
Ie. do I now do a 3 years undergrad?
Is there value in doing a masters in Arch or something else afterwards?
Is there any chance I could skip the undergrad and leverage a masters on what I have?
Do I even need to do any of this, or should I just try and wangle as much work experience as possible?
If you've made it this far then, thanks for your time. If you're ever in Cape Town, give me a shout and I'll buy you a cold one!
Cheers
NT
Sorry no one else has responded. It's kind of a long post...
I'm not surprised that your "community architect" is also in academia. I'm assuming he gets $ from his university, but I could be wrong.
In my mind, it would be hard to run a practice is so heavily reliant on fundraising that pays enough to live off of; nevermind one that make money. Some firms do it (mass design group might be a firm to look at) but if that's the only option you're giving yourself in this field then it's going to be hard to hit that target.
As for advice, I would spend some time working with this guy (volunteer basis of course) and see if you like the day-to-day work that is associated with that type of office. It would be a good way to see if you like the idea of that job more than the every-day grind. We tend to pick careers very aspirationally then get disillusioned when the job itself grinds us down.
If you're serious about making a leap to this (difficult) profession, test it out first, then revised your plan accordingly.
Good luck.
so you started in the UK and now you're in south africa? i imagine the education and licensing requirements are different. my experience with that side of it is all from the other side of the pond, so i can't help much there. however, i think where you intend to practice could make a big difference in how you go about making it happen.
i've never heard of a community architect. it's not the traditional path to take, but that doesn't mean impossible. if you expect your funding to come from ngo's, i would research them. find out how to get their money, and find out what they want so you can tailor your approach to get them on your side. money shouldn't be your only focus of course, but positive cash flow is one of the necessary parts to keep a firm operational.
once you've targeted the ngo's you think you might want to help, think about what they need. will you need a license to provide them the services you intend to offer? maybe a formal architecture education isn't required.
think through how you will be spending your time. will it be mostly chasing grant money, or sitting at a drafting desk, or are you going to be at a project site getting your hands dirty? what kind of project site do you think you'll be working with? refuge camps and medical centers? schools or sanitation in areas without much infrastructure? you might need to build a team, which would of course complicate things, but you might need more expertise than one person can really provide.
I found this post today while googling "community architect", something I wrote about in 2009 as part of IBM's Corporate Task force for Smart Cities. When I wrote about it and searched then, the only reference I found was to the late architect, Clarence Stein. . http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/?GCOI=80140100056240 and https://muse.jhu.edu/book/48844. Further searching found an architect in my town who is doing this kind of work - see: http://www.archplan.com/firmnews.html http://communityarchitectdaily.blogspot.com/ and http://archplanbaltimore.blogspot.com/2017/02/how-lack-of-jobs-changes-world-future.html. There is an Irish architect, Ronan Atkins, who wrote about this for his Masters thesis, - https://vimeo.com/167256414 and https://www.irishartsreview.com/new-generation-artist-work/ronan-atkins/. Here is the latest post from a former colleague who was the closest to doing what I had in mind from within IBM at the time. https://www.slideshare.net/stanley2curtis/citiesasaplatform-scalable-patterns-better-choices. I think what you want to do NT is very doable, providing you find the right community that has a forward thinking Planning Department that is blended with Sustainability and Information Technology and Placemaking, along with the other requisite skills. Good Luck.
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