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Structures Help for Architecture Students
Hello,
I'm a Civil Engineer with graduate studies in Structural Engineering. I haven't been able to practice structural engineering professionally but it is a discipline I love and have been trying to merge it as a side project. What I've been thinking of is creating a website for helping Architecture students learn about structures in a way that could:
1.- Help them pass their Structures courses
2.- Understand Structures in a way that's practical enough to have this knowledge as a permanent tool for their professional practice.
I'm talking about something that could let them have a firm grasp of how to do Structural Analysis for dimensioning and feasibility before having a Structural Engineer do the engineering work.
Is this a problem for architecture students at all?
Do you think there are students that could be looking out for this?
My arch undergrad taught me enough to know when my structural p.eng was full of it.
Thanks for replying. I understand you're a practicing architect now? How do you relate to structural analysis? Is it something that you care about at all or do you just leave it for the PE? During your undergrad years, did you enjoy or have trouble with structures courses?
Sorry for the questionnaire, I'm just curious.
If you're doing this for free, expect your time wasted. Either charge money as a tutor or just make a blog and assume the effort is all in good fun.
I'm not sure exactly what I would do. I'm exploring ways to serve someone while using this interest/knowledge I have. In other words... Is there a need for tutoring, like you proposed?
Are you an Architecture student yourself?
Perhaps this is not the right forum to be asking this questions. Can you recommend one?
Thanks!
I think this is a fantastic idea. I've been toying with this same idea, but targeted towards practicing architects.
I think this is a very worthwhile idea.
My observations as a practicing registered architect are something like...
A relatively small percentage of architects are very limited structurally and struggle to even lay out structural systems much less undertake any engineering.
Most architects understand the basics conceptually and can design around and plan a structure conceptually but don't usually perform any engineering in practice. If they do, it's either simple isolated problems or light wood frame construction. Usually they rely on the expertise of a PE to perform the engineering.
A small percentage of architects are very competent structurally and often perform their own engineering. Usually modest structures.
The field of architecture is so broad, it really depends on the experiences and project types you're exposed to, what type of firm you work at, and what your personal strengths and interests are.
Of the distribution of architects you just laid out... would you strive to take the "limited understanding" ones towards the "basic understanding"... or these latter ones towards "very competent"?
From my point of view that middle ground is the ideal one. Architects could benefit more from being able to plan their structure because of basic structural knowledge, and leave everything else for the PE, am I wrong?
Yes, the middle majority would seem to me to be the target audience. I am not suggesting to try and turn architects into engineers per se. Taking them to 'very competent' would probably be quite the challenge. It might be interesting to see what that would look like though.
Perhaps you could apply the engineering concepts to daily tasks architects come across. Perhaps it's just reviewing concepts and showing practical application to give them confidence to do some of their own work. Practical application is key. Take it out of the conceptual, and start solving real life problems with them.
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