What's the best thing to do the summer before starting the M.Arch????
I'm currently freaked out about what I'll be facing in September. The diploma of my Liberal Arts Degree is still freshly minted and I'm going straight into my first yr at University of Toronto's M.Arch program. Granted, I'm escatic to get into Architecture school, but as of now, i'm totally freaked out based on what I've heard about how overwhelming architecture school is...what would you guys do/DID?? Was the M.Arch as grueling as you expected?
Don't worry. Architecture is alot of work, but it's also alot of fun, take everything as a learning experience, socialize with your colleagues in the studio... be prepared to spend alot of time in the studio, but don't worry too much, experiment, have fun, take citicism in stride and try to keep an open mind... And have patience and try to take everything in whether you agree or not... Your liberal arts degree will be an asset, one of the cool things about an M.Arch. like U of T is that you'll have colleagues from alot of different backgrounds. You can draw on your previous fields of study.
As far as things to do the summer before the m.arch, I think the best thing to do is just relax, maybe travel, or even plan an architectural road trip... Like visit some nice buildings in your area, get to know the city you'll be studying in intimately, maybe in a way you didn't know it before... Visit some buildings with a camera, enjoy yourself, maybe do some sketching. Take pictures that you find interesting, think about what the idea behind the building is, how it is used, experienced, put together, details, its relationship with the site? Or just think about a nice composition in your photograph, a particular view or photo that says something about the building... Or even take pictures of the city... Or just whatever catches your eye about it and what you like and dont like about it, what works and doesn't work... Travels and diverse experiences I think are definitely thngs you can draw from when you design...
Visit in toronto (and you could also do some reading about the each of the architect's other works): Morphosis / Steven Teeple's Graduate Student Housing at U of T, The TD Towers by Mies, Calatrava's BCE building... this thread... http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=P22686_0_42_0_C
I would suggest some books to read, but there will be plenty of that later once you start archischool. I took a few architecture electives in undergrad at U of T, in the first "intro to architecture" class I read: le corbusier's 'towards a new architecture", summerson "the classical language of architecture", and rasmussen "experiencing architecture"... The instructor was the dean at the time, Larry Richards. I remember a few things clearly from his lectures, the first being one lecture where he talked about four modernist architects-- le corbusier, frank lloyd wright, alvar aalto, and walter gropius. I think those are four guys that are good to know something about. Another thing was the very last lecture in which he had a video running on the projector of a rave that he had been to, and then showed slides of the international space station canada space arm... what can architecture be? it doesn't have to be buildings...
the rasmussen book is a good one to read in the city on a nice day, maybe taking a stroll around u of t and around the city... the other two electives i took were undergraduate seminars... one was about technology and architecture and the other was about architecture and cultural difference... maybe do a search in this forum on some good movies to watch... watch 'my architect' about louis kahn... You might want to also learn some cad software or 3d modelling, photoshop if you don't yet have experience with it. Not to worry, you can learn those on the fly in school, but it helps if you know a bit about them before hand.
I doubt there's any way to adequately prepare yourself. But that's why you're doing the M.Arch thing, to learn a little something and become humble in the process. It's basically no different than undergrad except that there's more external pressure from professors. So this summer relax, and work on your ability to ignore all but the most important criticism.
I'm currently freaking out just thinking about applying to grad school this fall. What freaks me out the most is how I'm going to tell my employer. They are going to freak out too.
Sorry to digress but you brought up the "freak out", so I ran with it.
DubK
Your employer should be happy, at at the least understand that you're furthering your archication.
That said, I too was worried my boss would tell me to f''*# off when I told him I'm heading to UofT in Sept. but he was cool with it cause I gave him a good 5 months notice. Just give 'em lots of time and you're money.
Dantea, I'll see you in sept! I'm curious about our class...what's your Undergrad backround?
Hey, thank you for all of your replies =). Much appreciated!
'''l - Yeah, I'll do lots of that for sure=)
bRink - Thanks for your detailed and very helpful advice=). I will definitly take your advice into account particularly travelling, photographing buildings, sketching, check out toronto, and study the books you recommended! Also, what 3D softwares are used by most architectural firms? I'm thinking of learning 3dsMax...but also seriously considering about trying out Maya...which one do you personally use and which other softwares are essential to the architect's arsenal? Once again, thanks for your advice=).
brandonmhorn - The ability to take criticism is something I need to work on. I'll definitly take that into account. Thanks!
WonderK - Man, I've been in your shoes (aside from the confronting the employer part)...applying to grad school was one of the freakiest yet exhilarating experiences ever. Good luck!
PetePeterson - Awsome! Nice to meet a fellow UofT student here! I've got an undergrad from UBC, Liberal Arts degree with a major in Visual Arts. What about you?
I would say that although 3d Max and Maya are used somewhat outside of school, those five programs are the most intuitive and easiest to learn. Also, they all work very well together. Basically, to take a file from AutoCad to Rhino is flawless.....Thery're all I've used for the last year. Actually, one of my friends works almost exclusively in AutoCad and has amazing projects.
In any case, I would say, keep it simple. Those programs are complicated enough for your first try at architecture.
I didn't mean that you need to learn to take criticism. You need to learn to ignore most of it! Actually, yes, you need to learn how to filter it and use it instead of letting it paralyze you.
brandonmhorn - Awsome, I'll start polishing my skills in using the 5 recommended softwares. thx! Hey, that's a nice way to put it~to filter criticism and use it!
another software that might be intuitive and easy to learn is sketchup... its not great for rendering but its okay, good enough if you're not looking for alot of realism, and you can always photoshop your model afterwards. there are alot of other useful software, and they can all be useful but it depends on what your future office uses. i think 3d studio is more widely used than maya, it is now owned by autodesk, so it may develop to be highly compatible with autocad, etc. but i think those software that brandonmhorn suggested are a good starting point. you can always learn new software later if you find that 3d modelling is something you'd like to do for an office and in your own work.
Summer before M.Arch
What's the best thing to do the summer before starting the M.Arch????
I'm currently freaked out about what I'll be facing in September. The diploma of my Liberal Arts Degree is still freshly minted and I'm going straight into my first yr at University of Toronto's M.Arch program. Granted, I'm escatic to get into Architecture school, but as of now, i'm totally freaked out based on what I've heard about how overwhelming architecture school is...what would you guys do/DID?? Was the M.Arch as grueling as you expected?
sleep
Don't worry. Architecture is alot of work, but it's also alot of fun, take everything as a learning experience, socialize with your colleagues in the studio... be prepared to spend alot of time in the studio, but don't worry too much, experiment, have fun, take citicism in stride and try to keep an open mind... And have patience and try to take everything in whether you agree or not... Your liberal arts degree will be an asset, one of the cool things about an M.Arch. like U of T is that you'll have colleagues from alot of different backgrounds. You can draw on your previous fields of study.
As far as things to do the summer before the m.arch, I think the best thing to do is just relax, maybe travel, or even plan an architectural road trip... Like visit some nice buildings in your area, get to know the city you'll be studying in intimately, maybe in a way you didn't know it before... Visit some buildings with a camera, enjoy yourself, maybe do some sketching. Take pictures that you find interesting, think about what the idea behind the building is, how it is used, experienced, put together, details, its relationship with the site? Or just think about a nice composition in your photograph, a particular view or photo that says something about the building... Or even take pictures of the city... Or just whatever catches your eye about it and what you like and dont like about it, what works and doesn't work... Travels and diverse experiences I think are definitely thngs you can draw from when you design...
Visit in toronto (and you could also do some reading about the each of the architect's other works): Morphosis / Steven Teeple's Graduate Student Housing at U of T, The TD Towers by Mies, Calatrava's BCE building... this thread... http://www.archinect.com/forum/threads.php?id=P22686_0_42_0_C
I would suggest some books to read, but there will be plenty of that later once you start archischool. I took a few architecture electives in undergrad at U of T, in the first "intro to architecture" class I read: le corbusier's 'towards a new architecture", summerson "the classical language of architecture", and rasmussen "experiencing architecture"... The instructor was the dean at the time, Larry Richards. I remember a few things clearly from his lectures, the first being one lecture where he talked about four modernist architects-- le corbusier, frank lloyd wright, alvar aalto, and walter gropius. I think those are four guys that are good to know something about. Another thing was the very last lecture in which he had a video running on the projector of a rave that he had been to, and then showed slides of the international space station canada space arm... what can architecture be? it doesn't have to be buildings...
the rasmussen book is a good one to read in the city on a nice day, maybe taking a stroll around u of t and around the city... the other two electives i took were undergraduate seminars... one was about technology and architecture and the other was about architecture and cultural difference... maybe do a search in this forum on some good movies to watch... watch 'my architect' about louis kahn... You might want to also learn some cad software or 3d modelling, photoshop if you don't yet have experience with it. Not to worry, you can learn those on the fly in school, but it helps if you know a bit about them before hand.
Good luck, and most importantly have fun with it!
I doubt there's any way to adequately prepare yourself. But that's why you're doing the M.Arch thing, to learn a little something and become humble in the process. It's basically no different than undergrad except that there's more external pressure from professors. So this summer relax, and work on your ability to ignore all but the most important criticism.
brandonmhorn is back! Hi brandon :o)
I'm currently freaking out just thinking about applying to grad school this fall. What freaks me out the most is how I'm going to tell my employer. They are going to freak out too.
Sorry to digress but you brought up the "freak out", so I ran with it.
DubK
Your employer should be happy, at at the least understand that you're furthering your archication.
That said, I too was worried my boss would tell me to f''*# off when I told him I'm heading to UofT in Sept. but he was cool with it cause I gave him a good 5 months notice. Just give 'em lots of time and you're money.
Dantea, I'll see you in sept! I'm curious about our class...what's your Undergrad backround?
Hey, thank you for all of your replies =). Much appreciated!
'''l - Yeah, I'll do lots of that for sure=)
bRink - Thanks for your detailed and very helpful advice=). I will definitly take your advice into account particularly travelling, photographing buildings, sketching, check out toronto, and study the books you recommended! Also, what 3D softwares are used by most architectural firms? I'm thinking of learning 3dsMax...but also seriously considering about trying out Maya...which one do you personally use and which other softwares are essential to the architect's arsenal? Once again, thanks for your advice=).
brandonmhorn - The ability to take criticism is something I need to work on. I'll definitly take that into account. Thanks!
WonderK - Man, I've been in your shoes (aside from the confronting the employer part)...applying to grad school was one of the freakiest yet exhilarating experiences ever. Good luck!
PetePeterson - Awsome! Nice to meet a fellow UofT student here! I've got an undergrad from UBC, Liberal Arts degree with a major in Visual Arts. What about you?
The software that I use on a daily basis:
AutoCad, Rhinoceros 3D, Illustrator, Photoshop
and when I'm doing a portfolio, InDesign
I would say that although 3d Max and Maya are used somewhat outside of school, those five programs are the most intuitive and easiest to learn. Also, they all work very well together. Basically, to take a file from AutoCad to Rhino is flawless.....Thery're all I've used for the last year. Actually, one of my friends works almost exclusively in AutoCad and has amazing projects.
In any case, I would say, keep it simple. Those programs are complicated enough for your first try at architecture.
I didn't mean that you need to learn to take criticism. You need to learn to ignore most of it! Actually, yes, you need to learn how to filter it and use it instead of letting it paralyze you.
good luck! let us know how it goes.
dantea: I have a BSc from UVic in geography with an art hist. minor and I am pretty damn excited to be moving to Toronto/starting school in 3 months.
brandonmhorn - Awsome, I'll start polishing my skills in using the 5 recommended softwares. thx! Hey, that's a nice way to put it~to filter criticism and use it!
PetePeterson - Sweeet, i'll see you in Sept!
eat.sleep.drink.
dantea:
another software that might be intuitive and easy to learn is sketchup... its not great for rendering but its okay, good enough if you're not looking for alot of realism, and you can always photoshop your model afterwards. there are alot of other useful software, and they can all be useful but it depends on what your future office uses. i think 3d studio is more widely used than maya, it is now owned by autodesk, so it may develop to be highly compatible with autocad, etc. but i think those software that brandonmhorn suggested are a good starting point. you can always learn new software later if you find that 3d modelling is something you'd like to do for an office and in your own work.
oh yeah, make sure you stock up your music collection before you start studio. you'll start to hate all of your cds after the first month.
digging for music while in school is very time consuming.
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