definately go commercial. that's the future.

plastics, plastics are the future.

It doesn't matter what route you go. Hell, you could become a professional monkey wrangler. You're gonna be someone's bitch for a while before you find a niche/succeed. And who the hell says you have to be an Ivy-Leaguer to succeed?

You want to be successful in the future? Drop the idea that you have to be in a magazine or make the gossip topics at Archinect to hit it big. If you get older and happen to make the pages of ArchRecord, then great. But if you don't you can still live a happy life.

Theres always a market for people who know what the F*ck they are doing

Oh, I almost forgot. 3dH is the future. Per is king.

-- pretty good chance that will happen to you no matter what career you pursue ... pursue what you love and stop agonizing over every little possiblity.

What is "Commercial Design"?

Who do you think comes up with all those hip apple commercials?

Pur-leez. Ivy-league needed to succeed? Come on. My school is hardly Ivy status, and I think we're getting a better education for less money than those primped-up pretty boys. Sure, we don't have two plotters in every studio, but we do have 2 laser cutters, 2 3d printers, a 3-axis router, a 10,000 volume library and a fully functioning, student-run print room. Besides all the 'amenities', we have some extremely intelligent and dedicated faculty.

The old saying goes- "It's not what your education gives you, it's what you get out of it"

... pretty much the same strengths needed to suceed in this career in the near past.

as much as we like to think architecture is all about design, it's mostly about people. it's about developing effective working relationships with clients, and partners, and staff, and consultants, and contractors, and building officials.

all of these relationships are required to avoid "just designing these sweet drawings, knowing they will never come to reality"

"good people skills and average design skills" will take you a lot further in this profession than "great design skills and poor people skills"

if you are only still in school right now how can you be so jaded already? of course none of your "sweet drawings" will be built now, you are in school.

i think you need to figure out what it is you actually want to do in your career
a very select few people get to do "sweet drawings" all the time and have everything they design get built. if that is what you are banking on, you might be setting yourself up to fail (not saying you cant do it, just that it is not really realistic)

you are thinking of things in very broad terms too (makes sense since you are in school). have you ever worked on anything besides commercial design? how can you know what the future of architecture is when you havent experienced any of what it is now

if all you like to do is make pretty drawings, you wont really be a complete architect, and you will probably just end up being a renderer. nothing wrong with that, but it doesnt seem what you want to do


if all you are is someone's "bitch", that is your own fault for being in the wrong work situation. there is no reason at all why you cant work under someone and gain experience without being their bitch

If your not rich, marry rich.....that should give you a good client base.
Maybe the significant other will take you to Europe or Asia so you can have and Ivy League experience....

...i am sick of your shit...

i thought annie choi paid us a visit for a moment....

Postal, the annie choi "letter" is one of my favorites. Always a nice laugh on a late night in studio.

Any profession where you have to marry rich in order to survive is fundamentally flawed - or fundamentally interesting.

quizzical:
as much as we like to think architecture is all about design, it's mostly about people. it's about developing effective working relationships with clients, and partners, and staff, and consultants, and contractors, and building officials

I agree, and would add the following comment. An old lecturer of mine and a very, very successful practitioner argued that clients don't pay us for designs, they pay us for a set of drawings from which they can build a building according to their needs and budget. Potentially disheartening but nevertheless true. It all comes down to the drawings.

Its a shame that architects drawings are often not up to scratch.

you dont have to marry rich in order to survive as an architect

if anyone here has to, that means they are either at the wrong firm, or have unrealistic expectations


yeah i agree diabase
it seems architects tend to think it is all about their design
if you look at it though, we are selling a set of documents, and many times those documents arent what they should be in terms of quality and completeness

diabase -- I don't find that perspective disheartening at all.

I like the process of helping a client, who I respect and enjoy, achieve a building that meets his/her functional needs and schedule and budget -- that's a very interesting activity that leads to a high degree of professional satisfaction. layer on top of that the challenge of also delivering strong design and who could ask for anything more?

Disheartening when you are a 3rd year student.... not so if you are older and take pride in your work and have had the opportunities to learn how to put together a decent set of drawings for a decent building...

but if you are in your third year, and you still think you will be leaving school and designing crazy things like in school, and that you will be able to pick and choose everything you do, with no grunt work or paying your dues, then you are somewhat delusional

i am 2 years done with grad school, having worked now about 3+ years total. no i havent designed a high profile innovative building all on my own yet, but i have acquired a good set of skills so far and can put together a drawing package and deal with engineers and contractors pretty well
i'm pretty satisfied with my career so far

marmkid,

Fair point. At the time, in the way it was said it was quite a brutal comment. Framed along the lines of 'your client does not care about or pay for design, lighting, spatial dynamics, light, the phenomenology of space. all they care about is that you deliver a set of drawings that deliver the project and judgement will come down to that'.

Its a debatable point in any case, because most of his buildings were very good buildings, well designed, award winning etc...

i didnt mean it to be brutal towards anything you said, diabase. it is more toward the arch student who thinks he is the next frank lloyd wright and then complains when during his first year after graduation, he isnt given the head designer position at a top firm. the attitude that they are somewhat above learning the nuts and bolts of the profession. like doing any CA work on a project would never be benefitial.
there are many things to learn that will help you become a better designer, and seeing how things happen after a project is designed and during the CD and construction phases help in ways most people dont understand

and i never said that a client doesnt care about those things. but lets be honest, if you were the client, would you care about your architect's grand ideas and design brilliance if the actual set of documents was not up to par and ended up costing you a lot of work and headache during the construction of the building?

i am not sure who's buildings you are referring to, i wasnt talking about anyone in particular in this thread or anything like that

marmkid,

no offence taken. I agree with you. Drawings are the principle medium of our work [in the day to day practice of architecture], and they should be up to scratch.

definitly the future of design is the sustainable design
check out to see the interview with ken yeang and other interesting stuff
www.clubofpioneers.com

uh-oh

shit I work for myself and have for the past ten years....and damn I wish I was the idealist designer...who gave a shit about how to meet the requirements of zoning codes, building codes and fire codes. We splash once and awhile, but most of it is monkey business with codes economics, and clients who just don't get it! It is a sad state of Business.