there are a few threads with sample portfolios. some of the links are broken.

i will go ahead and recommend that you get over your sense of value of your time, and do the frikin search.

my time is valuable enough (i run a small office in tokyo and do academic research and design and shit) but i am happy to give advice about your questions anyway...


1 . more than one area would be better if you can manage it.

creativity means you use your skills to do something interesting that others might not think of. that means tackling the project from a different point of view or applying unusual techniques to arrive at a solution that is striking. what is impt is not evidence of practical skills, but evidence of an open mind and willingness to step out on a limb. boring cad drawings will not count for much. so you see, skills are not necessary. fresh eyes and mind are.

which means...

2. no you do not need to have archi-stuff. if you do have it because you took an intensive summer school or something i think it does not hurt, but a portfolio filled with other awesome stuff is just fine.

the point is to be awesome. the fact that you are interested enough to apply but not interested enough to sit down and do a search for 5 minutes (or even an hour) on this site does not impress me so far. hopefully you have something else to offer...

There has been a good deal of discussion on this topis especially in the "March applicants commiserate here" threads.

But in general what they are looking for is potential for creative development and critical thinking. So not having art classes will not hurt you that much. You can even submit essays that display critical thinking, Hell I even know of someone that submitted a non-linear mathematical pattern in plant development they derived. Of course architects are a sucker for pretty pics and good layouts.

I do not believe that puting arch related items in a portfolio is the best idea. Most architecture programs will have you go through at least 1-2 quarters of primarily conceptual design. In fact the first 12 weeks of my M. Arch I i cannot count the amount of times our professor said "stop making a building!". Creatively you will work from the ground up, and if they feel that you believe you already know how to get to the 2nd story it could become a turn off.
Now if you have conceptual work I would definately submit it along with a way to illustrate your thought process, maybe a series of sketches or photographs...almost anyhting. An Architect should be a master at self-editing (creativity NOT spelling) so dont be afraid to show mistakes and explain how you responed to them and worked around them.

The major is not the most important thing. You will encounter such a wide variety of students in an M Arch I program, and yeah many will say art or graphic design is the best, but I disagree. I am in the second year of my M ArchI and so far the best students have a background in History, Sociology, political science and business.
It seems wierd but many of the art and design students are struggling in my experience, im not sure why but thats the case at my university.

Finally, Every March I acceptance comittee LOVES a risk taker.

good luck

jump, i had done the search but the search didn't yield a successful local cluster of results and i had other tasks to attend to at the time

i understand your point of "being awesome", but i would think that practical skills would have some substantial part in it as well. you can think of totally awesome ideas, but if you don't have arms to draw or write with, that's an issue

so Jamchar, critical thinking per se for arch is important? thats something new to me. i took a bunch of classes that were tantamount on critical thinking (such as phil or econ) but lacked artistic aspects. still, submitting essays does not make much sense to me if the topic of the essay is something like discussing Nietzsche's der Wille zur Macht. but i agree that submitting somewhat arch-related pieces that display critical thinking is important.

"Finally, Every March I acceptance comittee LOVES a risk taker. "
nice to know, i'll put a dildo in my portfolio, hopefully that will please the lads

"It seems wierd but many of the art and design students are struggling in my experience, im not sure why but thats the case at my university."
students who did art or design in undergrad, from my experience, typically do those things because they can't do anything else as well, including areas which require strong critical/analytical thinking. that may be a reason

when i said "laced artistic aspects" above, i meant the classes, not me. i am also a good artist

the portfolio you mention in question 2 was for finding professional work. it was mostly full of photographs and very little architectural work (and they were very simple renderings). If you were looking for professional work, you'd try to focus on your technical and architectural design skills rather than your photography skills.

as for MArch I portfolio - it should focus on your creative ability, design thought process, and your ability to communicate this process. If you took an architectural survey course or did career discovery - you might want to include that work - especially if you documented your process.

What about graphic design?

What about videogames?

What about music?

I could more easily document my design thought process in these cases. I have paintings/drawings, but not much preparation went into making them; I kind of just "made" them, so documenting my design thought process may be a little difficult and artificial here.

Do they prefer to see only paintings/drawings, or would they also be content with medium such as those mentioned above (graphic design, videogames, music, etc.), given the same quality?

Also, when "documenting design thought process", how would you recommend going about doing this? I've read some statements here that your portfolio should be simple and should really mainly consist of pictures with very little text (as they will most likely read very little, if any, of it). So I guess documenting the design process should be accomplished via a "slideshow" as opposed to mainly text explanations (and that if there's any text, it should be very little, possibly accompanying the text).