Are there any M.Arch programs in the US that still do individual projects in Design Studio for the most part? Is it just commonplace now to do group projects for 50-75% of your academic career? I don’t mean the group efforts in research, building site models, etc. but the meaty stuff like design concept to formation, etc.
Non Sequitur
Mar 30, 22 10:51 pm
News-flash: The real world is all about collaborative work. Better learn how to work with others while still in schools instead of finding out you're a bad team-player when on the client's dime.
Gaidamack
Mar 31, 22 4:19 am
Are you saying that school group project are indicative of how real collaborative work is an architecture office? because it's just objectively not true. There is honestly zero relation between how group projects in school are and how a real architecture project is run, where you might have multiple team members, each knows what part they are contributing to, there's a team leader who can coordinate everything. When you work with consultants (who are also part of the team), you have some sort of hierarchy of who gets the final word and how you approach a solution for different problems. It's something else entirely, really.
In architecture school it's just a random group of students mostly who need to find a common interest somehow, and there is no real predefined tasks for everyone. It's almost always uncoordinated and not so fun. Architecture school are not doing group project to simulate real life architecture office environment, they do to so they don't have 40 projects to crit.
Not saying it's all bad, you learn a lot about how you can communicate with different minds and develop leadership skills, but mostly it's just meh.
monosierra
Mar 31, 22 8:31 am
Yeah, I think the absence of an overall senior person in charge really differentiates group work in school between project teams at work. The lack of hierarchy and supervision hurts a lot of student group projects - especially with everyone vying with each other.
Chad Miller
Mar 31, 22 11:04 am
I think the point of doing group design work is to get people accustomed to - working in groups - :: gasp:: Nothing in architectural school prepares you for working in an actual firm. All it does is give you the minimal base knowledge to function in a firm.
ab1
Mar 31, 22 8:36 am
Strange, the real-world has been around for longer than the last 10 years when they started implementing group work in Design classes. It seems the We vs I ideology has entered the artistic endeavors of the architectural world as well.
But if anyone knows of a graduate program that still does not adhere to this philosophy or is returning to the time-tested individualized Design coursework, I would appreciate it.
Chad Miller
Mar 31, 22 11:02 am
Group work in design classes have been around a lot longer than 10 years. I've been practicing since 2002. We had group design work when I was in school.
whydw
Mar 31, 22 9:05 am
As I know, most of core studios' projects are individual. Students will probably be working as group in coreIV/advanced/option studios. But from my bachelor experience, it depends on studio tutors.
I also prefer developing individual work in graduate school so I wonder where did you hear this from?
ab1
Mar 31, 22 9:40 am
Well, I returned to Grad school after doing my Bachelors years ago. So far, 2 out of 4 core design courses have been in groups. Was just informed that the remainder core design courses will be in groups as well. Eek, what happened to developing one’s architectural voice before entering the field. Many students not happy & just accept it. Did undergrad at Cooper where we were taught to figure things out on our own, artistic integrity, etc. Not sure if they changed it up there tho.
monosierra
Mar 31, 22 9:51 am
Wow, is this a new trend? I've only heard of a max of one group studio for Core, with Options depending on the instructor. The majority of student work was individual.
Chad Miller
Mar 31, 22 11:07 am
You're not going to find your own architectural voice while in school. Not a real one anyways. What you'll find is your own process and a bit of architectural preferences.
reallynotmyname
Mar 31, 22 11:34 am
Business schools actually have coursework in personality types and negotiation that facilitate people to successfully work in groups. Arch. schools need to look into that if they are going to force people into cockamamie group design projects. In my day, the only group work you did in arch. school was in tech and structures classes. The projects just about always sucked ass in both process and end product because very few young people had the people/management skills to pull them off.
Chad Miller
Mar 31, 22 11:57 am
So your view that group work shouldn't be done because young people suck at it? Then what about when you get into your first firm and need to group work but have never experienced it?
I'm not saying that group work in school is going to teach students how to do group work well. It is needed though.
When I was in school the group projects started off slowly and took a few years spread out through several projects and studios. The entire class working to build a large site models for a project we'd all use. This progressed into teaming up with the landscape students for a shared project. Then finally it was a full 12 person group project were we had to masterplan city and create said masterplan. Throughout this entire process the professors various lectures on how to do group work.
reallynotmyname
Mar 31, 22 12:07 pm
No, I just think the schools need to be teaching the kids effective collaboration techniques before throwing them into group projects. Maybe some are doing that, but it looks to me like many are not. My undergrad and grad sure didn't. The sink-or-swim method is unduly painful for the students.
jsyj
Mar 31, 22 1:50 pm
Lot's of grad schools have a stronger focus on individual projects. I doubt that many of them would foreground this in their overall descriptions. I would focus on looking at programs that have a thesis based final requirement. Even if the core has lots of collaborative work, the assumption in a thesis based program is generally that work is completed individually.
That said, lots of programs invest in collaborative studios not as a way to reduce crit time, but rather as a way to help students develop creative and productive processes for project development. If you can't convince one or two other people on a small team about your "unique voice", it will definitely be a challenge to do so in professional collaborative environments with more vertical power structures.
Are there any M.Arch programs in the US that still do individual projects in Design Studio for the most part? Is it just commonplace now to do group projects for 50-75% of your academic career? I don’t mean the group efforts in research, building site models, etc. but the meaty stuff like design concept to formation, etc.
News-flash: The real world is all about collaborative work. Better learn how to work with others while still in schools instead of finding out you're a bad team-player when on the client's dime.
Are you saying that school group project are indicative of how real collaborative work is an architecture office? because it's just objectively not true. There is honestly zero relation between how group projects in school are and how a real architecture project is run, where you might have multiple team members, each knows what part they are contributing to, there's a team leader who can coordinate everything. When you work with consultants (who are also part of the team), you have some sort of hierarchy of who gets the final word and how you approach a solution for different problems. It's something else entirely, really.
In architecture school it's just a random group of students mostly who need to find a common interest somehow, and there is no real predefined tasks for everyone. It's almost always uncoordinated and not so fun. Architecture school are not doing group project to simulate real life architecture office environment, they do to so they don't have 40 projects to crit.
Not saying it's all bad, you learn a lot about how you can communicate with different minds and develop leadership skills, but mostly it's just meh.
Yeah, I think the absence of an overall senior person in charge really differentiates group work in school between project teams at work. The lack of hierarchy and supervision hurts a lot of student group projects - especially with everyone vying with each other.
I think the point of doing group design work is to get people accustomed to - working in groups - :: gasp:: Nothing in architectural school prepares you for working in an actual firm. All it does is give you the minimal base knowledge to function in a firm.
Strange, the real-world has been around for longer than the last 10 years when they started implementing group work in Design classes. It seems the We vs I ideology has entered the artistic endeavors of the architectural world as well.
But if anyone knows of a graduate program that still does not adhere to this philosophy or is returning to the time-tested individualized Design coursework, I would appreciate it.
Group work in design classes have been around a lot longer than 10 years. I've been practicing since 2002. We had group design work when I was in school.
As I know, most of core studios' projects are individual. Students will probably be working as group in coreIV/advanced/option studios. But from my bachelor experience, it depends on studio tutors.
I also prefer developing individual work in graduate school so I wonder where did you hear this from?
Well, I returned to Grad school after doing my Bachelors years ago. So far, 2 out of 4 core design courses have been in groups. Was just informed that the remainder core design courses will be in groups as well. Eek, what happened to developing one’s architectural voice before entering the field. Many students not happy & just accept it. Did undergrad at Cooper where we were taught to figure things out on our own, artistic integrity, etc. Not sure if they changed it up there tho.
Wow, is this a new trend? I've only heard of a max of one group studio for Core, with Options depending on the instructor. The majority of student work was individual.
You're not going to find your own architectural voice while in school. Not a real one anyways. What you'll find is your own process and a bit of architectural preferences.
Business schools actually have coursework in personality types and negotiation that facilitate people to successfully work in groups. Arch. schools need to look into that if they are going to force people into cockamamie group design projects. In my day, the only group work you did in arch. school was in tech and structures classes. The projects just about always sucked ass in both process and end product because very few young people had the people/management skills to pull them off.
So your view that group work shouldn't be done because young people suck at it? Then what about when you get into your first firm and need to group work but have never experienced it?
I'm not saying that group work in school is going to teach students how to do group work well. It is needed though.
When I was in school the group projects started off slowly and took a few years spread out through several projects and studios. The entire class working to build a large site models for a project we'd all use. This progressed into teaming up with the landscape students for a shared project. Then finally it was a full 12 person group project were we had to masterplan city and create said masterplan. Throughout this entire process the professors various lectures on how to do group work.
No, I just think the schools need to be teaching the kids effective collaboration techniques before throwing them into group projects. Maybe some are doing that, but it looks to me like many are not. My undergrad and grad sure didn't. The sink-or-swim method is unduly painful for the students.
Lot's of grad schools have a stronger focus on individual projects. I doubt that many of them would foreground this in their overall descriptions. I would focus on looking at programs that have a thesis based final requirement. Even if the core has lots of collaborative work, the assumption in a thesis based program is generally that work is completed individually.
That said, lots of programs invest in collaborative studios not as a way to reduce crit time, but rather as a way to help students develop creative and productive processes for project development. If you can't convince one or two other people on a small team about your "unique voice", it will definitely be a challenge to do so in professional collaborative environments with more vertical power structures.