DO YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ARCHITECT?

Architecture is one of the broadest and unique professions. It is considered as the Mother of art and science, and it even dictates the history of human. It serves as an icon for a nation. It clearly expresses power, feelings, and emotions. It even affects the mood of people using the building. In short, architecture is an influential and a complicated profession which takes a lot of commitment, passion and desire to be a keyplayer.  It takes guts to be an architect. The question is do you have what it takes to be an architect? What are the struggles you are going to face to be an architect? How complicated is the life of an architect?

MAKE SURE YOU HAVE A PASSION IN DRAWING AND DESIGN

Yes, one of the requirements to be an architect is that you must have the passion and a skill in drawing. On your freshmen years, you will do sketches, drafting and color renderings throughout the year. Even if we are now on a digital era where even drawings are computer generated, you have to do schematic drawings or present initial sketches while meeting with your clients and you are not a certified architect if you don’t know how to produce one.

PREPARE YOURSELF FOR SLEEPLESS NIGHTS

You will need to face 5 years of sleepless nights- one of the drastic part of taking architecture. You will spend a week without sleep: doing plates and take home esquisses while battling with the requirements of other subjects (sometimes minor subjects assumed to be a major), computing for different mathematical formulas and the like. Imagine the torture. But it’s totally worth it.

PREPARE YOUR WALLET

Architecture is considered one of the most expensive courses. You will feel it during your freshmen years: you have to buy a set of Rotring/Staedtler technical pens (amounting almost Php 2,000.00 per set), a T-Square, coloring materials, triangles, kurekolors, etc. And along the way, you have to spend for your case studies, set of A3 papers, 30x40 tracing papers, researches, and a lot more.

 PREPARE YOUR EMOTIONS

In taking up architecture, you should prepare for your emotions. Yes, you will battle all the pressures and stress of college, but years after you graduate, you will realize that it helped you a lot because in the real world you will face the same scenario: meeting up deadlines, stress of handling workers, dealing with clients and dealing with terrible bosses.

BE COMPUTER LITERATE

Yes, we are now in the digital generation. As much as you’re passionate about manual drawings, the trend in the preparation of design documents today is through computer-generated drawing softwares: Sketchup, Autocad, Vray, Photoshop, 3D Max- these are just the softwares you need to be familiar with especially if you’re planning to work in an architectural firm. It is even expected you have mastered MS Office especially Microsoft Excel!

ACCEPT THAT THIS WILL NOT MAKE YOU RICH IN AN INSTANT

We may be considered as one of the coolest and much respected profession, but you must accept that it doesn’t mean it will make you an instant millionaire once you became a licensed one. It is very hard to find clients these days, because of the competition with your colleagues. You will definitely start from scratch, even the most celebrated architects today start from nothing to something. Do not be afraid to commit failures, because you will learn from it.

YOU MUST BE READY FOR THE BOARD EXAMS

Maybe this is the final step towards reaching the dream of being an architect, and the first step towards to the path of your career. You have to exert all the efforts to pass the exam. You can even aim to be one of the topnotchers because mind telling you, it is an awesome feeling especially during the oath taking ceremonies. Better prepare for 5 months of review, and a stressful one before the board exams. Prepare yourself emotionally, physically, and spiritually. And most of all you must prepare yourself for the result. Do your best so you will not regret in the end. Always expect the unexpected, because you’ll never know what the examiners will give you during the Board Exams.

These are just some of the things an “Architect aspirant” needs to overcome this profession. These can even be applied to allied professions, but mind telling you this is a must. Our profession is not like the others because we design the world. We protect the lives of the users of our structures. And that’s something to think about. This profession is a calling, and not all of us are qualified to be one. And not all the qualified architects are good at it.

SO DO YOU THINK YOU HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE AN ARCHITECT? J