It is amazing how quickly time moves when you reflect on what has passed. I have now finished two out of 3.5 years of my architectural education. This summer marks the half-of-year, but there will be no internship opportunity for me. We have an integrated design studio that meets four days a week from one to five.
Reflections on an architectural education
This past year has been instrumental in my growth as an architect. We went from the abstractness of our first year to the physical reality of architecture in the second. We learned about environmental building systems, structural components, materials, and construction.
The first semester started off like a sprinter after the gun goes off and didn’t slow down until the end. At the start of the second semester, our professor told us to clear our calendars and schedules for the next month and to say goodbye to our friends and family. Except, he didn’t know the semester we just had, and his demands were not nearly as exacting.
The pivotal moment of the year was coming in third for the Virginia AIA weekend competition. I not only felt that I had matured as an architect, but also that I had flipped a switch in my mind, liberating my ability to think and create. It helped me have fun while playing with an architectural idea. School is one of the few places you can question “what if…?” without the constraints of a budget, building codes, and the realities of the real world.
The Year Ahead
Next year will be different from the previous two. It is a thesis year, a self-guided year where you aim to explore an architectural question. Unlike this past year, where we had studio with a professor who gave us a project to work on in the fall and spring, during the thesis year, the project is entirely your own. You have three self-appointed advisors who are meant to guide you and give you feedback throughout the year, but the relationship you have with them is entirely up to the individual. The graduate thesis according to Virginia Tech’s website,
“Each candidate for the M.Arch. degree is required to produce a design or research thesis to demonstrate their contribution to the investigation of complex questions inherent in the discipline of architecture. The thesis culminates in a final examination (defense), in which the student’s architectural design and/or research work, body of scholarship, and professional inquiry are presented to the advisory committee and student colleagues, and in the thesis document, which demonstrates each student’s academic accomplishment and professional potential.”
Unlike a traditional thesis, writing isn’t a requirement of an architectural thesis. A long paper isn’t the end goal, but rather a building or structure. This past week, I watched as my friends who are graduating presented their thesis, and the breadth of what a thesis can be is as varied as the combinations of a cookout milkshake. One focused on the in-between space of a high pass (raised roadway) in Bangladesh, while another focused on converting a street in downtown Blacksburg into a pedestrian-friendly destination, and another on the future of cities and the creation of an “upper city” to imagine what’s next.
Thesis Thoughts
I think that devoting an entire year to a thesis is, to put it simply, is stupid – at least for those in a three-year Master’s program, like me. Some of my friends are in a two-year Master’s program, meaning they have a four-year architecture degree, and for them, it makes sense. Even so, a year is too long. Most of the thesis students spend the first semester directionless, hardly getting any work done because a year is a long time, and they know they have time. Most of the thesis projects could have been done in a semester, and those that couldn’t have still would have made a good thesis. What you end up seeing, at least with the undergraduates, are students who feel like they have to keep adding on to their thesis because they’ve fully developed their original idea, and since they still have time left, they feel like they should be doing something.
I really don’t know why at Virginia Tech it is thought that a year-long thesis in the MArch 3 program makes sense. That means students have only two years of studio education. I think, at the bare minimum, a thesis should be one semester, if it exists at all. It should really be optional in your final semester. You can choose to do a thesis and explore an area you’re interested in or choose to have studio. Out of curiosity, I contacted some of the Ivy League’s to see if their MArch 3 program consisted of a full year of thesis, and I believe only one did – Princeton. The others didn’t, and at Rice, it was an optional extra semester should you want to. So why then does Virginia Tech think it’s a good idea? Because from what I’ve seen, I don’t think it is.
I aim to do my thesis year differently. I plan to use the fall semester like a normal semester, working on a studio project with my faculty advisors. I’m interested in pursuing interventions and adaptive reuse – the idea of changing the function of a building whose previous use is now obsolete – and in the contrast between old and new when it comes to working with historic structures. If I’d like to pursue this area after my degree, I think it would be a good idea to have a project that showcases this in my portfolio, perhaps two. Maybe I’ll do a project in the fall, working with one of my advisors, and then one in the spring, working with another. I think that through these projects, it will lead to a process of discovery and help me establish a position on where I stand in the world of reuse, restoration, and preservation. Blogging has been a part of my life for years, so I hope for it to become an important part of my thesis – on ideas, questions, or thoughts I may have during the process. I don’t know how the next year will pan out, but I am looking forward to it.
Next year at this time, I’ll be graduating.
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