Fresher’s Guide 2015 - 2016 -- WELCOME TO ARCSOC --
CONTENTS Welcome 4 Your New Family How the Course Works
8 10
Tutorials, Crits, Lectures
10
Time Management Advice
11
Key People for First Year
12
Julika Gittner (First Year Studio Master)
12
Felipe Hernandez (1st Year Co-Ordinator)
12
Stan Finney (Faculty Computer Officer)
13
Clive Tubb (Workshop Supervisor)
13
Alan Baldwin (Chief Custodian)
13
Your Lecturers
13
The Studio When is it open?
14 14
Etiquette 14 Arcsoc 16 Exhibition 16 Pavilion 20 Cabaret 20 Talks 20 Films 20 Life Drawing Arcsoc shop Where else to buy your supplies Snippets of Advice
20 22 22 23
WELCOME Hello everybody, Congratulations on making your offers and welcome to Arcsoc! We’ve put this guide together to give you a bit of a better idea of what to expect from the year ahead, and hopefully answer some of the questions you might have about it. All the info here has come straight from us students, and don’t hesitate to get in touch via facebook or email if there’s anything else you want to know. You can join the “Cambridge Architecture Freshers 2015-2016” group to keep up to date, and give the Arcsoc page a like while you’re at it! Architecture at Cambridge takes relatively few students per year, but requires many studio hours per week, which results in a close-knit community within the subject: at the heart of this lies Arcsoc. We run all sorts of events and programs throughout the year to expand our curriculum, help each other out a bit, and raise money for our summer exhibition in London every year. These include talks, life-drawing sessions, film screenings, and some
infamous parties! We also have a few pavilion projects every year, whilst arcsoc radio and arcsoc shop (where you can buy materials at wholesale prices) enhance your studio experience. We rely on input from all the students; our functions are always increasing and our committee is always expanding, so we hope you will enjoy getting involved and please let us know if you have any cool new ideas! In the meantime enjoy the rest of your summer and make sure to say hi at the freshers fair when you arrive. See you in studio! Kate Arcsoc President cfm39@cam.ac.uk
YOUR NEw FAMILy Arcsoc is the University of Cambridge Architecture Society, led by students of the BA Tripos in Architecture.
We are
an entirely student-run initiative, whose efforts each year culminate in our annual exhibition held in London. As you will soon find out, there are very few architects in the University compared to other subjects. This means whilst there may only be two or three of you in each college, the architects soon become very good friends. With the various trips abroad over your time here and the collaborative projects you will work on, both Arcsoc and the architects will hopefully become your new family. Make sure you take the time to get involved in everything we do and you’re bound to enjoy it. We may work hard, but we party harder!
Naples Trip: 3rd Years (top) Second Years (bottom)
HOw ThE COURSE WORKS Tutorials, Crits, Lectures Over the course of your degree, your studies will be divided into Studio work (60%) and Theory (40%). Studio work is all things design - drawing, model-making, building. You work on a project for a period of time, during which you will receive feedback via tutorials and ‘crits’. Critiques or ‘crits’ are a chance for you to present your project development to an audience of internal and external experts, who will help you push your design forward. You will hand in a portfolio of work at the end of the year which will be assessed by a team of examiners. Theory work is based on five lecture series which help broaden your general knowledge about architecture. Your Theory mark comes from written exams at the end of the year. Be sure to keep on top of your subjects as the year goes on, it makes it easier going into Easter (the final) term.
Time Management Advice The Cambridge course, let alone architecture is an intense one. But remember that your health and happiness come first! You will spend late nights completing work but try to set yourself manageable goals for the time that you have. Do not expect to ever ‘finish’, but try to have all the work that shows what your idea and design is about.
KEy PEOpLE fOR FIRST YEAR Julika Gittner (First Year Studio Master) Your tutors are the ones who set you design work and give you feedback in bi-weekly Tutorial sessions. At times the work can feel overwhelming, and the feedback can be tough, but don’t let this discourage you! You will feel genuinely proud of the sheer volume of work you produce over this year, and the tutors are the ones that push you this far.
Felipe Hernandez (1st Year Co-Ordinator) Felipe is responsible for organising the first year course reviewing course content, coordinating site visits, the Naples trip, inviting critics to reviews and liaising with the examiners. He is on hand to answer any questions on the course.
Stan Finney (Faculty Computer Officer) Stan is your go to guy for all your IT and printing problems. He works superman-hard to make sure we get all our work done and printed before deadlines!
Clive Tubb (Workshop Supervisor) Clive manages the workshop, and will happily help you out with any model-making advice. Be good and tidy up after yourself in the workshop, and return any tools!
Alan Baldwin (Chief Custodian) Alan is the man to ask for any questions about the department and - more importantly, if you can steal major resources from the skip outside.
Your Lecturers For questions on the theory section of your course, your lecturers are the most knowledgeable. Use them wisely. Your DoS (Director of Studies) Assigned by your college, your DoS meets with you twice a term. Their role is to mainly check you are on task and provide you with any academic support.
ThE STUDIO When is it open? By default, the studio is open weekdays from 8am-7pm. A third years must volunteer as a ‘duty student’ so that hours can be extended to a maximum of 10pm on weekdays and on weekends. Studio is generally open when you need it to be, but remember to notify a third year in advance if you particularly need the studio open, e.g. the night before a crit, or on the weekend.
Etiquette The studio is a friendly and social environment for First, Second and Third years to work together. It is, above all, a workspace though, so please be considerate of other students. Be mindful that Second and Third years have their tutorials in the studio, and that keeping your space tidy is important to your neighbours.
ARCSOC Everything Arcsoc puts on is to benefit the architects, since it is run by the architects. However, it is us running it, that means when we are preparing for events, all to raise money for the exhibition, we have the potential of an 120 strong workforce, if everyone participates. The more everyone puts in, the more we get out, and the bigger and better our final exhibition will be. So get involved at every stage and you’ll enjoy yourself even more when everything comes together!
Exhibition The Cambridge Architecture students run their own summer architecture exhibition under the patronage of Arcsoc. It’s a chance for you to share your work with the specialised public as well with your friends and relatives. It’s a beautiful environment to interact with relatives and professional architects and reflect on your year’s work. We encourage all students to participate in this special event. It’s very rewarding, and great fun working alongside friends in a relaxed atmosphere in the break.
Pavilion Pavilion is Arcsoc’s brand new branch which creates temporary structures for public events in and around Cambridge. Be it a busker’s stage, underground life drawing cavern, or a soup kitchen with a contemporary twist, pavilion offers the chance to realise a proposal at life scale.
Cabaret Arcsoc is proud to call this event one of the biggest and best parties in Cambridge - invite all your friends! As in most of the Arcsoc run events the really exciting part is that you can actually get involved in organising it! The annual themes are quirky and imaginative, which makes the set design all the more exciting.
Talks Arcsoc Talks invites architectural and design leaders to present their current work and practices. Speakers share insights into their design processes and projects, helping to provide students with a stronger understanding of professional work beyond Part 1.
Films The weekly Arcsoc films provide a different perspective on architecture through a variety of short films and movies to work alongside your course and inspire you for projects.
Life Drawing Every Friday 7-9pm, life drawing sessions in the department are a good way to relax and exercise your drawing skills.
ARCSOC ShOp The Arcsoc Shop is an informal, student-run provider of your basic architectural needs. We stock high-demand products such as cardboard, paper and glue. We aim to keep our prices low, and any profit we make goes back into Arcsoc to help make the exhibition a success. Shop reps are around the studio to sell you anything you need, and if you prefer to pay by card, you can make your own purchases on the website. www.arcsocshop.weebly.com Feel free to come talk to us in studio or email us if you have any questions/feedback!
Where else to buy your supplies Though we try our best to meet students’ needs, there are some items we do not stock, due to the nature of their demand. In Cambridge, Tindalls, your local art shop is a 15min walk from studio. http://www.tindalls.co.uk/ For model-making there is London-based 4d model shop: http://modelshop.co.uk/ Amazon also do very good deals for bulk buying.
SNIppETS Of ADVICE Just a few quick words of advice from our third and second years to help you in your first couple of weeks: ‘Save up for a good laptop, learn to ride a bike haha’ ‘Learn to sketch fast, it’ll stop slow design processes’ ‘Have at least a small practice on Photoshop before you get here, presentation skills are key! ‘Forget what you think you know about architecture and be prepared to go with the flow.’ ‘You don’t need to get everything before you arrive, except perhaps some ears, a pencil, pen and a pad!’ ‘Pick something from the reading list you like the sound of, and give it a go, or find something else, and keep reading!’ ‘1:25 and 1:75 are not normal scales despite being on the scale ruler.’ ‘the only advice I have is to own an opaque storage box to keep your stuff in so no one will be tempted to borrow your stuff while you’re not there. Also a padlock for the box.’ N.B. We are a trusting and close knit family!
2015 - 2016
