LARA WALTER
38
The one thing that has surprised me the most in my first year of architecture at Delfts University of Technology is how there is this general image of what skills an architect should or shouldn’t have. In many ways I completely agree with this image that has been created of the things an architect should be good at, yet there is this one slightly “painful area”. At every subject so far I get told how we, architecture students, probably are all “visually set” and, with that, writing (as a way to transfer our ideas) isn’t something we’re good at. Maybe a little prejudgemental but ok, so far so good. But what strikes me the most is when people, yes even architects and professors at our faculty guiding us through our design projects tell me writing isn’t something we’re supposed to be good at.
Yes, I figured that architects over all aren’t phenomenal readers, myself included (in fact, there is a fair chance only one twentieth of the people receiving our magazine will actually read this article, if you’re one of them: hi there, keep up the good work you’re almost halfway!). I do enjoy books with impressive black and whites of structures, shapes and edges more than a 100 pages long paper about the same. But this doesn’t mean we should neglect the importance of formulating our ideas, not only in images but in actual words.
Anecdote: A first year bachelor student, well prepared, is about to start his final presentation. He hadn’t even started yet when his mentor grabs a pen and a sheet that says: Assessment Form ON1. It is even before he finished his first sentence his mentor had filled in the entire form, folded it up, pressed the cap back on the pen and neatly put them both back in his bag. A little startled the guy continued his presentation, knowing he still had about 9 minutes and 50 seconds to go. There was this awkward moment of silence where you felt everyone thinking: “well… he might as well stop talking then...”
