My architectural studio, a space that was to stand witness for everything—from the joy of approval to the wrath of a redo. Making new friends, learning from each other, and whatnot.
The thrill that I felt on experiencing the sound of paper being crushed and thrown in frustration, stationary being flung into the air, only to reach the opposite corner of the studio, sheets and materials spread all over the floor, my friends screaming at their group mates to get work done and being able to catch each word perfectly despite the enormous amount of noise, was incomparable.
All this would have been a miss if not for the humor of our faculties walking into the mess, knowing perfectly well the state of our submissions as well as our minds!
My interest in architecture stemmed from interior design. I had a knack for colors, always correcting my parents with names, coordinating, etc. When they said blue, I would say teal; orange and vermillion was a whole other discussion with them, they never seemed to get it. But these colors got me to explore interior design which led me to architecture. My parents were extremely supportive of my decision to take up architecture despite not knowing anyone or anything about the field.
Initially, I thought architecture was a field for artists and if one couldn’t sketch, they weren’t fit for the course. This of course is far from the truth—architecture is survival of the fittest. One has to have or develop an enormous amount of patience, work hard, and for long hours and never give up. It is an experience of extreme highs and lows—the ever-piling submissions, the stress, the incomplete sheets, the all-nighters, and the exhausting preparation for reviews and viva-voce.
Intent to intimidate or to befriend
The first week of college, my seniors kept warning me, as a first-year, to escape while I could, sharing pictures and anecdotes of their experiences and what they called horror stories. They kept emphasizing how demanding and torturous the course was and how the lecturers would stomp over our precious study models and sheets, with their wicked eyes glinting. This made me shiver but somehow amused at the same time. I knew that I could rely on them: seniors and faculty.
A one-time experience
The first semester was what I thought would give me an overview of the course, an overall understanding. The very first assignment was as easy as it could be—live sketching. We were taken to Lal Bagh, a botanical garden in Bangalore, to observe elements of nature and to sketch them. The objective of the exercise was to extract lines and dots from the objects that we observed.
Excited to show off our sketching skills acquired while preparing for the entrance exam, we set off to Lal Bagh. I particularly struggled to carry my A3 sketchbook which felt very big, especially after using A4 sheets throughout the school. Who knew that A3 was going to be the smallest sheet size that I was going to use in the upcoming semesters?
All of us, thinking of ourselves as great artists, went around the garden and drew all kinds of leaves, flowers, rocks, etc that we could see and found ‘simple enough’ to sketch. After returning to the studio, it was time to display what we had sketched. Everyone seemed so confident but I was a little scared as I considered myself ‘not so good’ at sketching and this fear intensified on seeing the sketches being pinned up on the bulletin board.
All-Fix inflicted humor
When the faculty were going through the sheets displayed, I sat terrified of what they were going to say. Everyone wanted to be praised and applauded. Looking around the class, I noticed a couple of tubes of Fevicol All-Fix lying on the floor, one very close to the faculty looking at the sketches.
Just as the thought of warning the faculty approaching the tube went across my head, the whole class was in an uproar. It was indeed really humorous but the surprising part was that all of the faculty members were laughing themselves! It was the best end to our trip to Lal Bagh.
Although this was not the reaction I had expected after all the stories from my seniors, over the semesters I learnt how the course and the field were going to be. We need to find the humor in these kinds of stressful situations to build resilience in order to take up the challenges thrown at us. The same set of words or ideas can be interpreted in so many different ways by different people and thus the output expected can vary.
With each passing semester, our ability to push ourselves to overcome these hurdles increases. Though architecture seems more like ‘architorture’ right now, I am sure it will shape me and everyone studying along with me into confident and passionate individuals, who are not afraid to unleash their creativity and vision to the world.
