Thoughts on architectural education, Part 1. While studying architecture in Switzerland, I remember struggling with the many competing and conflicting voices regarding what architecture meant, and most importantly, what my future role as an architect might hold.

From study sketch to drafted sketch, Part 1. Sketching might be for some a natural gift, but for most of us it is about the patient—and often painful—practice of setting one’s pencil on a white sheet of paper and letting ideas leave their mark. As skills are honed by coordinating mind, hand and pencil, sketching as a process of iteration, becomes second nature. Eventually, those free-hand sketches become measured plans and sections, thus requiring more formality. Prior to drafting them precisely (either mechanically by hand or digitally), I favor a transitional method where one drafts in sketch form, which I call a drafted-sketch. What does this mean and how does one draw them?

The meaning to draw to scale. While learning about architecture, I remember needing to overcome many stumbling blocks, in particular those surrounding fundamental questions about what makes good design. Included in this larger inquiry was the ability to think spatially, the confidence to translate ideas into space, and how to sketch in an iterative manner.

Detail image of Vittorio Gregotti Associates. Project for the Calabria University, Google

Architecture: principle of settlement. I believe that for architecture to exist within a landscape, it should be site specific. This desire for permanence has always given architecture a raison d’être to belong to a site, a place, or more importantly, a context.

La Petite Maison by Le Corbusier. We all know that for a project to be successful, one needs to have a strong concept as well as the talent to implement the complex process of getting it built. Yes, I selfishly assume that most architecture should be built, while acknowledging that I see our environment continue to be populated by less-than mediocre buildings designed by both architects and non-architects.

Architecture thesis, Part 1. Most United States undergraduate architecture students will engage in a thesis project that spans the entirety of the last semester or academic year. After learning about the foundations of their discipline between their 1st and 2nd years, followed by the consolidation of ideas that takes place in their 3rd and 4th years, students are asked in their last year to demonstrate a sense of independence, generally through a more robust project called a thesis project.