Design versus project. There is much to say about how curricula are developed and their importance in defining the content of any rigorous academic program; in our case an architectural education. Traditionally, classes within the discipline of architecture are taught according to required and elective professional courses, while additional opportunities provide students with a personalized liberal-arts education.

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.

Study sketch to drafted sketch. 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.

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.

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.

About sketching an iterative process, Part 1. I believe that any architectural project starts with a concept, and let us call it to have an idea. As humans, we communicate ideas through sound, smell, taste, touch, and VISION. There is an English adage, A picture is worth a thousand words; a saying that suggests that complex ideas may be expressed by a single image transmitting the essence of the idea.

Element, system and structure. I believe that there is no architecture without a sound structural system, be it expressed or hidden from sight. For the seasoned professional, this statement seems self-evident, but for neophytes and young architectural students, the concept of architecture is often thought of as merely the creation of spaces, or the expression of a list of functions, or worse, the design of beautiful objects.