Thursday, December 02, 2010
By Alanna King
One unique and memorable aspect of architecture school is the
guest critique. Students spend weeks preparing for these
presentations, building scale models, putting together concept
diagrams, plans, sections, elevations and perspectives. The purpose
of all this is for students to communicate the brief, the idea, and
their resolution into architectural form, to a panel of guests from
the profession. These guests in turn provide feedback on the design
and the presentation. Surprising aspects of this, for those
becoming accustomed to the process, are how much the order in which
ideas are presented matters, and what an impact confident delivery
makes! I was invited on to one such guest panel at UTS for the
first time this semester.
There were some fantastic models of different scales and
materials. For example, part of the project brief involved
incorporating a workshop, like the model making workshops available
to the architecture students at UTS. One student was able to
communicate, through a model with working electric lighting, the
idea of placing this workshop under a glass pool of water. During
the day, the workshops would gain natural light through the pool
above, but be almost invisible below the water. At night, the pool
would glow with the activity of students at work. The model was
very evocative, and a powerful communication of the sleepless
nights architecture students endure!
Another great skill demonstrated during the afternoon was
wonderfully evocative hand drawing. A second year architecture
student with passion for life drawing had tried her hand at
producing equally evocative elevations of her design. The results
were mixed, and the delivery uncertain, but one of the joys of
teaching is to recognise and encourage potential. Having tutored in
the architecture programs at UNSW and UTS over the last few years,
I found it a real treat to be invited along as a guest, to drop in
at the point of completion, this time. While final presentations
complete harrowing weeks of hard slog for students, they are also a
rewarding point of reflection, and I was pleased to be able to
contribute.