Hello to all the talented people of the hive architecture+design community. I hope all of you are doing amazing and that are still as curious about the world of architecture. I know I have been away for a while, but in case you wondered please don't, I have the same lame excuse as always. I'm an architecture student, and it's hard to make time. Well, writing was never a chore for me then why must I make time for it? Maybe look at it as a pastime activity, right?
Architecture has been a favorite subject of mine since childhood now. Ever since I heard the term architect, I was just so drawn to it. Experiencing a space at different ages also creates a different type of architecture. I would like to believe the typology changes, for a kid,, it's still a home but it's not a house it's more like an amusement park of some sort. For an adult, it's a place to come back to at the end of the day to rest, have privacy, and feel safe. For an old person, it's finally home. It's their constant place.
This particular exercise or assignment in my fourth semester of architecture school was about that. We were to think of our childhood home, be it our old home or our grandparent's home. It was on us to choose what we wanted to work on.
So I chose my maternal grandparents'' house as the house I wanted to work on. It's as simple as this, choose the home that you have the fondest memories in. And that's exactly what I did. I remember playing around the house with my cousins during the summer break. It was all so much fun and such happy times.
Having said that, why was this exercise so important? Since we are working on housing for a community, it was important to get the fundamentals right of course but what about the aspects with much more depth? This exercise made us look at various aspects from a grown adult's point of view.
This was more than just drawing from memory. Because it was about the different spaces in that house that were so strongly tied to our memories from our childhood, it was important for us not to go to that house and purely do it from our memory. We were to do technical drawings like plans, sections, and elevations. For me, it was almost impossible to think of the space in the section. I was somehow able to draw the house to the plan, although not so perfect it had to be proportionate.
After loads of stress time, to recall the images in my head I was finally able to get somewhere. It was definitely a struggle to recall all the spaces. I even sketched views from my memory to show the best of what I could remember. I haven't been to that house in ten years now and so it was getting a tad bit difficult to remember.
Why was this exercise so important to do?
Now to answer that question, we all might know how architecture is tied to experiences. Architecture isn't about just the built fabric, but rather there's so much more to it. It is about how we remember certain spaces or the impact of certain spaces on our minds, and that's exactly what this exercise was about. It was about how certain spaces were the key to making memories. It was about how certain spaces aren't intended to be used the way we do in our lives. It was about how we associate a certain emotion with certain spaces, for example, I remember going to the kitchen where my grandmother would be cooking for everyone I remember the smell of the kitchen so fondly, the smell of the rice getting boiled mixed with the smoke smell of the firewood. Like I said before how some spaces are not intended to be used a certain way but post-occupation the user chooses to use the space like that. and I suppose that's what makes architecture all the more beautiful. That's why I love studying architecture in association with the human mind. every architect in my opinion must indulge themselves in psychology related to spaces and how one experiences a certain space in different layers. Because architecture isn't about aesthetics, or the sustainable material you have used which has low embodied energy, it is of course very essential to be practical and think about the world but how do you create a memorable space for the people that will get to experience your architecture? how will you make sure it's accepted fully and people will actually want to stay in it?
That for me right there is my biggest drive. It's what makes me want to study architecture and pursue it fully and not just as a degree. Architecture must feel like an extension of one's body and must not feel like its a different entity and that is only possible when you take time to understand your client that well and not just produce with drawings and ultimately a building that will only serve a purpose to what it is intended and not more than that.
Writing this article took me a lot of time and I think it was a good idea to wait for about a month before I would post this solely because I knew I would do a lot of reading and my point of view keeps shifting, not fully of course but it keeps getting more and more mature each day in this field and that for me is a very big win, even though I might not get the technical aspects of architecture which I hope to learn one day. I know I'm slowly finding my path as a young architecture student and I hope to learn a lot in this long journey. I have worked on my knowledge over the past few months and if you read my previous posts in this community you can clearly see a difference in my writing. The style, of course, remains the same but then there's a huge shift in the way I think now, and it could be because I'm more sensitized towards my surroundings now than I used to be when I first joined architecture college and started writing in this community. I hope all of you liked this post, please continue to support me. As a student this platform is very helpful, be it learning from everyone on this platform or financially. thank you for always helping me out. thank you for reading this far. take care and have a great weekend and happy easter if you celebrate it!
