I Want to Face the Challenges of Architecture :: Graduate Admissions Essays

I Want to Face the Challenges of Architecture When you drive home from work, do you ever explore? Sure, it skill take longer than usual, and there may be unpleasant stops along the way, but occasionally you will obtain an unexpected surprise. By roll aside strict conventions and routines and by taking risks, we can achieve things we never considered or thought possible. I find that many people in our conscientiously capitalist society only seek the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient route. While some industries hire to increase diversity and thereby innovation, many dare non attempt anything new. In particular, many established architects and developers fear taking chances and fear the risk of failure inherent in untested methods. I, on the other hand, suppose that architects must not feel constrained by the past but must follow-up on promising possibilities. Exploring undiscovered methods and paths requires self-criticism, self-assurance, and courage. In my junior co urse in college, I doubted the teaching style of my instructor in my first design studio class. I felt as if he pushed his own blotto ideas into the students creations and did not allow the students the opportunity to pursue their own original designs. Fearing my intellectual growth might be stunted by his lectures and dissatisfied with his teaching, I basically taught myself design by researching and combing through hundreds of architecture books. Through my own studies, I came to realize that architecture should be learned, not preached. That semester, I further challenged myself by working on a design of my own creation, a design not assigned by my instructor. While it would have been easier to accept the instructor s lessons and fitting follow his ideas, I realized that I could never take the easy way again now that I discovered that the beauty of architecture lies in learning it myself. That semester helped formulate my approach towards architecture and influence my design d ecisions to this day. Although self-motivation is extremely important, seeking the guidance and critique of others is essential to good design since others can find what I may have overlooked. One critic who has been particularly crucial to the development of my work is Craig Scott, a Progressive Architecture Awards Winner in 1996,who worked in concert with Homa Fardjadi and Sima Fardjadi. Craig was my studio critic during the spring term of 1997.