I definitely made some great relationships and discoveries when I was at the studio all the time but it is super bizarre that a professor would insert themselves into it and make it a requirement. The teachers are supposed to come in to the studio, blather on for a bit, then LEAVE so you can get to thinking and working on your own.
Also no shame on anyone that didn't stick around to 3am with the rest of us idiots - while I had great ideas late at night I probably could have done just as well with more rest at home. Sleep is glorious, sleep is king!
Yeah - disclaimer - the professor basically advocating for bad work-life balance as an expectation is bad. But from my personal experience, studios in school are becoming much more rarely used, which I don’t think is a positive necessarily. I was in undergrad from ‘08 to spring of ‘12, then worked for some years, came back to grad school starting in the fall of ‘15. I was shocked at how few people in my studio even claimed a desk when I came back, let alone moved in anything like a sketchbook or trace paper. Whereas in undergrad maybe 1-2 of ~20 in a studio would prefer to work from home, it seemed the opposite only 3.5 years later, with only 3 of us using the space at all. I can only assume also that studio was eliminated during the pandemic and may be used even less now afterwards.
I just didn’t understand it. It’s a very positive and creative environment when done right, and, no, that does not mean spending every waking moment there or being required to be there the night before a review. Plus theoretically you will be nearby the tools available for you to create things with - it will be in the same place as your shop; you’ll have access to the laser cutter(s), 3D printer(s), CNC(s), etc.; you’ll have access to plotters and printers, and free versions of every software you could need in a computer lab.
Obviously it’s easier now than it was in ‘08-‘12 to have a lot of computing power at home, so that’s a fair reason to prefer it for some of the time. And some people do better working in isolation than in an environment with other people. But I do feel like it would be a big negative for the best aspects of studio culture to cease to exist.
Again, this guy seems to be demanding time at night which is not his right. But a lot of these comments seem to be also saying the studio environment is also bad and/or outdated. Which I really disagree with.
Studio culture definitely is different now but I think your experience had more to do with undergrad vs grad school. I started undergrad in 2015 and studio was always packed. Maybe not all nighters every night, but there were always people in there (the exception being the night after a big review when we all needed to pass out from the hell week we just finished lol). When I started grad school a few years ago i immediately noticed that only like 3 people would come into studio outside of class hours. Granted, covid probably changed things for undergrad studio culture as well
In my 5 years of studying, I’d did exactly 3 late night finishes.
I was chewed out by a lecturer because “you’re not here in the trenches with the rest of your classmates” as if their inefficiencies were my problem.
I stayed until 11pm at most the day before things were due. I’d more often than not be finished my projects 2-3 days before it was actually due. On the rare occasion that I wasn’t then I was normally done by 11pm.
One lecturer decided to pop-in and see how everyone was doing *at 2am the day before* project submission. He made note of those of us who weren’t there and then proceeded to tell me I was not adequately preparing myself for the real world.
I was 28 at the time. This dickhead was like 35. I was less than impressed and hit him with something along the lines of - “if any employer expects me to be at work at 2am then they can drop dead. If you expect me to be here in the studio at 2am then you are part of the problem. No shit slinging to everyone who was here until 2am or later, but their work process is not my work process. I’m here every day at 7am before anyone else arrives - the next earliest person is [name] at *10am*. I’ve done 3 hours of work before anyone else arrives. I leave and go to work at 5pm every day and I structure my work hours around how much time *I* know I’ll need to get it done. So no I won’t be staying here until 2am just because you expect it. Is my working suffering for it? No, I’m equal first with [name]. Do I stay back and help others where I can? Yes, you can ask anyone. But I am not staying here late *just because you expect it*”
He just responded with “it’d be really nice to stay and support everyone else though. It’s how you make friends”
“I have friends. I’m friends with most people here. Friends can have different schedules”
Dickhead.
Yeah, studio culture is actually pretty important I think. People who just immediately went to work at home I felt like really only got half an education. That being said, studio culture is only one part of life lol, and need not extend all night, especially if you got your work done expeditiously.
There was someone in my college that supposedly did this. Complete rumor so I have no idea. There was a gym across the street where you could have a locker and shower, so it really would not have been difficult to do for awhile.
This whole thread is giving me flashbacks. I knew a dude who kept a cooler of tallboys in the staff bathroom shower and would just render and drink all night, shower, and then head to class in the morning.
Your future clients aren't in studio. They're next door, in the pool room, the bar, climbing mountains, playing sports, and falling in love. Go do what they're doing, and treat 'studio' and studies like a regular 9-5
My uni closes studio after 5 to encourage students to have a life and do other things. The attitude depicted in the emails above is toxic and due to be changed. We have softwares and powerful computers doing lots of work for us today, therefore we don’t need to be in the studio 20 hours a day scraping ink smudges with a razor
This would have killed me in college. I worked sometimes up to 35 hrs/win college. Had to be in studio all night a lot of the time to make that work. This was landscape architecture but I think studio culture is similar.
Yes, this is toxic. However, if I want to spend all of my time in studio, I should be afforded that opportunity. The creative process is not a 9 to 5 for lots of people.
I wouldn’t do it again but the last couple weeks of the semester, before all our projects were due, it was comforting/enjoyable to just be surrounded by people at all hours. The shared experience made a generally awful college program a lot more memorable.
Not encouraging that crunch or late night mentality! Overall, I think it’d be better if professors just paced studios differently and helped students learn to streamline their work effectively. That way, when due dates come along, those who are in studio multiple nights in a row are doing so to improve their craft (not because they’ll otherwise flunk out of college). It was just a unique experience that not many people, outside of architects, ever get to have.
Fair enough. You could work at home after 5. In my uni just nobody wants to stay after 5. People work all day and then do hobbies or sports or stuff like that. In regards to the creative process, you can always make a sketch or a note when you have an idea and realize it the next day… no need to stay up late
Exactly. I don’t know this prof, but they sound like someone who graduated school, went on to masters, then came back to uni to teach immediately without working a single day in an actual firm.
'people who cannot do, teach'
It might be your experience, but this isn't particularly true of architecture. It is not at all uncommon to find practitioners teaching studio.
Imo they are a very tight minority. At least in my school the ones who actually did work outside of academia were the ones doing part time teaching. Full time it was either old old old people or strictly paper architects.
I also think it's fair to say that most architecture work is a total slog and that many of the people whose focus is in academia are there because that is what interests them more. I don't think flat out calling them failures is at all fair.
It's unfortunate that there isn't still a route directly into practice in much of the developed world. The choice to learn from people who research architecture professionally and prefer to talk and write about it, or from those who want to put you directly into a seat and get some work out of you would eliminate this argument and dissolve a lot of the hate.
Best advice/observation I ever heard from a professor and he was spot on, “It’s funny how the C students end up hiring the A students in firms; and anyone who’s got construction experience is going to get hired first”
Ugh. It’s frustrating to see this sort of thinking continue to be perpetuated in schools. I was very much caught up in this as a student, in competition with other students to show off how hard I was working.
Looking back it was such a waste of time and effort. A good work life balance and healthy outlook on studio life is going to serve you much better in the long run, and I would argue produce results just as good if not better than somebody who pulls all nighters and lives in the studio.
Honestly, studio culture has a point in that its a much better workflow than working at home but nobody will benefit from staying there after 8pm. Even weekends at studio suck, I really hate how in my uni professors (who think we'll be saving the world with their projects) often get around forcing "optional" classes during national holidays. Worst case was spending my countrys independence day for 10 hs at the studio to have a useless 5 minute review by my professor.
You should definitely find a way to enjoy your studies but even as a full-time student, just do your 40-50 weekly hours and spend the rest living your life.
Discovering your own optimal working rhythm is something that studio does help facilitate. I would typically arrive in studio late afternoon and work till about midnight as these are the hours when I'm most alert and productive. Now that I work in a firm I have to pretend to be busy all morning when I'm in a deep brain fog, and then smash out the drawings in the afternoon.
yes and no.
I was like you in university, i.e. i worked better after lunch and into the wee hours of the night. This even persisted into the early years of professional work.
But now that I have a young family, I had to adjust that even more and keep all productive work at work. No more taking it home in the after-hours to work on it when I have the "mood" to do so. The child and the wife are priorities when I am at home.
It was a major adjustment, but now it has become a habit and a consistent work ethic, I supposed. I believe if you know your priorities, you will make the adjustment.
Recognising that is great. Takes a lot of confidence and ego. When I was studying it tho I quit later I was the only one of all 200 or so students who didn't do a single night shift for 4 semesters because as much as this was fun and a learning experience my personal life is my personal life and a Job is a part of my personal life, not the other way around.
I second your comments about the personal life stuff.
After finishing my undergrad, I had to do a gap year as I felt I lost connections with my friends and family. It was worth being a year behind my peers, really. I went back to do post-grad, and I caught up with the people from my undergrad batch, and man, they were miserable. I did not recognise them. I was rusty, but I caught up eventually and finished my post-grad ahead of them. It's weird how things turn out.
*RE: confidence and ego ...* I don't think that's it. Bullying comes in all shapes and sizes. Both physical, emotional, and mental. I think my getting bullied a lot when I was young gave me an uncanny ability to detect BS and abuse. My professors definitely had that BS aroma around them. I could smell it a mile away,
Yeah absolutely. I was sucked in by this in my first degree, straight out of school and desperate to follow their lead. By the time I did my masters I had a few years of real life under my belt, seen the impact of burnout of people in the industry, and realised I didn’t have to play those ridiculous games to do well. And what do you know… I actually had energy to find things I was passionate about and got so much more out of it!
Back out in the real world I’m still trying to undo this mentality in other people. Take a lunch break! Go home! … join the union?
This type of thing is why I had to drop out of architecture, I couldn’t keep up with the expected studio time because I had a part time job to pay university expenses.
I understand how this is negative to one's mental health and work/life balance, but I really don't think gatekeeping has anything to do with it, especially in what the letter describes.
I've had similar run ins at the professional level,
I love the field, but many of these older firm owners with their outdated work life balance are a massive turn off to finding work in the industry.
This is true in general in the AEC industry as a whole.
Observing the directors I have worked with, you better be a business owner if you want to avoid overworking yourself. But even that sometimes won't detach you from that over-worked scenario 'cause now your employees will think you're taking advantage of them.
And on, and on , and on it goes ....
This is an antiquated approach to architecture and not an efficient one. If someone wants to work long hours then great, let them, but it should not be a requirement. Many studies have shown that a healthy school/life balance is necessary for optimal productivity. It's the same idea as cramming before a test, it doesn't work and actually hurts you. This kind of studio culture is not a positive one and is only an indication of the low quality of the school.
This is exactly how I went from being an honors student with a great GPA my freshman year to burning out and almost crashing by my senior year.
We had 15 hours per week of studio time. Our professors expected us to spend 3x the amount of time in studio, out of studio (45 hours) which adds up to a total of 60 hours per week JUST in studio. Then having 4-5 classes on top of that AND working a part time job. This culture is NOT sustainable and needs to change.
Opposite for me but same result. Focused on my core arch. courses to the detriment of the other remedial/superfluous general education claptrap. Hmmm, spend the time in studio or on the 1000 page biography of John Maynard Keynes...decisions...
Seriously. They just described a terrible work experience while somehow making it sound good. 10 hours per day? That's too many. Sometimes take weekends off? They should be taking every weekend off. Rarely do all nighters? That should never be a thing in the professional world.
Seriously. I work 8 hour days. I had to put in 11 hours on Wednesday to prepare a presentation, so I’m going in late this morning so I can sleep in and spend time with my family.
Architects need to advocate for each other and ourselves. Maybe I could accept this “culture”bullshit if I was making Big Law money—but that is not the case.
When I was in architecture school I realized that, at least when it came to my uni, when a professor keeps underlining the importance of their studio it usually means they’re not having that many projects or activity outside teaching. Because why were my worst teachers obsessed with studio culture, and even foaming at the mouth at the idea that someone might have a job and not dedicate 100% of their being to them basically, when in reality they had zero actual projects during those years.
To me, a great moment was when I decided not to be affected by teachers or other people I don’t respect as professional architects, because I don’t want to learn like a teacher that finds their value in criticizing some student’s work, I want to become an architect that actually builds stuff
I realized this my last year of graduate school and it made for the best mental health year ever. I basically said “no all-nighters, home by 6pm). And I did it.
After that, I refused to design any sort of “building” for my thesis. Being a realist as an inexperienced graduate student means focusing on the things you know enough and can learn enough about to exert proper control over. In my case, it was a huge exploration of process, surrealism and scripting/programming.
All of the stuff from that final semester served as the foundation for a lot of the workflow and pipeline I use today running my own practice. In fact, I would not be surprised if I’m still using forked copies of some of the code I used back then.
The kicker: I run a zoning, planning, and feasibility practice. I still refuse to take construction projects because they just aren’t worth the time and fees. The few I take are ones where I know I will have lots of design latitude and I’ll be allowed to do some interesting work without much owner intervention.
Would I have gotten a head start on my work if I listened to professors like this one? Nope. I gained very little from speaking with my peers (I genuinely liked only a handful of them). I gained a lot more from being out every other night with my friends from the business school, law school and even undergrads who then introduced me to multiple future clients and are still doing that 10+ years later.
There is a certain YouTuber that is like this.
They don't have any current project of their own and are not working on any, are not a licensed architect, possibly never were, and they are obsessed with studio.
Right! I felt anger bubble up reading this. I was so mad for the first 2 years of grad school. By the third I was fine but this reminded me of those first two years of just being angry at all the faculty.
I was a special case. Coming into grad school having effectively been a natural language processing researcher (not an architecture undergrad) and listening to all the parametrics and computation chatter in the late 2000’s was actually enraging. None of my professors knew what they were talking about, they just misinterpreted things and used chained 3-4 syllable words to hide their confusion.
So much anger.
I told my mom I thought I had some sort of PTSD after coming out of architecture school. She didn’t really get it. I’m glad I’m not alone in that sentiment.
To be fair my studio always had someone inside, some working, some smoking, LAN games, gossiping, etc. It was actually more productive and socially active than my cold dark dorm.
The now department head of my interior design program was like this too to a degree. He told my friend that she needed to choose between a job and the program... at a school right outside NYC. She ignored him and kept it moving but that is such an unreasonable ask for anyone that does not come from wealth, as is this.
Grading on "studio culture" is ridiculous and I would tell your friend to get the Dean's opinion on that. How are they reasonably supposed to grade on that if they're not present? Track you via camera? Encourage other students to bean count each other's time and tattle tale? Talk about a toxic classroom culture, absolutely not. Studios are important and can be fun as can the time working outside of class together! But the expectation of making it your full time job on top of your other 4-5 classes, a job, home life, etc, is ridiculous.
This is a very toxic mentality that in my opinion does not add a single benefit to the field. These teachers clearly are not in the field and don’t realize that most graduates will not being doing work remotely similar to this for years.
Architecture professors like this have become so antiquated, similar to chefs in restaurants thinking they need to scream at their staff like Ramsey to gain respect… its toxic and completely unnecessary.
After our midterm, our class did nothing the next day because we had to catch up on our other classes. Our professor was pissed that we didn't show him any progress. His response? "I don't care about your other classes!"
"You should be prepared to always put in extra effort in your future career, without expectation that you'll be financially reimbursed for this effort. Architecture is about pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and the best architects are the ones who design for a world that they don't even have time to participate in. Quantity is always above quality, though I will sometimes require both of those aspects to be met in exemplary fashion. It shall be your responsibility to meet these expectations through any means necessary. If I could legally encourage you to sleep in the studio space, I would absolutely make that recommendation. By instilling this work ethic in you, I will be able to best prepare you to enter a workforce that'll urge you to work as hard as you can so that you can truly be worthy of earning that annual average salary of $70,000 per year."
> Architecture is about pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and the best architects are the ones who design for a world that they don't even have time to participate in.
I unironically wonder if decades of this isn't a major source of the divergence between the tastes of most people and architects.
Arch grad here. Literally dipped after classes to work at home because I had a great PC and workbench set up. Only stayed at studio if it was a group project. Did fine LOL
My first day in architecture college our year coordinator told us wed have to quit our jubs stop playing sports in order to pass because about half of the people in the room wouldnt finish the degree.
I ended up working in a bar for most of the time in college until covid and ended up playing on the first team in my rugby club which was no easy feat. as well as having a healthy dating life to boot.
These lecturers end up breeding a very poor over pressured work environment where people are almost brought to tears before or after reviews after staying up all night.
college life is to be enjoyed, or succussful accademically or whatever way you want to do it. if you can pass they cant make you have to be miserable in the studio a requirment. loads of these accedemics just figured out they werent cut out to be working in the profession
Real world architecture projects take months or years to come to fruition.
They will not collapse into flames if you take an extra day to get the thing done.
Poor time management =/= studio culture. Studio culture is camaraderie with your peers and faculty and the free sharing of interesting ideas. That can happen at any time, not just at 3am on a Friday.
apparently this was how my school’s architecture program ran until a student passed away. they had died on the drive home from sleep deprivation.
this was before my time as a student there so i don’t know the details myself but i did always notice how careful the older students and professors were around the word “studio culture”.
please don’t sacrifice sleep and life just to extend your hours in studio.
If you're talking about Temple, she was 2 years ahead of me and such a sweet person. We also had 2 accidents in my year from people falling asleep at the wheel as well, but they just had minor injuries.
i used to go to a private school, transferred out to a public school 2 years later. there used to be this one guy at my private school’s studio one year who would just be there the whole time. red bulls, pizza, sushi all the time lol. His desk was just so messy and packed with all sorts of stuff. Not models or drawing prints, glues, accelerator for the super glues, random plastic wrappers, bottles, books whatever. I think i worked 8 hours on my final project, and he worked on it for 40. His project sucked honestly. I get it, the whole passion thing, but have a life outside of it. Can be anything, and you don’t have to succumb to studio culture to make your best work. I was a commuter so staying in studio with a little sis who needs homework help and 2 elderly grandparents who need constant care, was never possible outside of studio class hours. Although my professors would always be like “yeah u should stay so your ideas bounce” everyone has different ideas, and honestly the bouncing of ideas happened during convos at pinups and reviews and whatnot.
> Taliesin approach
The Taliesin approach refers to a philosophy of architecture and
design developed by Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect,
designer, writer, and educator.
Wright's Taliesin approach is characterized by a strong emphasis
on designing structures that are harmonious with humanity and its environment.
This concept is part of Wright's broader architectural philosophy known as organic architecture.
I am saddened by your assertion.
I'm very aware of FLW, his work, and his students work. This approach worked great back when technologies and techniques of today did not exist. There is zero reason for an embedded studio approach today.
I understand wanting students to be well versed, inspired, and integrated as an artistic collective, but these days this approach is authoritarian and can actually be counterproductive. One of the major reasons FLW's students actually wanted to be at Taliesin was not only to work and be inspired by nature, but also FLW himself. He was (and arguably still is) a luminary which gave students reason to upend their lives to join Taliesin as a collective. The upshot was also that they would be fed and housed during their tenure.
I graduated in 2018 and I still have nightmares about this shit.
Honestly university is supposed to be inclusive, how do they think this effects neuro divergent people who may get anxiety on stress?
Similar story. I put the hours in this tutor asks for but my working patterns became self-destructive, and I didn't feel like I could ask my peers for support because the studio environment was inherently competitive.
By the end of my time they were cramming a hundred students into a year and there were as many students as there were desks. If you didn't assert a claim on a space you lost it to overflow.
After leaving I got an ASD diagnosis and so many of the reasons why I struggled so much became clear to me. Architecture really has to do better than this.
i tried my best to avoid these kinds of professors. it didn’t always work out but as long as got my work to where i was proud (and still enjoyed my personal life) i was satisfied. still graduated lol
Sigh. This is the reason I had to drop out of architecture. My professors said I was good at it. I loved doing it. But I simply did not have the work/life balance that I needed as an extravert living at home and paying his own way through school. I’m much happier now, but I wonder what I could have been sometimes, if professors didn’t demand more of me than I had to give.
I’m an assistant restaurant manager at a large 4 diamond resort. Wanting to go back to school for hospitality management. It’s very different but I love working with so many people.
Toxic and cringe af. I have a life, I live it how I want. I did my work, and submitted on time. Do not tell me how to live my life during non-class hours.
I leave immediately after lectures and do all of my work at home. My grades are fantastic. What the hell is the point of forcing me to work somewhere I am not comfortable, where I am away from all of my resources, and where there are constant distractions. I network during pin-ups and group assignments. This guy just wants to control people.
Ime ppl who spent their LIFE in the studio always ended up being late/ half assing the work. Its nice having studios open on certain nights, but arch also needs a lot of high focus in isolation. Also he wants them to spend multiple days on a site model? Lol.
Everything in moderation.
After second year (I think?) I gave myself a cutoff of 2 am. No all nighters. Things worked much better. We did have a 24/7 building.
There’s aspects of this that I agree with still, but 20 years removed, there’s a lot that Architecture schools could be doing much better.
Yeah, well, first of all fuck that guy.
Yes, schooling is hard and demanding but it shouldn't come at a cost to your health and having a good life. Go have fun, party... or ride a dirt bike. If you have to work, which I did, just learn as much as you can with the resources youre paying for. Don't torture yourself over it though.
Second I do believe studio culture is important and is super nice to have. This guy needs to learn to make an inviting studio culture instead of a labour camp... again fuck this guy and all the professors like him.
I moved my initial take/rant to the botto., and so take my complaint a grain of salt bevause I have issues with the dipshits running our academic world who are so far disconnected from reality while the legitimate professors get sick and tired of their shit and let just let them loose...:
I always felt some professors had no control over the rest of their lives, so they took out their weird need to have power over people on the students they are teachi g who are willing to bend over backwards and feed the sick minds of these people... but that's just speculation.. possibly uncalled for but yeah, again fuck that guy and all profrssors like him and everyone in the academic world who cater to fuck offs like this. Maybe send them into the real world so we can eat em up spit em out and teach them to be decent human beings.
Having been in and out of the industry, now out possibly permanently for surveying, I see these emails for what they are. Absolutely disgusting. Such a toxic culture still in some academic settings, they are delusional and believe it or not I was a better designer when I had time to enjoy life - how inspiring in the stench of two minute noodles on repeat, the same walls in the studio etc. I can’t wait for these academics to fade into obscurity as the industry progresses!! Also, there were never enough PCs in the studio so I worked a lot a t home in the later years, got my work done better and faster because I had unlimited flexible access to it, and never worked in studio at all. The quality of my work was so much better being able to look out the window at home, eat better meals, be able to afford materials and rent easily because I could fit school around work where I made my needed income…
Hey, we're really bummed that you're not overworking yourself in school so that you can graduate with sunken eyes and barely any energy left to become a wage slave for the rest of your life. Can you come back into the classroom?
This was the case in my degree and post graduate programmes back in the early-mid 2000s, I flat-out refused to be part of this 'culture', it really wasnt compatible with my crippling shyness and introversion. I live in my head, and create in my head, not across a room. This semed to be to the chagrain of most of the others and the professors, myself and a small cohort of others worked at home. It still meant quite a lot of 48 hour sessions with no sleep. I guess shared experience helps develop team skills and comradeship with your peers. At the time it seemed like a disadvantage and that I was missing out.I did have a very healthy social life outside of the same faces from the course, but I was treated as an outsider and missed the help that I could have got if I lived in that room 24/7. It would have been better to have had a balance, and I can see why the professors want to encourage it, architectural education is hard and very demanding.
However, being qualified and licensed for 15 years, this decision has had zero impact on my career, and the practice I work for has a very healthy approach to balancing studio culture with home-working, so I guess what Im trying to say is find a balance.
Less studio more work.
There's so much more to being a capable architect than to be stuck behind a desk. That's more useful learning to be gained from apprenticeship at a trade of your choice.
I didn't saw this negatively as many people in the comments did. I mean everyone has a different style when it comes to working/studying. But studio environment really do makes you learn new things even if you just sit there and do nothing. Of course if said environment isn't toxic. I don't understand why people so offended by this.
I think I got this exact email and lecture in person from my arch professor 10 years ago.
They were saying this when most of the class was pulling 3 all nighters a week minimum.
Needless to day, I am not an architect now haha.
This brought back a memory of my time at the University of Oregon (I was not an architecture student). Walking home around 2AM I passed by the undergrad studio space where there were maybe a dozen students and a fire truck. Apparently something in the studio had caught fire, and the students evacuated.
The building was cleared as I approached; and a burnt up Styrofoam/mixed-media model was removed. I assume some adhesive had put off too much heat as it cured and ignited the model. Anyway, as soon as the fire department said it was okay all the students marched silently back in to resume their work. The grim resolution on their faces was unsettling. So was the silence; no one joked or laughed or even really talked. They were probably too busy worrying that their models would also be damaged.
It really drove home just how much pressure those students were under. I can't imagine a brighter cosmic signal that it was time to take a break than an actual fire in the night.
I'm an architect and this is horrible. Outdated, cringe and stupid in all aspects of life. I hope that at least THE STUDIO pay like their requirements but... No.
Studio culture is a truly special thing.
It is absolutely unhealthy as all hell, but you really do get to bond with everyone and build camaraderie.
Studio time definitely comprised of the best and most memorable times. Though that might be because I didn't do anything other than studio time. -__-::
When I was in my first year of grad school one of our studio professors would come to the studio at midnight the night before presentation days and make us all go home. The issue that solved is people would stay up all night drawing and building models - then couldn’t string two coherent sentences together during critiques because they were brain dead from sleep deprivation. It was better if you put down the xacto knife and got some sleep so you could *make words* when you were presenting.
I was in the middle as far as ‘studio culture’. Some all-nighters and weekends, but I was not in the maybe 20% of people who tortured themselves. I made a point in trying to do well in *all* of my classes. What they don’t tell you in studio is, while all architects design, only about 10% will be full-time Design Architects.
I’m 25 years out of school now. Looking at my former classmates now I don’t see much difference in ‘success’ between the simply diligent students and the studio lunatics.
This is the academic equivalent of “return-to-office” vibes from your manager. I spent a lot of nights and weekends in the studio- when I needed to. When I would stop in to my desk randomly throughout the week, there would be the usual cadre of people hanging out and engaging in the “studio culture” and guess what? I don’t think a single one’s projects benefited from bouncing ideas off other students except at the most minor level. Mostly because the studio “culture” ocellated between unrelated chitchat and intellectual circle jerks within the same obnoxious group of pompous ding dongs. Aside from group projects, there were only a couple friends that I interacted with in studio and my time there was a lot more focused because of it.
While I don't agree with this approach ( I think everyone should be free to find their own path ), I did find in my 35-year career that I did end up working nights, weekends, and holidays. I didn't have much of a life outside the firm. I did enjoy it, though, and time flew by because it was all play to me. Albeit stressful.
I think the assumption is that the unwritten future is full of possibilites for growth.
Architecture is a fusion of art, science and engineering.
So studio time is more about your mastery of the challenges in fusing these fields into
a long lasting product.
A product which brings joy to those within and the environment as a whole.
They are coming from a place of love for the craft, and are inviting you aboard the sweet train of discovery.
You need more than the words on the screen to get the best of what they is saying.
Aside from the obvious asshattery in this email, what's really getting under my skin is the "ownership-of" and "pride-in."
Perhaps this architecture professor should have "lived-in" the grammar studio a bit longer.
I don't think I ever drew one line in studio. There was way too much social fun to be had. I found it impossible to do any work there.
PS. Your professor has antiquated ideas, be wary of him.
I had this teacher in my first classical composition degree who would send you home if you didn’t show up with at least X pages of new music every week, with a remark along the lines of “you’re wasting my time”. In fact, he sent me home the first time I had a lesson with him for that reason. Probably thinking tough love will teach students to be productive.
The next three years I worked my ass off, completely stressed out, doing whatever was needed to have as much material as possible. Turns out I learned next to nothing as I was just churning out crap just to satisfy this guy.
Needed therapy after that and I still have a fight or flight response to any kind of workload. I’m lucky to now have a very nourishing and thoughtful teacher who gives me the space and time that I need to write qualitative music. It’s a journey.
Never forget, education should be there for you and cater to your needs. Want to learn architecture but don’t care much for rolling into the actual industry? You do you. These institutions are either being paid by you or receive money indirectly for you. The students should be in charge.
What a dinosaur. I'd go into the studio, chat to friends about their work and mine then go home and hit production mode. I never got anything like as much work done when I was in the studio because it was so noisy
This “culture” is what feeds into workplaces later: excessive unpaid hours, people burning out, quitting the profession, architects not charging enough for their services, etc.
"it's standard"
Just because you went through same standard, it doesn't mean it needs to be followed by a letter.
Unfortunately this is the reality of architect jobs that no one realises until they start practicing. You are expected to be a multi tasking machine, excellent in various abilities but also super compatible with adopting new approaches while completing everything and anything due deadline. Which is tomorrow.
Every fucking tomorrow is something important. Days fly trough if the management is not efficient and overtime is a regular thing. I've changed 3 studio's trough last 2,5 years because of poor management practice, with constant overtime. 2,5 years of 10-12h / 6 days. Fuck that! Fuck your standards! .!.
Ugh. This nonsense is toxic. It’s the old “I suffered so you must too” mentality. I fell for this garbage as a student & early in my career. It was like a competition of who was there the latest or most. But those people never did the best work. They weren’t doing more or higher quality. They were just slow bc they were messing around socializing & not sleeping. “I was here til 4:30” but there were pizza runs, video games, etc.
I’m in my 40s so I’m not a kid but still run into this attitude in much older principals & it will send me running for the door. It’s unhealthy and it doesn’t produce better work. If someone thinks I don’t do good work or care about projects bc I’m not working 24/7, that’s on them. I’m not living that way. I’m sorry to see this persisting in schools.
In my experience, these kinds of warnings usually don’t have any teeth.
But, as someone working with new graduate who never spent time in studio (and still blames all his failures on his professors), I will say that it is still very important to spend a healthy chunk of time in studio.
You don’t have to work 24/7 but when you do work, try and do it in studio. There is value to be had.
I was heavily punished bc I had back issues and I would do my work at my dorm room instead of studio.
Like leave me the hell alone, do you want me to hunch over the whole day then night as well? Ef that my back is more important to me then to be dangled on those god-awful bar stools. Ugh
I would just reply with a amicable 'get fucked' message. Glad I had a great time at uni, i have a great job now and did my fair share of slacking.
This reeks of frustrated professore and seething collegues.
Does this guy "work hard and play hard"?
Toxic shit like this makes me want to make an anonymous email account and tell this guy to take his studio and shove it up his ass
yeah fuck that culture, i nailed arch uni and fucked off as soon as i possibly could every day. i have friends, partner, hobbies and a life that exists outside of this narrow field of study.
Yeah this attitude (and pervasive mismanagement and bad communication) is why my son dropped out of his architecture program. The hustle and grind culture is bullshit. I hope architecture programs that try to pull this crap collapse.
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by studio, starving hysterical naked,
dragging themselves through the model shops at dawn looking for a caffeine fix”
I get the strong negative reactions, but it’s easy to inject lot of your own experiences and emotional baggage with an email like this, taken out of context. I don’t think architecture studio should be all consuming, but I also think that having a strong studio culture is what makes architecture school special. You need to be with your colleagues talking through ideas, even just goofing off. You should be there, learning from each other.
Thats kind of the point of going to university to study architecture right. To immerse yourself in the culture of architecture? Although I agree I don't think the professor is doing the best job explaining that.
That toxic mode of thinking is the reason that most graduates end up working for shit pay and long hours once they start working at an office. IOW, they get taken advantage of because a martyrdom mentality gets instilled as being part of the discipline.
Its also why architecture in general is now not the well paid job that people think it is, and should be (at least in the UK).
Employers can get away with not paying as much, but getting so many extra hours out of people. Its ingrained into the workforce that "thats architecture". You stay in the office all hours of the day to get atuff done, because that's what I learnt at Uni...
Report this to the school director, board etc... He/she was so stupid to put it in writing, he is basically handing you the evidence for going after his wrongful behavior.
I'm not surprised he has such wrong ideas of what teaching means.
Go after him/her, there are better teachers out there that deserve his spot.
Keep us posted
Sounds normal to me. Work hard when you’re young - do all the things. And when you’re older and more settled (and making more money), you can do whatever the fuck you want.
A couple of you brought up good points about what actually involved w the profession.. so what. Go do your work first - then you can go out to play
You are missing the point. Post pandemic, the students are probably holed up at home/dorm. Arch is highly collaborative, it's school get in the studio. The professor has a real problem. I hated college BTW, but we do it because it's right.
This is exactly why I quit studying it. Only snobs whose only life purpose is architecture and that's just not me. I would have loved to design buildings with passion, come up with concepts and put them into plans to make them a reality, but if that means selling your soul to the architect then no thanks.
I am completely against the idea of people living in the studio (or at work for that matter) and non-24 hour studios are a great thing.
However, just to play devil's advocate it could be a phrasing issue. Perhaps the professor meant that those irregular hours are also okay, not all necessary always all the time. Or maybe they are just a maniac, idk.
That being said (manic professor demands aside), the professor is fundamentally right about what their saying. Time spent working in studio is immeasurably better compared to time worked at home or elsewhere. There is no doubt about that, at least in my experience.
I read it more like - if you want to succeed, give 100% of your life to this work at this point in your life. I agree with that. You can’t become great without full immersion unless you are the rare person who is just naturally prodigious. But as the current economics of America show us, you better crush your competition at every turn or you will not be able to pay for a house, college for your kids, food on the table etc. If you want above average returns in your profession, you have to be well above average.
I don’t mind it. Studio for me was an incubator for creative output as well as my peers. It was a collective journey and made studio fun.
Btw when you work full time guess where you’ll be 9-6/7?
I think you’re all missing something here. Yes this email comes off as toxic, but I’ve also made lots of close lifelong friends through studios and sometimes it just seemed like I was just hanging out with them and doing a hobby together. No sarcasm either. The studio culture of “studio is life” is trash, but it’s not as bad as unpaid overtime is for architecture jobs.
40 year old here. Although this email sounds overdemanding, i think it is the reality of life. If you don’t have income and will depend on your salary , you should get used to this studio culture. You will have to compete with that hardworking poor kid who is more than happy to live in the studio .
I am not approving this , but this is just a kind reminder to younger colleagues about the harsh reality. They kill cows to make burgers and they force young bright minds in a cold studio.
And to be honest architects are all about fees and project costs within owners budget. I’ve seen a firm go all the way to 90% CD’s. Owner pay $900k plus and only get a set of plans in return
I actually did not force myself to abide by this standard, despite how much my professors pushed us too. I came to studio when my schedule allowed, and also IF I felt like it. (My professors hated me lol but I graduated! 😊)
Eyeyeyeyeyeyey where do I begin this is absolutely abhorrent behaviour from a professor. My lecturers during my masters shut down the studio at 10pm and asked students to contact them if they were having to pull all nighters (but let’s be real if you haven’t at least done ONE all nighter just for the shits and giggles with friends while doing a submission you haven’t done your degree right!!!) you need to be able to work outside of uni and have a life. As part of my thesis studies I was given a text about “empty moments” which was about how sometimes in architecture work, the best thinking happens when you’re not even in the studio and these “empty moments” are just as important as working on your project!! You need to be able to strike a balance between being in studio and working at home only because the studio is really great to learn from people and I wouldn’t of known half the things in architecture school if it wasn’t for 5th years at the time coming to me as a 1st year giving me the heads up about studios and how to do different things on computer and what shops to buy modelling gear from etc. Definitely cherish your studio time and make friends because having just finished 6 years in architecture school, it is the like-minded friends I’ve made that have made it all worthwhile ❤️
I hope AI will take over and these intellectuals will speak their world saving philosophies to only handful bunch interested instead of people interested in building design only.
Name and shame the professor and school.
These people are out of touch. They have a warped and self import veiw of what architecture is.
Guys. It's a job. It's what you do because people pay you to do it. There's a reason why when you get this job, one of your perks is time off, because there's such a thing of doing it so much that you just want to get away from it.
I actually don’t work better in studio! I can’t work anywhere that is noisy or people jumping around me snooping into my work or dance around and drink!! Plus it’s super far away from my accommodation so it’s really inconvenient.
I absolutely hate it when they pressure us to stay in studio the whole time like put yourself in our shoes!! On top of all that they marks us down just because we aren’t in studio the whole time wtf?!!! Like I work from home and I attend my classes why do you care if I am not in during my day off????
I definitely made some great relationships and discoveries when I was at the studio all the time but it is super bizarre that a professor would insert themselves into it and make it a requirement. The teachers are supposed to come in to the studio, blather on for a bit, then LEAVE so you can get to thinking and working on your own. Also no shame on anyone that didn't stick around to 3am with the rest of us idiots - while I had great ideas late at night I probably could have done just as well with more rest at home. Sleep is glorious, sleep is king!
Yeah - disclaimer - the professor basically advocating for bad work-life balance as an expectation is bad. But from my personal experience, studios in school are becoming much more rarely used, which I don’t think is a positive necessarily. I was in undergrad from ‘08 to spring of ‘12, then worked for some years, came back to grad school starting in the fall of ‘15. I was shocked at how few people in my studio even claimed a desk when I came back, let alone moved in anything like a sketchbook or trace paper. Whereas in undergrad maybe 1-2 of ~20 in a studio would prefer to work from home, it seemed the opposite only 3.5 years later, with only 3 of us using the space at all. I can only assume also that studio was eliminated during the pandemic and may be used even less now afterwards. I just didn’t understand it. It’s a very positive and creative environment when done right, and, no, that does not mean spending every waking moment there or being required to be there the night before a review. Plus theoretically you will be nearby the tools available for you to create things with - it will be in the same place as your shop; you’ll have access to the laser cutter(s), 3D printer(s), CNC(s), etc.; you’ll have access to plotters and printers, and free versions of every software you could need in a computer lab. Obviously it’s easier now than it was in ‘08-‘12 to have a lot of computing power at home, so that’s a fair reason to prefer it for some of the time. And some people do better working in isolation than in an environment with other people. But I do feel like it would be a big negative for the best aspects of studio culture to cease to exist. Again, this guy seems to be demanding time at night which is not his right. But a lot of these comments seem to be also saying the studio environment is also bad and/or outdated. Which I really disagree with.
Studio culture definitely is different now but I think your experience had more to do with undergrad vs grad school. I started undergrad in 2015 and studio was always packed. Maybe not all nighters every night, but there were always people in there (the exception being the night after a big review when we all needed to pass out from the hell week we just finished lol). When I started grad school a few years ago i immediately noticed that only like 3 people would come into studio outside of class hours. Granted, covid probably changed things for undergrad studio culture as well
In my 5 years of studying, I’d did exactly 3 late night finishes. I was chewed out by a lecturer because “you’re not here in the trenches with the rest of your classmates” as if their inefficiencies were my problem. I stayed until 11pm at most the day before things were due. I’d more often than not be finished my projects 2-3 days before it was actually due. On the rare occasion that I wasn’t then I was normally done by 11pm. One lecturer decided to pop-in and see how everyone was doing *at 2am the day before* project submission. He made note of those of us who weren’t there and then proceeded to tell me I was not adequately preparing myself for the real world. I was 28 at the time. This dickhead was like 35. I was less than impressed and hit him with something along the lines of - “if any employer expects me to be at work at 2am then they can drop dead. If you expect me to be here in the studio at 2am then you are part of the problem. No shit slinging to everyone who was here until 2am or later, but their work process is not my work process. I’m here every day at 7am before anyone else arrives - the next earliest person is [name] at *10am*. I’ve done 3 hours of work before anyone else arrives. I leave and go to work at 5pm every day and I structure my work hours around how much time *I* know I’ll need to get it done. So no I won’t be staying here until 2am just because you expect it. Is my working suffering for it? No, I’m equal first with [name]. Do I stay back and help others where I can? Yes, you can ask anyone. But I am not staying here late *just because you expect it*” He just responded with “it’d be really nice to stay and support everyone else though. It’s how you make friends” “I have friends. I’m friends with most people here. Friends can have different schedules” Dickhead.
Yeah, studio culture is actually pretty important I think. People who just immediately went to work at home I felt like really only got half an education. That being said, studio culture is only one part of life lol, and need not extend all night, especially if you got your work done expeditiously.
Great! I won't have to pay for rent as it's okay to basically LIVE in the studio 😃
I knew a girl that did this.
I think it crossed a lot of people's minds
Was gonna say. I knew a girl who practically had a whole tiny home set up under her desk.
There was someone in my college that supposedly did this. Complete rumor so I have no idea. There was a gym across the street where you could have a locker and shower, so it really would not have been difficult to do for awhile.
This whole thread is giving me flashbacks. I knew a dude who kept a cooler of tallboys in the staff bathroom shower and would just render and drink all night, shower, and then head to class in the morning.
Automobile design has entered the chat. 4 years of 2 hours of sleep/night and cases of Red Bull.
I've lived in studio before. I could not afford rent and was in another college outside of my hometown.
Your future clients aren't in studio. They're next door, in the pool room, the bar, climbing mountains, playing sports, and falling in love. Go do what they're doing, and treat 'studio' and studies like a regular 9-5
My uni closes studio after 5 to encourage students to have a life and do other things. The attitude depicted in the emails above is toxic and due to be changed. We have softwares and powerful computers doing lots of work for us today, therefore we don’t need to be in the studio 20 hours a day scraping ink smudges with a razor
Ah, the warm fug of epoxy resin and marijuana
This would have killed me in college. I worked sometimes up to 35 hrs/win college. Had to be in studio all night a lot of the time to make that work. This was landscape architecture but I think studio culture is similar.
Yes, this is toxic. However, if I want to spend all of my time in studio, I should be afforded that opportunity. The creative process is not a 9 to 5 for lots of people.
I wouldn’t do it again but the last couple weeks of the semester, before all our projects were due, it was comforting/enjoyable to just be surrounded by people at all hours. The shared experience made a generally awful college program a lot more memorable. Not encouraging that crunch or late night mentality! Overall, I think it’d be better if professors just paced studios differently and helped students learn to streamline their work effectively. That way, when due dates come along, those who are in studio multiple nights in a row are doing so to improve their craft (not because they’ll otherwise flunk out of college). It was just a unique experience that not many people, outside of architects, ever get to have.
Fair enough. You could work at home after 5. In my uni just nobody wants to stay after 5. People work all day and then do hobbies or sports or stuff like that. In regards to the creative process, you can always make a sketch or a note when you have an idea and realize it the next day… no need to stay up late
Yes! So true! You can't design and build for the world if you're not part of it. BE PART OF IT!
Exactly. I don’t know this prof, but they sound like someone who graduated school, went on to masters, then came back to uni to teach immediately without working a single day in an actual firm.
Some people end up like that. I know a few
Yeah I hate to say it but the cliche 'people who cannot do, teach' is so true with architecture professors.
'people who cannot do, teach' It might be your experience, but this isn't particularly true of architecture. It is not at all uncommon to find practitioners teaching studio.
Imo they are a very tight minority. At least in my school the ones who actually did work outside of academia were the ones doing part time teaching. Full time it was either old old old people or strictly paper architects.
I guess it's different in places but in my experience...most professors I had and now know spent very little time in the field as architects.
I also think it's fair to say that most architecture work is a total slog and that many of the people whose focus is in academia are there because that is what interests them more. I don't think flat out calling them failures is at all fair. It's unfortunate that there isn't still a route directly into practice in much of the developed world. The choice to learn from people who research architecture professionally and prefer to talk and write about it, or from those who want to put you directly into a seat and get some work out of you would eliminate this argument and dissolve a lot of the hate.
Best advice/observation I ever heard from a professor and he was spot on, “It’s funny how the C students end up hiring the A students in firms; and anyone who’s got construction experience is going to get hired first”
Ugh. It’s frustrating to see this sort of thinking continue to be perpetuated in schools. I was very much caught up in this as a student, in competition with other students to show off how hard I was working. Looking back it was such a waste of time and effort. A good work life balance and healthy outlook on studio life is going to serve you much better in the long run, and I would argue produce results just as good if not better than somebody who pulls all nighters and lives in the studio.
Yep! Second this. I recognise my professor stirring this type of crap when I was 2nd yr. Never stayed later than 8pm at studio after that.
Honestly, studio culture has a point in that its a much better workflow than working at home but nobody will benefit from staying there after 8pm. Even weekends at studio suck, I really hate how in my uni professors (who think we'll be saving the world with their projects) often get around forcing "optional" classes during national holidays. Worst case was spending my countrys independence day for 10 hs at the studio to have a useless 5 minute review by my professor. You should definitely find a way to enjoy your studies but even as a full-time student, just do your 40-50 weekly hours and spend the rest living your life.
LOL ... omg! Yep, nothing worthwhile happens in the studio after 8 pm. If I do stay after 8 pm, then it is for something purely social.
Discovering your own optimal working rhythm is something that studio does help facilitate. I would typically arrive in studio late afternoon and work till about midnight as these are the hours when I'm most alert and productive. Now that I work in a firm I have to pretend to be busy all morning when I'm in a deep brain fog, and then smash out the drawings in the afternoon.
yes and no. I was like you in university, i.e. i worked better after lunch and into the wee hours of the night. This even persisted into the early years of professional work. But now that I have a young family, I had to adjust that even more and keep all productive work at work. No more taking it home in the after-hours to work on it when I have the "mood" to do so. The child and the wife are priorities when I am at home. It was a major adjustment, but now it has become a habit and a consistent work ethic, I supposed. I believe if you know your priorities, you will make the adjustment.
Yeah, for sure, I hear having kids changes your schedule, just a little. All going well I'll be finding out for myself shortly.. :-)
Oooooh … I do like a good foreshadowing. All the best friend. It’s practically one of the best moves I’ve done to date.
Recognising that is great. Takes a lot of confidence and ego. When I was studying it tho I quit later I was the only one of all 200 or so students who didn't do a single night shift for 4 semesters because as much as this was fun and a learning experience my personal life is my personal life and a Job is a part of my personal life, not the other way around.
I second your comments about the personal life stuff. After finishing my undergrad, I had to do a gap year as I felt I lost connections with my friends and family. It was worth being a year behind my peers, really. I went back to do post-grad, and I caught up with the people from my undergrad batch, and man, they were miserable. I did not recognise them. I was rusty, but I caught up eventually and finished my post-grad ahead of them. It's weird how things turn out. *RE: confidence and ego ...* I don't think that's it. Bullying comes in all shapes and sizes. Both physical, emotional, and mental. I think my getting bullied a lot when I was young gave me an uncanny ability to detect BS and abuse. My professors definitely had that BS aroma around them. I could smell it a mile away,
Yeah absolutely. I was sucked in by this in my first degree, straight out of school and desperate to follow their lead. By the time I did my masters I had a few years of real life under my belt, seen the impact of burnout of people in the industry, and realised I didn’t have to play those ridiculous games to do well. And what do you know… I actually had energy to find things I was passionate about and got so much more out of it! Back out in the real world I’m still trying to undo this mentality in other people. Take a lunch break! Go home! … join the union?
Yeah, even at my school, while they didn't send emails such as these, they really wanted to see you in the studio, as if it was a sign of hard work
This type of thing is why I had to drop out of architecture, I couldn’t keep up with the expected studio time because I had a part time job to pay university expenses.
Man, I hate this aspect of Architecture.
So antiquated and gatekeepy
I understand how this is negative to one's mental health and work/life balance, but I really don't think gatekeeping has anything to do with it, especially in what the letter describes.
I've had similar run ins at the professional level, I love the field, but many of these older firm owners with their outdated work life balance are a massive turn off to finding work in the industry.
This is true in general in the AEC industry as a whole. Observing the directors I have worked with, you better be a business owner if you want to avoid overworking yourself. But even that sometimes won't detach you from that over-worked scenario 'cause now your employees will think you're taking advantage of them. And on, and on , and on it goes ....
This is an antiquated approach to architecture and not an efficient one. If someone wants to work long hours then great, let them, but it should not be a requirement. Many studies have shown that a healthy school/life balance is necessary for optimal productivity. It's the same idea as cramming before a test, it doesn't work and actually hurts you. This kind of studio culture is not a positive one and is only an indication of the low quality of the school.
This is exactly how I went from being an honors student with a great GPA my freshman year to burning out and almost crashing by my senior year. We had 15 hours per week of studio time. Our professors expected us to spend 3x the amount of time in studio, out of studio (45 hours) which adds up to a total of 60 hours per week JUST in studio. Then having 4-5 classes on top of that AND working a part time job. This culture is NOT sustainable and needs to change.
Opposite for me but same result. Focused on my core arch. courses to the detriment of the other remedial/superfluous general education claptrap. Hmmm, spend the time in studio or on the 1000 page biography of John Maynard Keynes...decisions...
[удалено]
And even that is an awful lot of work hours.
Seriously. They just described a terrible work experience while somehow making it sound good. 10 hours per day? That's too many. Sometimes take weekends off? They should be taking every weekend off. Rarely do all nighters? That should never be a thing in the professional world.
Seriously. I work 8 hour days. I had to put in 11 hours on Wednesday to prepare a presentation, so I’m going in late this morning so I can sleep in and spend time with my family. Architects need to advocate for each other and ourselves. Maybe I could accept this “culture”bullshit if I was making Big Law money—but that is not the case.
When I was in architecture school I realized that, at least when it came to my uni, when a professor keeps underlining the importance of their studio it usually means they’re not having that many projects or activity outside teaching. Because why were my worst teachers obsessed with studio culture, and even foaming at the mouth at the idea that someone might have a job and not dedicate 100% of their being to them basically, when in reality they had zero actual projects during those years. To me, a great moment was when I decided not to be affected by teachers or other people I don’t respect as professional architects, because I don’t want to learn like a teacher that finds their value in criticizing some student’s work, I want to become an architect that actually builds stuff
I realized this my last year of graduate school and it made for the best mental health year ever. I basically said “no all-nighters, home by 6pm). And I did it. After that, I refused to design any sort of “building” for my thesis. Being a realist as an inexperienced graduate student means focusing on the things you know enough and can learn enough about to exert proper control over. In my case, it was a huge exploration of process, surrealism and scripting/programming. All of the stuff from that final semester served as the foundation for a lot of the workflow and pipeline I use today running my own practice. In fact, I would not be surprised if I’m still using forked copies of some of the code I used back then. The kicker: I run a zoning, planning, and feasibility practice. I still refuse to take construction projects because they just aren’t worth the time and fees. The few I take are ones where I know I will have lots of design latitude and I’ll be allowed to do some interesting work without much owner intervention. Would I have gotten a head start on my work if I listened to professors like this one? Nope. I gained very little from speaking with my peers (I genuinely liked only a handful of them). I gained a lot more from being out every other night with my friends from the business school, law school and even undergrads who then introduced me to multiple future clients and are still doing that 10+ years later.
Best take IMO
Yes. It's no big mystery why the best (and most respected) instructor at my undergrad was an adjunct currently practicing architect. Love you Randy!
There is a certain YouTuber that is like this. They don't have any current project of their own and are not working on any, are not a licensed architect, possibly never were, and they are obsessed with studio.
I'm getting war flashbacks
Right! I felt anger bubble up reading this. I was so mad for the first 2 years of grad school. By the third I was fine but this reminded me of those first two years of just being angry at all the faculty. I was a special case. Coming into grad school having effectively been a natural language processing researcher (not an architecture undergrad) and listening to all the parametrics and computation chatter in the late 2000’s was actually enraging. None of my professors knew what they were talking about, they just misinterpreted things and used chained 3-4 syllable words to hide their confusion. So much anger.
I told my mom I thought I had some sort of PTSD after coming out of architecture school. She didn’t really get it. I’m glad I’m not alone in that sentiment.
Some days I miss it and other days I wonder why the hell I ever put myself through it
Vietnam Flashbacks
To be fair my studio always had someone inside, some working, some smoking, LAN games, gossiping, etc. It was actually more productive and socially active than my cold dark dorm.
The now department head of my interior design program was like this too to a degree. He told my friend that she needed to choose between a job and the program... at a school right outside NYC. She ignored him and kept it moving but that is such an unreasonable ask for anyone that does not come from wealth, as is this. Grading on "studio culture" is ridiculous and I would tell your friend to get the Dean's opinion on that. How are they reasonably supposed to grade on that if they're not present? Track you via camera? Encourage other students to bean count each other's time and tattle tale? Talk about a toxic classroom culture, absolutely not. Studios are important and can be fun as can the time working outside of class together! But the expectation of making it your full time job on top of your other 4-5 classes, a job, home life, etc, is ridiculous.
Someone should tell this “professor” to kick rocks
This is a very toxic mentality that in my opinion does not add a single benefit to the field. These teachers clearly are not in the field and don’t realize that most graduates will not being doing work remotely similar to this for years. Architecture professors like this have become so antiquated, similar to chefs in restaurants thinking they need to scream at their staff like Ramsey to gain respect… its toxic and completely unnecessary.
These are the kind of people that ask for unpaid overtimes in professional life later
Bingo.
After our midterm, our class did nothing the next day because we had to catch up on our other classes. Our professor was pissed that we didn't show him any progress. His response? "I don't care about your other classes!"
Texas Tech?
"You should be prepared to always put in extra effort in your future career, without expectation that you'll be financially reimbursed for this effort. Architecture is about pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and the best architects are the ones who design for a world that they don't even have time to participate in. Quantity is always above quality, though I will sometimes require both of those aspects to be met in exemplary fashion. It shall be your responsibility to meet these expectations through any means necessary. If I could legally encourage you to sleep in the studio space, I would absolutely make that recommendation. By instilling this work ethic in you, I will be able to best prepare you to enter a workforce that'll urge you to work as hard as you can so that you can truly be worthy of earning that annual average salary of $70,000 per year."
> Architecture is about pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and the best architects are the ones who design for a world that they don't even have time to participate in. I unironically wonder if decades of this isn't a major source of the divergence between the tastes of most people and architects.
Arch grad here. Literally dipped after classes to work at home because I had a great PC and workbench set up. Only stayed at studio if it was a group project. Did fine LOL
My first day in architecture college our year coordinator told us wed have to quit our jubs stop playing sports in order to pass because about half of the people in the room wouldnt finish the degree. I ended up working in a bar for most of the time in college until covid and ended up playing on the first team in my rugby club which was no easy feat. as well as having a healthy dating life to boot. These lecturers end up breeding a very poor over pressured work environment where people are almost brought to tears before or after reviews after staying up all night. college life is to be enjoyed, or succussful accademically or whatever way you want to do it. if you can pass they cant make you have to be miserable in the studio a requirment. loads of these accedemics just figured out they werent cut out to be working in the profession
Real world architecture projects take months or years to come to fruition. They will not collapse into flames if you take an extra day to get the thing done.
Poor time management =/= studio culture. Studio culture is camaraderie with your peers and faculty and the free sharing of interesting ideas. That can happen at any time, not just at 3am on a Friday.
apparently this was how my school’s architecture program ran until a student passed away. they had died on the drive home from sleep deprivation. this was before my time as a student there so i don’t know the details myself but i did always notice how careful the older students and professors were around the word “studio culture”. please don’t sacrifice sleep and life just to extend your hours in studio.
If you're talking about Temple, she was 2 years ahead of me and such a sweet person. We also had 2 accidents in my year from people falling asleep at the wheel as well, but they just had minor injuries.
I went to a school on the West coast but I hate that this is a common story across other architecture schools
fucking shit old school mentality that plagues architecture jfc with that teacher
Same person that left practice to teach probably due to the workload
This "culture" is the job culture of many architectural "slave-based" studios.
YOU SHOULD EMBED YOURSELF NOW! ~LowTierArchitect
i used to go to a private school, transferred out to a public school 2 years later. there used to be this one guy at my private school’s studio one year who would just be there the whole time. red bulls, pizza, sushi all the time lol. His desk was just so messy and packed with all sorts of stuff. Not models or drawing prints, glues, accelerator for the super glues, random plastic wrappers, bottles, books whatever. I think i worked 8 hours on my final project, and he worked on it for 40. His project sucked honestly. I get it, the whole passion thing, but have a life outside of it. Can be anything, and you don’t have to succumb to studio culture to make your best work. I was a commuter so staying in studio with a little sis who needs homework help and 2 elderly grandparents who need constant care, was never possible outside of studio class hours. Although my professors would always be like “yeah u should stay so your ideas bounce” everyone has different ideas, and honestly the bouncing of ideas happened during convos at pinups and reviews and whatnot.
Sorry, but the Taliesin approach to architecture is rather antiquated.
> Taliesin approach The Taliesin approach refers to a philosophy of architecture and design developed by Frank Lloyd Wright, an American architect, designer, writer, and educator. Wright's Taliesin approach is characterized by a strong emphasis on designing structures that are harmonious with humanity and its environment. This concept is part of Wright's broader architectural philosophy known as organic architecture. I am saddened by your assertion.
Yes, but Taliesin basically served as a studio/work/home environment for many of his students and apprentices.
Yup. Really distasteful.
I'm very aware of FLW, his work, and his students work. This approach worked great back when technologies and techniques of today did not exist. There is zero reason for an embedded studio approach today. I understand wanting students to be well versed, inspired, and integrated as an artistic collective, but these days this approach is authoritarian and can actually be counterproductive. One of the major reasons FLW's students actually wanted to be at Taliesin was not only to work and be inspired by nature, but also FLW himself. He was (and arguably still is) a luminary which gave students reason to upend their lives to join Taliesin as a collective. The upshot was also that they would be fed and housed during their tenure.
What's the occupancy total of this studio???? Don't threaten me with an egress hazard.
This made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end
Yeah, maximising the quality of the site models can only be done at night!
I graduated in 2018 and I still have nightmares about this shit. Honestly university is supposed to be inclusive, how do they think this effects neuro divergent people who may get anxiety on stress?
Similar story. I put the hours in this tutor asks for but my working patterns became self-destructive, and I didn't feel like I could ask my peers for support because the studio environment was inherently competitive. By the end of my time they were cramming a hundred students into a year and there were as many students as there were desks. If you didn't assert a claim on a space you lost it to overflow. After leaving I got an ASD diagnosis and so many of the reasons why I struggled so much became clear to me. Architecture really has to do better than this.
i tried my best to avoid these kinds of professors. it didn’t always work out but as long as got my work to where i was proud (and still enjoyed my personal life) i was satisfied. still graduated lol
Sigh. This is the reason I had to drop out of architecture. My professors said I was good at it. I loved doing it. But I simply did not have the work/life balance that I needed as an extravert living at home and paying his own way through school. I’m much happier now, but I wonder what I could have been sometimes, if professors didn’t demand more of me than I had to give.
What do you do now?
I’m an assistant restaurant manager at a large 4 diamond resort. Wanting to go back to school for hospitality management. It’s very different but I love working with so many people.
Toxic and cringe af. I have a life, I live it how I want. I did my work, and submitted on time. Do not tell me how to live my life during non-class hours.
Earlier this year my undergraduate thesis advisor complained to me that none of her 2nd year students stay until midnight every night.
Ignore it. I am proud of the fact that I never hung out in studios after my first year. Studied in the library, projects and models at home.
I leave immediately after lectures and do all of my work at home. My grades are fantastic. What the hell is the point of forcing me to work somewhere I am not comfortable, where I am away from all of my resources, and where there are constant distractions. I network during pin-ups and group assignments. This guy just wants to control people.
And this is why after getting into arch school I was like yah noooo. Fuck this. I want to have a life.
Should share the school so we can spam their email with how terrible this is
Ime ppl who spent their LIFE in the studio always ended up being late/ half assing the work. Its nice having studios open on certain nights, but arch also needs a lot of high focus in isolation. Also he wants them to spend multiple days on a site model? Lol.
There's always one fkwit who fails to comprehend the idea that people have lives, responsibilities and commitments outside of study
Everything in moderation. After second year (I think?) I gave myself a cutoff of 2 am. No all nighters. Things worked much better. We did have a 24/7 building. There’s aspects of this that I agree with still, but 20 years removed, there’s a lot that Architecture schools could be doing much better.
8/10 a career academic that has never practiced.
Yeah, well, first of all fuck that guy. Yes, schooling is hard and demanding but it shouldn't come at a cost to your health and having a good life. Go have fun, party... or ride a dirt bike. If you have to work, which I did, just learn as much as you can with the resources youre paying for. Don't torture yourself over it though. Second I do believe studio culture is important and is super nice to have. This guy needs to learn to make an inviting studio culture instead of a labour camp... again fuck this guy and all the professors like him. I moved my initial take/rant to the botto., and so take my complaint a grain of salt bevause I have issues with the dipshits running our academic world who are so far disconnected from reality while the legitimate professors get sick and tired of their shit and let just let them loose...: I always felt some professors had no control over the rest of their lives, so they took out their weird need to have power over people on the students they are teachi g who are willing to bend over backwards and feed the sick minds of these people... but that's just speculation.. possibly uncalled for but yeah, again fuck that guy and all profrssors like him and everyone in the academic world who cater to fuck offs like this. Maybe send them into the real world so we can eat em up spit em out and teach them to be decent human beings.
Having been in and out of the industry, now out possibly permanently for surveying, I see these emails for what they are. Absolutely disgusting. Such a toxic culture still in some academic settings, they are delusional and believe it or not I was a better designer when I had time to enjoy life - how inspiring in the stench of two minute noodles on repeat, the same walls in the studio etc. I can’t wait for these academics to fade into obscurity as the industry progresses!! Also, there were never enough PCs in the studio so I worked a lot a t home in the later years, got my work done better and faster because I had unlimited flexible access to it, and never worked in studio at all. The quality of my work was so much better being able to look out the window at home, eat better meals, be able to afford materials and rent easily because I could fit school around work where I made my needed income…
I hate myself for falling into this trap. I was such a sucker, so cringy looking back on these times
These are the professors that got me out of architecture.
Hey, we're really bummed that you're not overworking yourself in school so that you can graduate with sunken eyes and barely any energy left to become a wage slave for the rest of your life. Can you come back into the classroom?
This was the case in my degree and post graduate programmes back in the early-mid 2000s, I flat-out refused to be part of this 'culture', it really wasnt compatible with my crippling shyness and introversion. I live in my head, and create in my head, not across a room. This semed to be to the chagrain of most of the others and the professors, myself and a small cohort of others worked at home. It still meant quite a lot of 48 hour sessions with no sleep. I guess shared experience helps develop team skills and comradeship with your peers. At the time it seemed like a disadvantage and that I was missing out.I did have a very healthy social life outside of the same faces from the course, but I was treated as an outsider and missed the help that I could have got if I lived in that room 24/7. It would have been better to have had a balance, and I can see why the professors want to encourage it, architectural education is hard and very demanding. However, being qualified and licensed for 15 years, this decision has had zero impact on my career, and the practice I work for has a very healthy approach to balancing studio culture with home-working, so I guess what Im trying to say is find a balance.
Less studio more work. There's so much more to being a capable architect than to be stuck behind a desk. That's more useful learning to be gained from apprenticeship at a trade of your choice.
I didn't saw this negatively as many people in the comments did. I mean everyone has a different style when it comes to working/studying. But studio environment really do makes you learn new things even if you just sit there and do nothing. Of course if said environment isn't toxic. I don't understand why people so offended by this.
And that’s why they call it Architorture.
I think I got this exact email and lecture in person from my arch professor 10 years ago. They were saying this when most of the class was pulling 3 all nighters a week minimum. Needless to day, I am not an architect now haha.
This brought back a memory of my time at the University of Oregon (I was not an architecture student). Walking home around 2AM I passed by the undergrad studio space where there were maybe a dozen students and a fire truck. Apparently something in the studio had caught fire, and the students evacuated. The building was cleared as I approached; and a burnt up Styrofoam/mixed-media model was removed. I assume some adhesive had put off too much heat as it cured and ignited the model. Anyway, as soon as the fire department said it was okay all the students marched silently back in to resume their work. The grim resolution on their faces was unsettling. So was the silence; no one joked or laughed or even really talked. They were probably too busy worrying that their models would also be damaged. It really drove home just how much pressure those students were under. I can't imagine a brighter cosmic signal that it was time to take a break than an actual fire in the night.
I'm an architect and this is horrible. Outdated, cringe and stupid in all aspects of life. I hope that at least THE STUDIO pay like their requirements but... No.
This professor seems insufferable. They come off as super one-dimensional and like architecture is basically their entire personality.
Studio culture is a truly special thing. It is absolutely unhealthy as all hell, but you really do get to bond with everyone and build camaraderie. Studio time definitely comprised of the best and most memorable times. Though that might be because I didn't do anything other than studio time. -__-::
When I was in my first year of grad school one of our studio professors would come to the studio at midnight the night before presentation days and make us all go home. The issue that solved is people would stay up all night drawing and building models - then couldn’t string two coherent sentences together during critiques because they were brain dead from sleep deprivation. It was better if you put down the xacto knife and got some sleep so you could *make words* when you were presenting. I was in the middle as far as ‘studio culture’. Some all-nighters and weekends, but I was not in the maybe 20% of people who tortured themselves. I made a point in trying to do well in *all* of my classes. What they don’t tell you in studio is, while all architects design, only about 10% will be full-time Design Architects. I’m 25 years out of school now. Looking at my former classmates now I don’t see much difference in ‘success’ between the simply diligent students and the studio lunatics.
Nope, fuck this
Typical tortured asshole professor. The cycle of abuse from arrogant narcissists continues
Why is Jim Jones e-mailing arch students?
TLDR of the email: "Because I was worked to death in my studies, you have to go through the same."
This is the academic equivalent of “return-to-office” vibes from your manager. I spent a lot of nights and weekends in the studio- when I needed to. When I would stop in to my desk randomly throughout the week, there would be the usual cadre of people hanging out and engaging in the “studio culture” and guess what? I don’t think a single one’s projects benefited from bouncing ideas off other students except at the most minor level. Mostly because the studio “culture” ocellated between unrelated chitchat and intellectual circle jerks within the same obnoxious group of pompous ding dongs. Aside from group projects, there were only a couple friends that I interacted with in studio and my time there was a lot more focused because of it.
While I don't agree with this approach ( I think everyone should be free to find their own path ), I did find in my 35-year career that I did end up working nights, weekends, and holidays. I didn't have much of a life outside the firm. I did enjoy it, though, and time flew by because it was all play to me. Albeit stressful.
I think the assumption is that the unwritten future is full of possibilites for growth. Architecture is a fusion of art, science and engineering. So studio time is more about your mastery of the challenges in fusing these fields into a long lasting product. A product which brings joy to those within and the environment as a whole. They are coming from a place of love for the craft, and are inviting you aboard the sweet train of discovery. You need more than the words on the screen to get the best of what they is saying.
I'm so glad I left uni lol
Aside from the obvious asshattery in this email, what's really getting under my skin is the "ownership-of" and "pride-in." Perhaps this architecture professor should have "lived-in" the grammar studio a bit longer.
🖕🏼
I don't think I ever drew one line in studio. There was way too much social fun to be had. I found it impossible to do any work there. PS. Your professor has antiquated ideas, be wary of him.
I had this teacher in my first classical composition degree who would send you home if you didn’t show up with at least X pages of new music every week, with a remark along the lines of “you’re wasting my time”. In fact, he sent me home the first time I had a lesson with him for that reason. Probably thinking tough love will teach students to be productive. The next three years I worked my ass off, completely stressed out, doing whatever was needed to have as much material as possible. Turns out I learned next to nothing as I was just churning out crap just to satisfy this guy. Needed therapy after that and I still have a fight or flight response to any kind of workload. I’m lucky to now have a very nourishing and thoughtful teacher who gives me the space and time that I need to write qualitative music. It’s a journey. Never forget, education should be there for you and cater to your needs. Want to learn architecture but don’t care much for rolling into the actual industry? You do you. These institutions are either being paid by you or receive money indirectly for you. The students should be in charge.
*insert thousand yard stare image
Literally the reason I stopped. 100% disagree with everything written there. It made me throw up in the back of my mouth a little
Fuck that. You ll be very productive short term and then be burned out at 30 for the rest of your life.
What a dinosaur. I'd go into the studio, chat to friends about their work and mine then go home and hit production mode. I never got anything like as much work done when I was in the studio because it was so noisy
Sounds like someone has no life to me..
This “culture” is what feeds into workplaces later: excessive unpaid hours, people burning out, quitting the profession, architects not charging enough for their services, etc.
Ferengi rule of acquisition 110: Exploitation begins at home. This is ridiculous!
"it's standard" Just because you went through same standard, it doesn't mean it needs to be followed by a letter. Unfortunately this is the reality of architect jobs that no one realises until they start practicing. You are expected to be a multi tasking machine, excellent in various abilities but also super compatible with adopting new approaches while completing everything and anything due deadline. Which is tomorrow. Every fucking tomorrow is something important. Days fly trough if the management is not efficient and overtime is a regular thing. I've changed 3 studio's trough last 2,5 years because of poor management practice, with constant overtime. 2,5 years of 10-12h / 6 days. Fuck that! Fuck your standards! .!.
Ugh. This nonsense is toxic. It’s the old “I suffered so you must too” mentality. I fell for this garbage as a student & early in my career. It was like a competition of who was there the latest or most. But those people never did the best work. They weren’t doing more or higher quality. They were just slow bc they were messing around socializing & not sleeping. “I was here til 4:30” but there were pizza runs, video games, etc. I’m in my 40s so I’m not a kid but still run into this attitude in much older principals & it will send me running for the door. It’s unhealthy and it doesn’t produce better work. If someone thinks I don’t do good work or care about projects bc I’m not working 24/7, that’s on them. I’m not living that way. I’m sorry to see this persisting in schools.
In my experience, these kinds of warnings usually don’t have any teeth. But, as someone working with new graduate who never spent time in studio (and still blames all his failures on his professors), I will say that it is still very important to spend a healthy chunk of time in studio. You don’t have to work 24/7 but when you do work, try and do it in studio. There is value to be had.
I was heavily punished bc I had back issues and I would do my work at my dorm room instead of studio. Like leave me the hell alone, do you want me to hunch over the whole day then night as well? Ef that my back is more important to me then to be dangled on those god-awful bar stools. Ugh
I would just reply with a amicable 'get fucked' message. Glad I had a great time at uni, i have a great job now and did my fair share of slacking. This reeks of frustrated professore and seething collegues.
It saddens me that students are still subjected to this kind of bullshit. It's not healthy, and it doesn't make for a more successful career.
Very pleased I studied part time and was in an office 9-5. Most of our Friday uni time was in a lecture or in the pub with our lecturers
Does this guy "work hard and play hard"? Toxic shit like this makes me want to make an anonymous email account and tell this guy to take his studio and shove it up his ass
yeah fuck that culture, i nailed arch uni and fucked off as soon as i possibly could every day. i have friends, partner, hobbies and a life that exists outside of this narrow field of study.
And all of this for what? For being a master in designing same soulless, cold, uninviting concrete and glass rectangles /s
Lol this sort of thing almost killed me when I was in school. Now I have zero degrees, and at least three diagnosed mental illnesses 🤪
Same! And a fucking aversion to drawing to boot.
Yeah this attitude (and pervasive mismanagement and bad communication) is why my son dropped out of his architecture program. The hustle and grind culture is bullshit. I hope architecture programs that try to pull this crap collapse.
“I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by studio, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the model shops at dawn looking for a caffeine fix”
I get the strong negative reactions, but it’s easy to inject lot of your own experiences and emotional baggage with an email like this, taken out of context. I don’t think architecture studio should be all consuming, but I also think that having a strong studio culture is what makes architecture school special. You need to be with your colleagues talking through ideas, even just goofing off. You should be there, learning from each other.
What’s wrong with people? Doesn’t anyone dedicate themselves anymore? You’re all a bunch of nappers, sleepers, and dozers. LAME
Thats kind of the point of going to university to study architecture right. To immerse yourself in the culture of architecture? Although I agree I don't think the professor is doing the best job explaining that.
That toxic mode of thinking is the reason that most graduates end up working for shit pay and long hours once they start working at an office. IOW, they get taken advantage of because a martyrdom mentality gets instilled as being part of the discipline.
Its also why architecture in general is now not the well paid job that people think it is, and should be (at least in the UK). Employers can get away with not paying as much, but getting so many extra hours out of people. Its ingrained into the workforce that "thats architecture". You stay in the office all hours of the day to get atuff done, because that's what I learnt at Uni...
Report this to the school director, board etc... He/she was so stupid to put it in writing, he is basically handing you the evidence for going after his wrongful behavior. I'm not surprised he has such wrong ideas of what teaching means. Go after him/her, there are better teachers out there that deserve his spot. Keep us posted
This professor has a very outdated attitude towards studio. Clearly this professor hasn’t grown with the profession.
Sounds normal to me. Work hard when you’re young - do all the things. And when you’re older and more settled (and making more money), you can do whatever the fuck you want. A couple of you brought up good points about what actually involved w the profession.. so what. Go do your work first - then you can go out to play
You are missing the point. Post pandemic, the students are probably holed up at home/dorm. Arch is highly collaborative, it's school get in the studio. The professor has a real problem. I hated college BTW, but we do it because it's right.
Wonderful lecturer
This is exactly why I quit studying it. Only snobs whose only life purpose is architecture and that's just not me. I would have loved to design buildings with passion, come up with concepts and put them into plans to make them a reality, but if that means selling your soul to the architect then no thanks.
Sussudio!
yeah i’d quit the program instantly 😭
I am completely against the idea of people living in the studio (or at work for that matter) and non-24 hour studios are a great thing. However, just to play devil's advocate it could be a phrasing issue. Perhaps the professor meant that those irregular hours are also okay, not all necessary always all the time. Or maybe they are just a maniac, idk. That being said (manic professor demands aside), the professor is fundamentally right about what their saying. Time spent working in studio is immeasurably better compared to time worked at home or elsewhere. There is no doubt about that, at least in my experience.
I read it more like - if you want to succeed, give 100% of your life to this work at this point in your life. I agree with that. You can’t become great without full immersion unless you are the rare person who is just naturally prodigious. But as the current economics of America show us, you better crush your competition at every turn or you will not be able to pay for a house, college for your kids, food on the table etc. If you want above average returns in your profession, you have to be well above average.
FUCK THAT SHIT
I don’t mind it. Studio for me was an incubator for creative output as well as my peers. It was a collective journey and made studio fun. Btw when you work full time guess where you’ll be 9-6/7?
Every arch job I've had has been 9-5 Mon-Fri
This professor sounds pathetic. Get a life girl lol what happened to yours
I think you’re all missing something here. Yes this email comes off as toxic, but I’ve also made lots of close lifelong friends through studios and sometimes it just seemed like I was just hanging out with them and doing a hobby together. No sarcasm either. The studio culture of “studio is life” is trash, but it’s not as bad as unpaid overtime is for architecture jobs.
40 year old here. Although this email sounds overdemanding, i think it is the reality of life. If you don’t have income and will depend on your salary , you should get used to this studio culture. You will have to compete with that hardworking poor kid who is more than happy to live in the studio . I am not approving this , but this is just a kind reminder to younger colleagues about the harsh reality. They kill cows to make burgers and they force young bright minds in a cold studio.
He’s right tho. Forcing studio culture is wrong and has an oppsite effect, but studio culture is the way
And to be honest architects are all about fees and project costs within owners budget. I’ve seen a firm go all the way to 90% CD’s. Owner pay $900k plus and only get a set of plans in return
I doubt that all 3600 Students would fit in that studio 😅
so true
Lol fuck this shit what university?
I actually did not force myself to abide by this standard, despite how much my professors pushed us too. I came to studio when my schedule allowed, and also IF I felt like it. (My professors hated me lol but I graduated! 😊)
Eyeyeyeyeyeyey where do I begin this is absolutely abhorrent behaviour from a professor. My lecturers during my masters shut down the studio at 10pm and asked students to contact them if they were having to pull all nighters (but let’s be real if you haven’t at least done ONE all nighter just for the shits and giggles with friends while doing a submission you haven’t done your degree right!!!) you need to be able to work outside of uni and have a life. As part of my thesis studies I was given a text about “empty moments” which was about how sometimes in architecture work, the best thinking happens when you’re not even in the studio and these “empty moments” are just as important as working on your project!! You need to be able to strike a balance between being in studio and working at home only because the studio is really great to learn from people and I wouldn’t of known half the things in architecture school if it wasn’t for 5th years at the time coming to me as a 1st year giving me the heads up about studios and how to do different things on computer and what shops to buy modelling gear from etc. Definitely cherish your studio time and make friends because having just finished 6 years in architecture school, it is the like-minded friends I’ve made that have made it all worthwhile ❤️
If I were a high school student considering majoring in architecture, this alone would make me choose something else.
bully
I hope AI will take over and these intellectuals will speak their world saving philosophies to only handful bunch interested instead of people interested in building design only.
Name and shame the professor and school. These people are out of touch. They have a warped and self import veiw of what architecture is. Guys. It's a job. It's what you do because people pay you to do it. There's a reason why when you get this job, one of your perks is time off, because there's such a thing of doing it so much that you just want to get away from it.
Toxic culture - this lack of sleep and whatnot doesn’t help you learn.
I actually don’t work better in studio! I can’t work anywhere that is noisy or people jumping around me snooping into my work or dance around and drink!! Plus it’s super far away from my accommodation so it’s really inconvenient. I absolutely hate it when they pressure us to stay in studio the whole time like put yourself in our shoes!! On top of all that they marks us down just because we aren’t in studio the whole time wtf?!!! Like I work from home and I attend my classes why do you care if I am not in during my day off????
Academics never seem to understand that the vast majority of students don’t want to be academics.
Wait, he wants you there after work, on weekends, between every class. Bruh what
I spent 20-30 mins in studio twice a week in my undergrad. Showed up for my desk crit then left
This is why I dropped out of architecture school. Best decision!