What I Learned in Design Class is...

   "To gain knowledge is to develop the imagination". I read that on the back of a train chair once and it stuck, it wasn't signed so I dedicate this post to anonymity. Although I fail to see how true this might be, it is true that the more we know the more opportunity there is to see the world from endless perspectives.

   One of my first lessons as a freshman was learning how to improve on criticism, a valuable tool in this or any field of study. History and mathematics seem to be tightly linked in architecture; as well as knowing how to build a convincing illusion to project an idea that so far will only ever exist in my head. In design class we're taught how to find the things we need to learn, we as the students are mentored by professors, nudged in the right direction. In these past few years I have learned how to use an X-Acto knife correctly, how to scale, how to draw in perspective, with enough practice, and a lot of other ways to create miniature spaces and models with ever advancing ways of technology. From mind to paper, to computer, to paper, editing becomes second nature; not always in the right direction because it's an ever learning process.

  A process that has required much more than just taking a 4 hour class 3 times a week. Studying architecture is far beyond developing designing techniques, it's a collective of the past through the lens of the future. As students we learn the history of this art, the ways it molds to the environment and lives of those around it through simple to complex and ever advancing technologies. From how to make concrete to how to design a concrete structure capable of sustaining hurricane winds, every class matters. Architecture is calculus, history, physics, structure, literature, art, it's the sum of it's culture, it's our shelter and living space.