well, to summarize in the simplest form, architecture is the marriage between science, arts and social behaviour. there isnt an exact answer to how much is one to the other, coz every individual studying architecture will give u different answer. that's the nature of architecture education.

from my point of view, architecture is 4 parts science, 3 parts arts and 3 parts social behaviour.

the science part includes: building and construction technology, services (piping, lift, circulation, toilets etc), structures (with some basic calculations), and advanced constructions.

arts part includes: visual arts, composition, scale&proportions, aesthetics and stuff like that. it is very common that architecture students to be well trained in sketching and drawing, some even venture into fine arts or visual arts, to the extreme limits of arts.

social behaviour includes: human behaviour, spatial relationships, spatial qualities, comfort etc.



all these are governed by the architect's skills and specialization. the core of architecture: the design, virtually combines multiple skills like drawing, sketching, organizing, cross-referencing, drafting, verbal communications, tabulations etc; most often simultaneously. this made architects as excellent multi-tasker, and female are even better when juggling between being a wife, a mother and an architect.



i'm an architect/lecturer in UTM, and actually the first in my family to ever venture outside the realm of teaching .

severe grilling under the presentation spotlight.

i have only one advice to all architecture students:

"there is no single absolute answer"



where r u guys studying?

This post has been edited by azarimy: Mar 16 2006, 08:34 PM

i got a coupla mates in limkokwing and uia. zatur, the head department of architecture in LUCT, is a dear friend of mind. used to lepak2 together back in the good old days. wan mad, also a lecturer in architecture, is my classmate, and part of my study group.

some of my seniors went to uia and became lecturers. syala, yun, ruzaimi, ramzi... all are two years my senior . send my regards to all of them.

send my regards to hajeedar. i look forward to our next mind-boggling achitect-bashing lunch session.

by the way, what's going on with kaedians website? i cant seem to be able to login...

looks pretty good! the model looks pretty detailed. u should add more human figures to give it a more... human touch.

and i believe it should be sports centre, not sport centre. u might wanna adjust that, for future reference

i think UTM've sent a letter to UCSI's head department. u can check with him. if not, i'll call them to send the letter to u as soon as possible. or better yet, u can just go to the website, and contact the organizers directly and get urself invited.

there's no need for "preparations" for an architectural workshop. if ur school is new, everybody'll understand. everyone's sporting enough and we welcome all. it's the whole spirit of architecture running around, u see.

i believe UIA sent their first bunch of students back in 2000 to UTM. i was the head of programme during the workshop in 2000. my god they were havok! cool bunch of people, though earlier we were expecting a bunch of ustaz and ustazah's who'll curse at our exhibitionist dressings and extremely small personal spaces (if u get what i mean)

utm skudai, johor. utm kl's architecture is just finishing it's first batch of students, so they couldnt host the workshop. everything will be in skudai.

IPTAs offering accredited architecture courses (up to PAM part2):

UTM, UiTM, USM, UM (with RIBA part 2)

other IPTAs (still working to get accreditation):

UIAM, UPM, UKM

other IPTSs (still working to get accreditation):

LUCT, taylor's, L&G twintech, UCSI, alif

other colleges offering architecture diploma/certificates:

all polytechnics, yayasan pelajaran johor, kolej komuniti kepala batas etc.

This post has been edited by azarimy: Mar 27 2006, 09:11 PM

well, i sure hope UIA gets accreditation.

however, number of graduates and high employment rates are not part of the evaluation, unfortunately. UTM's part time degree still have not been accredited despite having almost 7 batches of graduates, with every single one of them working in either government or private sectors. quite a number of them already acquired PAM part 2 qualification by individual assessment.

i was part of the committee preparing for the accreditation assessment. god, it was tedious!

no.

architect's must be able to draw. but this skill will be taught in college/university. the syllabus is set for students who does not have any skills in art at all. those who already can draw or have artsy-fartsy talents will have easier life.

u can start polishing ur drawing skills. but remember, freehand drawings and draftmanship is very different. but that's quite school specific. schools like UTM will allow the students to choose what media u want to use: traditional/manual drawings or CAD/computer as a tool. so if u cant draw, the computer can draw it for u.

but if u cant think, rationalize or understand about what u're doing...

there's the third technique:

u can TALK instead of draw...

having studied in malaysia for a full degree, and later spending a few years studying about UK's system, i'd say, malaysian architectural syllabus is dead more difficult than the UK's counterparts. one of the reason is that the system that we use is severely outdated, where mostly are governed by the practitioners on what they want and how they want it.

however, it is to my understanding that UiTM is using a slightly different system, which i'm not so sure about. UTM used elaboration from the bauhaus (german i think) and ecole de beaux art (french), which also used in the UK. USM expanded this into their own specialization. UIA follows UTM's template, but geared it towards islamic architecture. UM took UK's system directly, so if u wanna feel the british system, u dont have to look further than UM.

i have no idea about UPM or UKM, coz they're still new, and have not had any graduates yet. all private colleges offering architecture course used australian curriculum, which is an expansion of the british curriculum.

ahh yes. the zombie symptom. as we've discussed before, architecture demands u to be creative all the time. during school times, we're online creative when we want to, or whenever our mood feels like it. u cant afford to be that in architecture. when students suddenly find themselves unable to design creatively, they'll resort to the "i just want to finish my work and graduate" mode.

look at it this way: if u cant be creative when ur life depends on it, forget about architecture. the 6 years training is to prepare urself for that.

unfortunately, in malaysia, there are still places for these kinda students: JKR. the failsafe option available to ALL architecture students. their life will tend to become repetitive and routine, as not exactly much work around, ESPECIALLY when u're stationed in the sub-urban areas.

if u're offered UTM, just prepare generally RM250 for stationaries. but if u can find used stationaries form uncle, friend or seniors, u can cut that down considerably. one of the most expensive item that u'll need to buy is "adjustable set-square", which can cost up to RM75, depending on size.

are u bringing desktop or laptop? laptop is easier to carry, but desktop carry more processing power (laptop can too, but more expensive). make sure u bring along all the laptop security gadgets (safety cable, lock etc).

or than that, bring along the usual clothings, toiletries etc. dont need to bring EVERYTHING, coz u can always buy em when u get there. u dont need to buy books either, although reading ahead on architecture would be good. we'll specify u what books to read during ur 1st year. after that, u'll roughly have some idea of what books to buy for reading, and which is good to look at.

cool flick! who's the chick?



what do u mean? i assume u're talking about line of work, yes?

well, it depends on what kind of work u're looking for. obviously without a degree, u wont be an architect or doing any architectural works, but u may be employed on the visualization works. a lot of architecture firms in malaysia now employ external 3D visualization. some just want still images, some want animations, and some prefer multimedia presentations (video clip, narration, soundtrack... the works).

it pays quite alot actually. and some students who've been fooling around with 3D animations during their studies eventually end up becoming animators. i'm not sure what's the rate nowadays, but it used to be around RM1000 per minute back in my days. maybe it's higher now. (maybe lower too, coz alot of people can do 3D animations nowadays).

the best way is to setup a small based of operations, and start promoting ur stuff to a couple of offices. they're bound to hire u. most architecture firms cant afford to have inhouse animators.

yeah i'm still in sheffield. anyone going for olympiarch?

have fun. unfortunately i dont think i'll be coming back soon. atleast not until hari raya.

haha who told u that? zatur ah?

i've heard so many stories about LUCT's archi students. both good and not so good ones. i never miss my normal dose of chot's (faisal) babbling about his students everytime i drop by LUCT.

hah, that's the faisal i know haha. used to teach me back in UTM b4 he went to join LUCT. and yeah, he can be a prick sometimes.

actually 30 is already a big number. during my time, it was 15 from each major school, and 7-10 from smaller schools. it's not that we dont want to entertain big number of participants, it's the fact we do not have enough facilities to cater for each and everyone. the bigger the number, the problems increase exponentially.

i'll let u come to utm first, enjoy, then probably u'll understand why it must be limited to 30. on estimate, we have about 500 participants + about 1000 observers + 500 hosts. that's management of 2000 people! mati laaa

that's normal laa. i'll tell u a secret.

lecturers play mind games with u. seriously. they'll fak-up ur mind until u're bone dry. when u crit with person and they suggest u to do something, NEVER take it bluntly. that's the last thing u want to do. coz the next time u crit with him/her, he'll tell u that u dont have a backbone, cant think of an original idea and so on.

what u need to do is to understand what he asks. contemplate, and then consider putting his suggestion into ur design. ask urself why make these changes. once u're satisfied with all the self-reasoning that u did, then u can implement it.

once u do that, it'll be YOUR design. not the lecturer's. so when u the next u go up against other lecturers, u'll be able to defend ur design and not say "that one was suggested by the other lecturer...", coz it's really lame.

thing is, be original. there's nothing lower in architecture than being un-original.

fazidin? oh yeah. he was a lecturer in UTM when i was in the 1st and 2nd year. later he left to join MMU (or something) to pursue multimedia/animation thingy i think. is this the same person we're talking about?

dont stop for too long. or else u'll be too comfortable earning money. u might also grew too accustomed to repetitious method of working. to be realistic, with part1, u'll be a technical or architect's assistant, never the designer.

u'll spend most of ur days doing technical drawings, production/presentation dwgs, models, site inspection etc. not much designing, especially if u're in big offices. i've seen too many students whom took a break b4 part2 ended up producing dull/repetitious designs which are uninnovative and far from having a slight hint of creativity.

just make sure u dont end up like that