On becoming an architect.. self-taught?

[PlanetMongo]

I'm 30 years old and am currently a senior, majoring in Ecological Anthropology and History. I've got coursework in CompSci, EE, and an Associates in IT: UNIX Programming which served to put food on the table for awhile. My Ecological Anthropology studies focused upon sustainable development, but unfortunately, my university decided they didn't need an Ecological Anthropology concentration and my College Professor moved to another school. I'm going to have to finish my degree by taking cultural and physical Anthropology coursework. But that's beside the point.

 

I was reading through Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (there may be a hidden referral in there) and discovered that people are actually integrating sustainable agriculture more holistically with neighborhood planning and building development. The idea of creating sustainable neighborhoods to nurture community building, cultural bonding, etc is very interesting to me. The building of energy efficient (and culturally relevant) structures also appeals to me. So, I'm thinking I want to incorporate some building technologies into my knowledge arsenal so even if I can't design buildings from the ground up, I know what to look for in designs and would like to be able to talk authoratively and knowledgably about the subject. Heck, maybe I can concentrate on doing it exclusively, using my biology/ecology background as a basis.

 

Now, my question is: Is this reasonable? I've read that "architectural" greats such as FLW were self-taught architects, but he was also a traditionally educated engineer. I've some engineering background, but primarily in Electrical, which doesn't do much good, nor do I have enough of it to do any good in the EE sense, either.

 

The big problem I currently face (I'm not daunted by the age gap) is that I currently work a job that makes enrolling in school impossible. I'm out of town, monday-friday, which makes attending classes a bit difficult. However, I do have an inordinate amount of spare time in the evening that I currently spend watching Law & Order and exercising. I'd like to cut out the TV and do something more productive. So, I was thinking of using this time to educate myself, but where do I even begin?

 

One idea I had was to go through my college's basic architecture curriculum and pick up the textbooks for self-study. Is this feasible? I'm sure they read like my old Calculus book: Dry, dry and boring. Furthermore, how do I ensure I'm learning the material right (application of theory, etc)?

 

It all sounds very daunting to me.

 

I do know that I could start teaching myself some CAD concepts on my laptop (even though I'm currently Mac based), I think I remember some old CAD stuff from my Drafting class in '91. Same goes for drawing, I can always whip out my sketchpad and draw buildings. What else can I be doing to prepare myself?

 

Thanks in advance, hope I'm not asking for too much..

[mbr]

You should try to clarify what you want architecture for. If you want to design a good building, that's take a long time, many design classes (I've got 7 years of design classes, but 5 could be enough, depending on the school and person). But if all you want is to know how a building is put together, then you can learn that on your own - it's not rocket science, as they say.

 

You could buy some of the first year books, particularly by Ching (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/search-handle-url/index%3Dstripbooks%26field-keywords%3Dching%25252C%252520architecture%26store-name%3Dbooks/002-5442314-9868846). They are really easy to understand and illustrated very well - highly recommended. Then maybe a basic construction book.

 

Also, LEEDS (http://www.usgbc.org) is the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. It's the 'cutting edge' of environmental design and worth look at. Us architects/interior designers can take a test and become 'leed certified'. They also have a point system and award buildings that accumulate a certain number of points. It's marketing, for sure, but it's also the primary organization promoting green architecture - and it's working. I believe all new gov.'t buildings have to be leed certified.

 

 

So if I were you, and I wasn't interested in the design aspect to architecture (to me, that's all that I really care about), then I'd just learn on my own and try to find a way to be a consultant to others. It'd be hard, but if you could get your foot in the door, you could be an asset to the mostly naive group of architects out there.

 

 

Good luck. Let me know if you have any specific questions.

[kid]

what aspect of architecture is it which you hope to pick up?

 

i receive a vague picture from what you say, that indicates you're interested in the practicalities of how to actually build/construct buildings, and also an interest in the environmental factors in building - design to weather conditions, solar passive design, water use, etc.

 

for learning how to construct buildings; this is usually the last thing you learn in an architecture school. it is very rarely a starting point in most schools. there's reasoning behind this that i won't go into now.

 

a technical college that has an architectural drafting diploma course is probably going to be more help to you in finding that type of information. actually this is probably the place to get the environmental stuff too. not because they don't teach this in architecture schools (which most do these days), but more so because it sounds to me like you're looking more for 'beginner's guide' type of information. Universities tend to go into these things at a very advanced level straight from the start (i'm still lost on some of the basics but can read HSA and VSA angles off a sun path diagram to see if the sun is going to come through my window at 2:15pm on the 22 of March... )

 

once you've got your teeth into the 'beginner' type of info from a technical college you will probably have a better idea what to look for when sifting through stuff at a university school of architecture.

 

and for the rest of architecture (all the stuff that leads up to building something (or not)) your anthrop & history background is immensely valuable. don't stop thinking about that stuff when you're thinking about architecture.

 

there's too many people who assume architecture is just about building stuff...i better leave it at that...i'm starting to waffle...

 

good luck

[PlanetMongo]

Thanks for the responses thus far.

 

I suppose my post was vague because I'm pretty vague on exactly everything architecture entails. What it is that I wish to do is learn how to create housing/structures that are "green", but more than just that. There are plenty of "green" building techniques (see earthships), that are incredibly efficient, but try selling someone in an urban environment on the concept of building a house out of tires and soda-pop cans. It's not going to happen any time soon and those that you could sell would just do it themselves. No, I'm looking at more than just the structure of the building and the materials used in building it, but would like to take into account the uses, intelligent design of layout, space usage, and of course, aesthetics. I'd like to think that architecture is more than just a box with a pretty (replaceable, nonfunctional) facade, although looking around I sometimes wonder...

 

I was actually looking through the curriculum of the local tech school that I got my IT degree from and they do offer an architecture technology degree and it just so happens one of my friends is just a few classes away from his. The impression from the brief discussions I had was that it's a 2 year degree in drafting/CAD, which isn't bad, but I don't think they actually get into the actual design of buildings. Going through the curriculum, it seems they actually learn a bit more than that (courses on materials, structural integrity, and costs estimation, etc), so I'll go pick his brain while I help him move this weekend.

 

mbr: Thanks for the Ching recommendation, I'll head to the library today and see if they have any or anything similar.

 

Again, thanks a bunch!