It's a cult

 "When you start as an architecture student you're steeped in a culture, like a tea bag, and most of its unconscious. It's like dropping into a foreign country, and you start using words that no one else uses and you start developing gestures that no one else develops and in those days you started wearing only black and white, because thats what everyone did. Their relationships fall apart, their health falls apart, but they come up with a really great design and a beautiful presentation"

Jonathan Teicher, De Drager


I know it. You know it. Everybody knows it. Architecture, especially in education, is a cult. Sometimes it's even pointed out to us, like at that last party you went to with your one friend who isn't in architecture. You promised them that they would fit right in, that it would be fun. Then, half an hour into being there, it happens. You realize that you are in a room full of architecture students, talking about architecture, and your friend looks like they are struggling to hang in there. 

We can't help it. 

But why? Something in the culture makes us believe that we have to push ourselves to the extremes, intellectually and sometimes physically, to prove ourselves. To prove that we can create something beautiful from nothing. It's integrated into the traditional studio format that we have to produce to prove. Somehow all of the sleepless nights, missed meals, and fomo seems worth it when you finally do get to the end of the semester, receive the praise from final pin-up and hibernate for a few days. Not only was it worth it, you are almost proud of your "commitment". 

This carries on to our professional lives. Habits created in school carry on and we feel the need to create this beautiful end product to prove to the entire world now that we are worthy of our title of Architect. And then the student becomes the teacher and we feel the need to inflict this culture on the next generation. I agree with Habraken in that architectural education needs restructuring. I also agree with his reasons, "in studio it is impossible to exercise distribution of design responsibility, or to deal with the sharing of values and qualities among designers, or to handle issues of change". But, I would like to add the twisted mindset that comes from our cult-like culture to the list of reasons for change. 





Comments

  1. Who or what do think is the the cult leader?

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  2. Great post Courtney.

    Yes, architecture is a cult and the default for any mistreatment to ourselves is "hey, its studio culture". The fact of the matter is that I don't know if its right or wrong. I, like many instagram scrolling architecture students, follow pages like blank_gehry and the array of meme formatted, studio culture awareness pages, that tend to clarify that all they're doing is "shitposting". Here there seems to be an overwhelming consensus that job postings that list "studio culture", "no 9-5 mentality" or "internship to gain experience" are fundamentally capitalizing on this culture to overwork there employees and pay them less.

    Now I'm not against the idea of work-life balance or fair wages and I certainly don't love the bags under my eyes or trips I've bailed on for school but there is something to be said about how hard architecture is and how much time it takes to get good at. I would argue that the times I've chosen to focus on myself over school or the times I've seen classmates do the same... the work wasn't very good... at best, it hit all the marks but was missing the soul that makes the work vibrate. I would argue that studio culture is a result of the work itself and based in the importance it has, it just sucks that we don't get paid like Doctors do at the end of all this.

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  3. Courtney,

    To some extent, I disagree with Jonathan Teicher, De Drager. Most of the architecture students' life is unconscious, that is true. This unconscious is not including fear. But as a foreign, when you are into a new place by using words and gestures that no one understands, you only have fear and despair. The feeling is different from an architecture student.

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  4. Studio culture is wild. In my first year in graduate school, I was amazed at the amount of professors that applauded students for staying in Lee until midnight, or pulling all nighters finishing up their studio projects. If you left studio at 5:30, you obviously weren't committed enough. (Me!) Maybe this way of life does produce better buildings and cooler designs, but my sleep, mental health, dinner, marriage, and 100 other things come before architecture... oopsies!

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