Education/Career Advice...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Nathan Miller on February 7, 2010 at 2:03am

New technology has certainly opened up a limitless number of career trajectories that a designer/architect can take. After you get out of school and into the professional realm, you will probably find yourself changing directions many times in search of the right fit.

I did undergrad/grad school in architecture. Professionally, I started in a small design-build office doing design and construction. I then went worked at a small, up-and-coming international practice doing mostly interiors... now I am at a large international firm hopping continents and pushing a design-tech agenda.

My advice is to keep exploring while you are in school and in your early years as a professional. There is no right answer: do what turns you on and you'll find your 'market' eventually.

Permalink Reply by Chris Wilkins on February 7, 2010 at 6:35pm

Yes. Do what turns you on. I guess there is a bit of proselytizing involved - you should be able to sell your agenda to others. People's eyes will glaze over when you talk geometry/math if you don't back it up with both reason and beauty. We must nurture a market for our solutions, since it is a small one, and people are skeptical about this sort of work. Thanks Nathan.

Permalink Reply by Damien Alomar on February 7, 2010 at 2:51pm

This is a tough one. One one had, following your interests is very fulfilling and will likely be much more rewarding than doing the status quo. On the other hand, making a living in this "fringe" area is not easy, especially with the current economical climate that we're currently in.

Being a "geometrist" is probably going to require more of a technical aspect in your education than a design aspect. To really be able to understand an master geometry in the way that you need, mathematics is something that's going to need quite a bit of your focus. IMHO, if you're going to be a "geometrist", then you're going to need to be able to program in some sense of the word. I'll also say that fabrication is a significant part of geometry. Creatating freeform shapes isn't the hardest part, its rationalizing those shapes into geometry that can actually be built. Doing so requires knowledge of techniques and certainly some experience with the production aspect of architecture (documentation as well as building practices).

Right now there's certainly a lot of "reality" that you need to deal with regarding this situation. There aren't necessarily a lot of positions like this available or projects that require this sort of knowledge. Also many people who have some of the skills to fit the bill are out there searching and competing for the few postions that are available. Good news is that you're looking about getting into the job market in 2-4 years, so things will certainly be better then, but I'd lean towards there still being a relatively limited demand for people of the expertise you're looking to study.

There are two things that I would recommend if you're really serious about this. First, do your best to get into a school that has some sort of reputation for teaching students about all this stuff. Its a much harder sell to a potential employer if your the only one at your school who's trying to study these areas. You may really excel during grad school, but convincing people that you have the skills is much harder if you went to [random state school that barely has an arch program]. It will also help get your foot in the door too. Also, some schools have actually paired or worked with firms, which is really great if you can get yourself into that kind of situation.

The second thing is to get as much experience as you can with this in as much of a "real world" situation as you can. During the summer find someone to intern with to get this kind of experience and make sure that its working on a project that's really going to putting some of your skills to work (or at the very least, looking over the shoulder of someone who's doing it). Its always a good idea to try and get an internship that pays, but be open to going "pro bono" as I would label the right experience as more valuable than paid. Whether you can do that though depends a lot on your situation though.

Lastly, even though I've been a bit cautious, you should still pursue what makes you happy and fulfilled. I did a lot of work during grad school that was off the beaten path. Looking back it was a great time and I'm very glad that I explored that route. However though, it would have been nice to position myself a little better to continue doing that kind of work professionally. Of course the economy taking a dive certainly effected things significantly, but still you want to give yourself the best chance you can too continue doing what you love. Be open to changes in direction because they'll certainly happen. Good luck.

Permalink Reply by Chris Wilkins on February 7, 2010 at 6:24pm

Thanks, Damien. Lots of good advice in there. You seem to be pretty active in this realm - is it for personal interest or work or both? (I saw the RhinoHair on your blog. I'll be playing with that soon.)

As far as going to a grad school with a good digital program, I'm staying at Clemson simply due to economics. We have very little digital presence, but there are a few teachers here who are trying to advance our digital agenda (Dave Lee who was with me at the Cloud event, and Doug Hecker pushing fabrication). We just got a decent 3D printer that uses the plastic instead of the powder crap that used to permeate the lab. And many students who are interested. So my only opportunity to go to such a school is to help create one where I am. That is a worthwhile concept in itself.

As far as programming goes, I did that for a career for many years. Mostly retail web sites and back end database stuff. Lots of Java/JSP/Tomcat, some VB/ASP. No C++. No C#.

Your last bit of advice - to pursue what makes you happy - is why I went back to college. I ditched a well-paying career in exchange for being a starving student, for just that reason. So I try to keep that concept always at the top of priorities. Thanks.

Permalink Reply by Luis Fraguada on February 8, 2010 at 10:46am

"Your last bit of advice - to pursue what makes you happy - is why I went back to college. I ditched a well-paying career in exchange for being a starving student, for just that reason. So I try to keep that concept always at the top of priorities. Thanks."

Your head is in the right place! I did the same. Being an IT Director payed very well, but it brought out some things in me which I never thought I would see in myself, and I did not like it...

Permalink Reply by Damien Alomar on February 8, 2010 at 3:13pm

I was at the cloud event, so its nice to put a face with a name. Great presentation by the way.

I hang around here for both business and pleasure, although my business is on the software side not necessarily architectural. As you can guess from the tone of my previous response, I finished with school and had a hard time finding a job that focused on the technologies I delt with all through undergrad and grad. During grad school I was working with ASGvis (the makers of V-Ray) so I got exposed to the software side of things both on the support/management side and the development side. Now I'm off on my own doing development projects like RhinoHair, a few others, and some custom plugins for clients. Not necessarily what I thought I'd be doing after grad school, but I'm certainly enjoying it more than the "standard" practice of architecture.

I definitely understand "creating" a program. I did both my undergrad and grad at Catholic U here in DC, and although there was some ground work laid in regards to fabrication, I was one of only two or three students spearheading a lot of the scripting/GH/parametric stuff and some of the topics that go along with them (algorithmic design, adaptive systems, advanced geometry). One thing that was incredibly helpful for me was to pair up with the most advanced and forward thinking professor(s) that you can and take their studios, electives, and/or help out with their research. I was lucky enough to pair with a professor who had been at MIT and really encouraged me to explore my interests and sharpen my technicial skills.

It might also be a good idea to stick your head in some other departments, probably the math and engineering ones, or even biology and economics if there are some forward thinking professors. Talk to some people and get a different perspective on things. When I went to the ACADIA conference in 2008 it really opened my eyes to some of the potential influence from those different arenas.

Fabrication wise, I'd really try to focus more on milling (3 axis is fairly standard, 5 axis if you can get access) than 3d printing. Printing is a lot of fun, but ultimately we're not printing buildings (yet), so some of the milling processes will be much more valuble. If your school doesn't have those kind of facilities on campus (either in the Arch dept or engineering or something), then contact a local fabricator and see if you can work together somehow or someway. You'd be surprised and how many fabricators are interested in talking to architects.

Permalink Reply by Ivan Kiryakov on February 8, 2010 at 2:39pm

Chris thanks for that discussion, as I feel very simillar way, wanderig where all this know-how will take me.
I'm wandering where this kind of knowledge in parametric design is considered as serious design skill.For example where I'm right know - munich good known for its real-estate climate, I've never heard of a architecture practice which actually gets paid to design this kind of exciting new designs...

Permalink Reply by Luis Fraguada on February 8, 2010 at 2:43pm

Contemporary offices everywhere are leveraging associative design tools in actual built work. How it sells in the real estate market is a diff story though... How could commercial offices benefit from this in your opinion?

Permalink Reply by Ivan Kiryakov on February 8, 2010 at 3:32pm

Well as for me, interested basicly in design and divine beauty and having almost no business expirience for me it all comes to simple rule what feels and looks better wins the competition, the rest are details..what do you think?

Permalink Reply by Sameer Kumar on February 8, 2010 at 8:17pm

It is an interesting discussion; I will put in my 2 cents as well:

If you were to continue pursuing the specialization in geometry and taking it further in the more "abstract" dimension (theoritical geometry or programming), your scope of working within the field of architecture (strictly speaking) will keep shrinking. In other words, you may find your knowledge and expertise to be applicable to a very small segment of what gets built. You will probably find yourself either in academia, software development or related fields, probably doing some really cool stuff that we architects regularly dream about.

If you choose to find a place as an architect involved in projects that do get built as you seem to be suggesting, you may have two directions that you could choose from:

One: Continue as a geometrist and find your place as an expert/advisor either as a part of a large organization (architectural or engineering firm) or as an independent consultant. However, with the rise of software like Grasshopper, there is a growing number of people like me, who are at best "geometry enthusiasts", and are able to do a lot of what is required for projects in offices. It may be difficult, therefore, to sustain an entire career in the field simply on the basis of this one expertise. I have a good friend who has worked as an independent geometry expert for many years but is now looking to diversify his practice partly because he finds himself constantly competing against Digital Project, GC and now Grasshopper.

Two: Spend some time complementing your current expertise with another (related) expertise within Architecture. For example, you could spend a couple of years studying about building in steel and/or concrete to be able to actually advise architectural/engineering/contracting firms on building complex forms in these materials. Or, you could study the design and fabrication of building facades (which is what I do). A combination of facade and geometry expertise could be a formidable combination for a career as a specialist advisor to architects etc., very much in line with your desire to "rather help a great architect (or artist) realize the crazy shapes they design". In other words, if you were to add to your geometry expertise another specialization in design and fabrication, you may find yourself in a sweet spot professionally.

Of course, the above is based on my limited understanding of my profession and probably biased from my personal experience. I hope it is useful in some way.

Permalink Reply by Chris Wilkins on February 8, 2010 at 8:41pm

You said in #2, "studying about building in steel and/or concrete to be able to actually advise architectural/engineering/contracting firms on building complex forms in these materials". That sounds is very appealing. Real world applications. I don't want to be one of the guys calculating the next 100 digits of Pi (that's mathturbation). (sorry for that, but I just came up with a new word)

And of course academia has become a consideration. I hate to admit it, but I feel like teaching is a career that sort of avoids reality, and that it appeals to me for just that reason. Just stay in college forever. Theorize. But I think it is best for teachers to have some non-academic experience. So I guess finding real-world experience that is directly applicable to your research area should be a goal.

Permalink Reply by P. Casey Mahon on February 9, 2010 at 7:20am

Chris,

I totally feel your pain especially as someone who is capable of doing some interesting stuff but is stuck doing exactly the opposite of that in a professional environment. I've found that remaining a part of the academic world via teaching has been keeping me sane and on my toes as the students are consistently pushing my expectations of what I though was possible.

As I have just recently left school myself I can't really give you advice that Damien, Louis, and Sameer haven't already said. I can however suggest that you get in touch with Chris Palmer at U. Colorado @ Boulder. He presented at a workshop I attended last year hosted by the LAN guys in Brooklyn and was really interesting. From what I can tell his field of expertise is exactly what your describing and could probably give you some good advice as to how he found himself in the position he is currently in.

I'd also like to add just as a general note how awesome it is that there are a great group of people that are active in this little community of users who have such good things to say and are really willing to help. Thanks guys.

Good Luck

Casey

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