If you are an architecture student/former student depending on what Architecture school you went/going to and what kind of students were/are there, you might find yourself in a very competitive environment for whatever reason. Some of these reasons may be because: some students are compared to one another from time to time, some students are incompetent at designing, some students think becoming an architect means they’re inferior, the list goes on and it could be for pretty much a number of different reasons. Despite how being competitive can push an individual to reach their full potential, it can also create a very toxic and to a degree a very destructive outcome. Students and architects alike are expected to work as a team and this is necessary to get the job done, however for the competitive students, they would rather aid themselves than support their fellow students working with them. Often this includes trying to get ahead of everyone who have put their trust in that person, only to screw them over. Another situation of note is the reluctance of students to be transparent with what they do, but making sure they know what everyone else is doing, which one may argue is a tad malicious. In various architecture schools, tutors expect the students to learn from one another, which depending on the students can be like trying to crack an egg with a feather…
Nonetheless one must ask themselves: surely this behaviour of competitiveness is necessary to be successful? From a boarder perceptive, the answer would be no. Every architecture student is different and architecture is incredibly subjective (which you would think was obvious). No matter what you produce as a design, not everyone will be fond of it and yet the vast majority of competitive students don’t seem to comprehend this. Everyone has their own style, so what are we even competing for? Perhaps if one had potential they wouldn’t have the need to compete? Although ‘compete’ is probably at this point the wrong choice of word, ‘sabotage’ seems more fitting. ‘Sabotaging’ the efforts of other hard working architecture students just to ‘get ahead’ whatever ‘getting ahead’ means. Architecture school is already a gruelling experience alone, so you would think everyone would be supportive of one another as a opposed to acting like venomous snakes. Taking part in design competitions and being hard working as an individual isn’t what is being disproved of in this argument, trying to ‘get ahead’ whatever as established ‘getting ahead’ even means, at the expense of other students is what should really be disapproved of. Everyone has something different to bring to the table and yet not everyone seems to grasp that. You can’t expect people to change but you can rant about it…Perhaps if anything is redundant it’s this bloody article you just read. Have a nice day.
HANA 