Miranda CHAN
2018 Higher Diploma in Architectural Studies, HKU SPACE Community College
My school life in HKU SPACE CC was fruitful yet challenging. Here are the five key elements that summarize the 2 years of Archi-life.
First, team work is quintessential to every aspect of my learning experience, from learning to cooperate and communicate, to achieving a goal that could not otherwise be achieved, to sharing ideas and learning from each other. This makes you and the team/ classmate grow together.
Second, active learning is part of architecture. While an engineer knows everything about something, an architect ought to know something about everything. This is very different from secondary school life, where instead of being told what you must do, you must decide on your scope of study and decide on your design direction where there is no right and wrong. For example, in one of the projects we participated - Together We Build, we were given an objective to design a furniture for an elderly center. To build something, you must understand a lot of different aspects, including the end user, the site and the surrounding environment. You must also decide how to conduct your own survey. You need to constantly put yourself into the end users’ shoes to build a good design that suit their lifestyle.
Third, a “can-do” mentality is crucial to an architectural student. You should never give up before you try, because then you would never know what you are capable of. One of the projects we built was a 1-to-1 scale model, and we chose an aquaponics system, which turned out to be incredibly complex, extremely difficult. But more importantly, doable.
Which brings me to the fourth point. Passion is what helps you through the day, gives you the “can-do” mentality, and helps you knock down obstacles one by one. Architectural students are those who keep improving the design within the time given—although there will be obstacles. Having passion is what drives one to overcome them, making us stronger and more persistent, and helping us overcome our failures.
Fifth, I’m also glad to have such a great team of tutors and mentors here. They are very experienced in their fields, some are even still working in the field and therefore are knowledgeable with up-to-date practical suggestions, know-how and advice. They are all willing to and patient to share their thoughts and experiences, which has sped up my learning curve.
Architectural study is really fun, because it is not just about schooling; it is a mindset, a way of thinking and a key for us to open up our curiosity to everyday life.
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