Architecture A levels & Requirements/Aptitude?

[teta]

I’m posting this on behalf of dd2 currently in year 10. And I’m generally looking for advice from anyone with experience or knowledge. She’s expected to do well in her GCSEs and attends a very academic school. Good at Art and Maths and has always been highly creative and interested in design from a very young age. Also very astute and I suspect would be very good in business.
She’s not sure what she wants to do and her school is very much into professional jobs based on Maths and Sciences. I’ve been thinking about Architecture for her but know absolutely nothing about it. Would she be the right sort of person for a career in this?

[goodbyestranger]

Maria none of my DC have chosen to be architects (although some are seriously good artists) but architecture is literally everywhere and we have it in all shapes and sizes even within our own small village which (being so beautiful) has some excellent examples of big house architecture through the centuries, a unique church if churches are your thing, and a gaggle of cottages from the very, very old to the brand new including a small number of post war council houses and four twenty year old affordable houses. I find the development of the village and its housing over the past 1000 years really interesting, architecturally as well as in so many other interwoven ways. But yes of course living literally right on the Jurassic and waking up to it every day is a boon for would be geologists.

[goodbyestranger]

Missed out Coast after Jurassic just then.

[MariaNovella]

Make your portfolio shine, DS said he saw some awful ones on the day which cheered him up considerably.

This.

[goodbyestranger]

We've also got a couple of Grand Designs within walking distance and the most distinctive and well tended Regency seaside town in the country a five mile walk away too. It's everywhere if you look for it, you don't need to be spoon fed in a museum in a large city.

[MariaNovella]

It’s wonderful that you live in such a world class cultural hub, goodbyestranger .

[goodbyestranger]

Cheers Maria. Yes we're very lucky indeed :)

[goodbyestranger]

Although that wasn't my point at all - it was that you don't have to look far anywhere in Europe to find an interesting range of architecture.

Georgraphy is another subject sometimes allied at our school with Art and Maths/ Physics.

[MariaNovella]

There is fantastic architecture all over Europe indeed, if you have the financial means to travel to see it and the cultural capital to explore it. There are also, all over Europe, cultural wastelands with mere buildings and no architecture in sight.

[SofiaAmes]

I am an architect. You don't need physics. Or even to be particularly good at maths. The engineers do all that stuff. And these days you don't need to be able to draw or have good handwriting as it's all done on computer. You do need to be organized, detail oriented, good with people and have a lot of common sense. I highly recommend some business knowledge too and an understanding of budgets and time management. It's not a lucrative career and not at all parent friendly. However, having said that, I found/created a niche area for myself that allows me to work part time and have flexible hours. I made sure I was very knowledgeable about construction and permitting and codes (which frequently architects are not), so I can just do the bits that I like and work them around my dc's needs (ds was very very sick for many years so this was absolutely necessary). I won't have the publicly recognized career that I once imagined because that involves working 80 hour weeks, but I am managing to have a sustainable career.
The profession is somewhat translatable from one country to the next (I am American, but worked in the UK for some years), but the certifications/licensing are not at all (as a result, I never bothered to get licensed).

[goodbyestranger]

Imagination and inquisitiveness suffices Maria, although they sound less grand than cultural capital. In the UK you need remarkably little money to travel a few miles from your own home which is probably all that's required to see a range of architecture - including 'mere buildings'. Some one has to live in or work in those 'mere buildings' after all. You have a pronounced tendency to make everything sound very, very hard work when it isn't. If you strip things down you'll find opportunities everywhere.

[MariaNovella]

And I think you have a pronounced tendency to gloss over reality and make everything sound fair, equal and easy, with only talent and brains the differentiator between children’s access to education.

[goodbyestranger]

Sofia I'm not in any way qualified to say what's needed on the mathematical front. I only chipped in to say that Art and Maths/ Physics are what students at our school have been going forward with for years - whether they need those subjects I've no idea, but they seem to be taken as standard.

[MariaNovella]

SofiaAmes - a relative of ours, an architect in California, was here only recently and we were discussing training and career paths. My relative is quite old (70) and has had his own practice for decades. He says he needs a different skill set in his practice to the one he needed in the past and that more quantitative and more scientific (ecological) knowledge were going to be essential.

Hand drawing is also coming back into fashion.

[LordProfFekkoThePenguinPhD]

Thank god about the hand drawing - I see the tech used now by architects and engineers and my brain boggles when I remember watching dad sharpening his pencils and doing his calculations without even a calculator!

[BubblesBuddy]

I think, goodbyestranger, that your school, as a super selective grammar, has DC that are aiming for Bath and Bartlett. They are no doubt DC who have a wide range of tskfnys as your DC have. There are other universities such as Lincoln and Northumbria that will be less choosy.

As sendsummer says above, many very good Architectural degrees don’t ask for Physics. I know that has been a surprising discovery, but it’s true. I think it’s perfectly reasonable to do Physics if you can but DC should not be put off if they find it’s not a strength. Sofia is absolutely correct. In this country Architects are happy to leave the engineering to others simply because we have very precise requirements about safety and we are a highly regulated country regarding building design.

[BubblesBuddy]

wide range of skills!

[justasking111]

They're keen on hand drawing now both art and DT teachers emphasised sketching everything carry a small sketch book and scribble lines shapes they don't have to be completed just get used to doing it. DS had trouble at first with that concept.

[MariaNovella]

Surely, Bubbles, you think it is wise to look at the future direction of travel for particular professions rather than to past truths?

My grandfather and my father both read Classics at Cambridge and both of them ended their careers as senior civil servants. No one in their right mind ought to think that Classics is an appropriate preparation for running large administrations these days...

[justasking111]

No one has mentioned computers they're essential now. Check out Revit

[SofiaAmes]

Hand drawing can be a handy skill, but by no means necessary. Everything is modeled in 3d with Revit these days. Yes, you might need to sketch something out in the field, but being "artistic" will not really be terribly useful for that.

[SofiaAmes]

P.S. Just because art and DT teachers emphasize something, doesn't mean that it's useful or necessary in real life.

[MariaNovella]

Sofia - students are selected to undergraduate architecture degrees on the basis of handdrawing skills

[tisonlymeagain]

Was just about to say that @justasking111 I worked in construction and architecture for a long time and skills like being able to use Revit to a high standard are crucial as well as having a massive understanding of BIM. Everything is about digital construction and innovative technologies. It's not just the technologists that need to know that and it's not all about pretty hand drawing.

[justasking111]

SofiaAmes P.S. Just because art and DT teachers emphasize something, doesn't mean that it's useful or necessary in real life

Well he has been working in an architectural practice for a year weekends and holidays. They concurred with the teachers. He received unconditional offers on the basis of his portfolio.

I should add his school offer CAD which is a city and guilds qualification although it is a vocational qualification it has helped so much in his understanding of design.

[justasking111]

It is hard to get a job, you have to think do you want to be a small cog in a big organisation, join a small practice or push out and start your own practice (after a few years of learning with others. Also think of going abroad, you pick up skills and work practices which stand you in good stead when and if you decide to return.