This July I graduated from Part 1 in Architecture and I am
well aware that times are tough, see (Tough Times for Architecture Students).
Even with a decent mark from a respected architecture school I have had little
luck with getting responses from the many CVs I have sent out let along
interviews.
To combat the architectural stalemate I have found myself in
I joined ArchiGRAD. ArchiGRAD is a scheme run by the two universities in
Newcastle, Northern Architecture and plus three architects.
Everyone who is part of the scheme is an underemployed
architecture student at some level. ArchiGRAD uses this pool of unutilised
architectural knowledge to run various projects in the local area. As part of
the ArchiGRAD rules they do not take paid projects which would take work from
regular practices. They also don’t charge fees and none of the GRADs get paid
for their work, so have to hold down part-time jobs as well.
The projects taken on tend to be for parts of the community
that area in need of help. I am currently involved in a project to design a
sensory garden at a residential home for people with learning difficulties.
Another project coming up is working with children in a disadvantaged area of
Newcastle to engage them with thinking about the community.
I’ve been part of ArchiGRAD for about a month and a half now
and it’s allowed me a whole range of experiences I would otherwise not have
had. I’ve taken part in meetings, been on site visits to carry out surveys,
held meetings with clients to understand what they want. It’s given me a real
world experience I wouldn’t be getting with my lack of employment in a practice
and certainly didn’t get from studying architecture at university, what’s more
someone else is benefiting from my architectural input which they otherwise
would have access to.
ArchiGRAD helps us build our portfolios with projects which
are based in the real world, not the hypothetical world all the university
projects work with. One GRAD recently has an interview for a placement, which
she got, and the interviewer showed little interest in her uni work once seeing
as ArchiGRAD work as it showed she knew how things worked in the real world.
With practices being so impressed by our real world experience
and disregarding of uni work, it raises the question as the why universities
don’t follow the ArchiGRAD lead. There are plenty of deserving and willing
clients out there, at ArchiGRAD we’re working at almost full capacity. A year
group of almost 80 students when split into groups could realise around 14
projects in a term based on ArchiGRAD productivity levels. They could even devote
more time than most GRADs as they won’t have to maintain a part-time job in
order to survive. With all three years of Part 1 involved that’s nearly 42
needy projects which could be completed in just one term.
It’s also 240 architecture students who have gained skills
from live projects which they would have otherwise never gained, giving them
much more value in the competitive market for graduate architectural students.
So if you a motivated architecture tutor with hopes to
change lives and make an impact on your students’ education, give a live voluntary
project a go. And if you’re an architecture student worried about find a job
once you graduate, hassle your nearest tutor into giving it a go. And if you’re
neither of the above, thank you for reading anyway.
As for me, the search for a placement continues whilst I serve
coffees and think up sensory garden design simultaneously…
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