I did some career workshops this morning at CNM for a very interesting group of young women who were participating in the “Expanding Your Horizons” conference put on by the New Mexico Network of Women in Science and Engineering. I was there along with three of the women at our office to talk to them about architecture and engineering and to let them know why architecture is the best job in the world (because it is).
It was a lot of fun and we had the opportunity to talk to the girls about what they felt the classroom of the future might look like and the kinds of things it might have in it to help them learn. I have had the opportunity in our office to work on the NexGen Academy, I have posted some of the construction photos here and will continue to post more in the future, and this is a school of the future. NexGen is a new way of learning, they are using a different model of education that has not been done in Albuquerque before and it is exciting to be a part of the design team that is doing some new.
I think that one of the things that may to some extent turn people away from architecture as a career is their fear that they have to know how to draw, you do not need to know how to draw. It is a good skill to have because it is a good way to express ideas and thoughts to others but it is a skill that you can learn, it can be developed and you just need to not be afraid to try, just do it. I always recommend to keep a sketch book and use it, it doesn’t matter what you are drawing just draw and draw and draw and then when you think you have drawn enough DRAW SOME MORE!
When I was in school, undergrad, we went to New York for one of my studios during spring break, we spent a week there and it was the first time I had ever been to New York. I knew that I would be doing a lot of sketching and photographing while I was there but on the way out there I decided I was going to draw people, until then I had always avoided putting people in my sketches, so almost every sketch I made this trip I drew scenes with people in them. I drew my classmates standing on the corner waiting for walk signals, I drew them sitting around fountains or on steps into museums or in the museum galleries, anywhere and everywhere there were people and I wanted to draw them so I did. My drawings of people may not be portraits, in fact you will probably not recognize anyone in them, that is not what I was after (maybe in the future) but you can tell they are people and they really do add to a scene in a sketch.
These are a couple of sketches we used in our presentation today and I wanted to share them here because I really do like the way each of them came out and what they helped to teach me.
The one at the fair was done while I waited for my nephew and my sisters who were on some of the rides at the time, I was sitting with my dad at a table just watching all the people when I took out my sketchbook (it is always with me) and did some quick sketches. The other one is something I did at home while watching TV, my mind was a little busy thinking of what I wanted for a house and it is just some quick sketches I made to jot down some ideas so I would not forget them.
