PART 1 OF THE TIPS AND HACKS SERIES
Architecture is one of the most daunting professions of the century and is definitely a rollercoaster of a ride. These tricks and hacks will hopefully make your journey less bumpy or maybe even give you a head start towards your future. Lets get it! (PS. Years of learning things the hard way taught me these, hopefully they help you avoid the same mistakes I did)
1. HANDY WEBSITES
Are you late for a submission? Don't have time to complete your essay or summarize your syllabus, well here are two websites that will help you have your cake and eat it too!
https://www.summarizethis.com/ - This website enables you to capture the essence of what you are studying by simply copy pasting the content which is then summarized into a crisp and precise paragraph. There, now you have enough time to study and work on that design review.
https://www.essaybot.com/ - Essaybot basically writes a whole assignment for you in minutes, all you have to do is pick a topic and you get paragraphs of non plagiarized content that you can choose from for your essay.
2. RENDERING SOFTWARES
Model rendering is an art by itself but you can end up wasting too much time on your model if not planned out properly. Here are some combinations of softwares that I used according to the need of the project and the availability of time:
SKETCHUP + TWINMOTION/LUMION - If you are looking for a model render that conveys the essence of your project and captures the exterior details encompassing it, this combination works best. You can expect moderately realistic renders and save a lot of time in landscaping and other aesthetic factors involved in the project.
SKETCHUP + VRAY- This combo works efficiently if you are looking to render interior projects and emphasize the visual compositions in it, VRay when done patiently can produce extremely detailed output. VRay has modifiable texture options that you can manipulate to your preferred degree.
3DS MAX + VRAY - If your project as such revolves around the render or the model, this would be your go to option, this combination is flexible and allows you to handle your model with ease and also show off the intricacy. Mastering this combination is like taking the bull by its horns, but once done you can rest assured. You will be able to produce THE most realistic renders possible.
PS. These may vary according to what you need for the presentation and also how much time is available, obviously we expect realistic output from any render but the extent of it varies.
3. PRESENTATION OF FLOOR PLANS
Any render or presentation done on a floor plan takes away the emphasis of the design's technicalities and directs it towards creative and artful elements. For floor plans, minimal or no aesthetic elements is the better way of presenting, it fulfills the purpose of the drawing.
So if your motive is to describe the building or project, then it is always better to stick to the raw CAD drawing as such, but this drawing must be detailed in nature for it to be able to convey the core concept easily to the viewer.
An alternative to rendering your plans would be to do an additional sectional model in Revit that give you a projected isometric version, this helps the person viewing your presentation understand the plan in a better way.
4. ALWAYS START OFF MANUALLY
As architecture students, we begin our course by doing manual projects for the first few years and jump into softwares eventually. The thing about softwares is that they tend to limit your creativity and make you lazy. Machines make our lives easier, so once you get into digitizing your works, you will realize that the number of iterations of the design you come up with are fewer.
We tend to get into the intricacies of a few designs in detail rather than experimenting on the design and concepts, the best way to go about is to start of with hand sketches or manual models and then take the help of softwares for better presentation or understanding. Fix your design manually and represent your design digitally.
5. DESIGN CONCEPTS
One of the most challenging aspects of design is to "come up with" a concept, as a student it is a very vague narrative that can be interpreted in different ways. This is one method that helped me derive design concepts easily and understand the core of the brief.
Firstly, a concept is not something that you come up with but rather something that already exists under the context of the project. You just need to identify it, and to do so the most critical thing is to narrow down on the PROBLEM. By problem, I mean the various conditions, pros and cons and factors that you will encounter during the planning.
Site context and related factors - topography, access, landscape and circulation
Client requests and demands - specific socio - cultural attributes
Typology of intended structure - physicality of the structure
Narrative and outcome - what are you trying to convey through the building
This order of thought helps you identify a distinct feature that subtly exists within the brief and pronounce a clear concept. When you start a project, you cannot declare that your concept is going to be sustainability, rather you have to derive it by analyzing these steps.
Sustainability as a derived concept will work uniquely to only that building and cannot be adapted to any other. Although you may broadly classify concepts, each building tells many tales that can be envisioned only through analysis of the site, surrounding, clientele and additional narrative.
Given below are a few pages that I found worth indulging on Instagram
relating to architecture that you can refer too as well -
DESIGNMORPHINE
DESIGNWANTED
ARQSKETCH
IMPACT COMPETITIONS
KARWAAN
Check out our latest post at https://quirkyaverage.wixsite.com/website/post/parasitic-architecture-and-why-india-needs-it and stay tuned for more relatable tricks and hacks
I really enjoyed reading your blog post about tips and hacks for architecture students. It's great that you're sharing your knowledge and experiences to help others in the field. I found your suggestions for handy websites such as takemyteaspro and domyonlineclasspro and rendering software particularly interesting.