My two major life-design lessons came from failed architecture studios.
“Take breaks, get out of your own way.” My first architecture-proper studio was taken over the summer term as a six week course. I ran full speed for the full 42 days, and could not finish the model. The professor passed me due to my obvious effort through the studio, but in retrospect, that was exactly why I couldn’t get the job done. I never got distance away from the project. I should have taken days off along the way to let my mind process things in the background. I never gave the unconscious a chance to do its work and I burned myself in the process.
“Sometimes you gotta tell the professor to shove it.” A couple years later, I took a class with a brilliant professor who constantly took my ideas and turned them inside out. It was intellectually challenging and I got absolutely nowhere the whole semester. I was stuck at the early concept stage, rethinking the meaning of what I was trying to do. I finally came up with a good architectural concept for my last, but it was too late to have anything ready for final presentation, which led to the most interesting desk crit in my academic career. I showed her my concept diagram, we agreed I had finally come up with a promising avenue for further exploration, I then pulled out a form to drop out of the studio, which she graciously signed so I wouldn’t get a failing grade. It took a while to process what went wrong, but I eventually realized that I needed to grow a backbone as a designer. The critquer’s job is to critique, and my job is to complete the project. Sometimes they are right, sometimes they are wrong, and sometimes you just have to ignore everything and keep it moving.
Ultimately, these two studios have become the touchstones in my memory of my college days. Partly because these were both from my Berkeley days, so I took and used them for seven semesters at Rice; but also because what you produce in these studios are will eventually fall by the wayside as you progress in the profession. But the hard lessons you dearly earn from failure will not be easily forgotten.