Early 2010, I had commenced my first year of the Advanced Diploma of Building Design (Architectural) at RMIT University. I walked into my first class bright and shiny, full of self-worth and completely naive of what was to come. My first teacher walked in, with a carnivorous smile he asked "so, who actually believes they're going to go into Architecture after this?" Me, being the ever-so cautious one kept my arm firmly by my side and watched as 99% of the classes hand dart upwards. He began to laugh as if it was the funniest thing he had ever heard. I was fully aware of what the Architecture world was like, much like the Art world, full of pretentious snobs that prefer to converse and discuss the theory of design than actually design anything that was able to be built. A long time ago I had decided that I did not want to be apart of this "refined" world, my place was in back drop, drafting and managing these "innovative designs". I had come to think of Architects as little kids with over-sized crayons doodling pictures and builders being the grumpy parents telling them "NO! It cannot be done!". As my first year progressed, I grew more respect for my teacher, after-all he was a expert in the industry and he seemed very enthusiastic to teach us the theory of design, hoping to inspire the inner artist. But slowly, slowly as the first semester came to an end a dramatic decrease of students occurred, the workload proved to be too much for some and I thought back to the first time I met my teacher and I understood the reason for his unsettling smile.
My 2nd Year in this course proved to do more harm than good as a serious lack of direction from teachers dramatically effected my academic record and self-confidence. I had a DUO of incompetent teachers; one that was highly moody, self involved and definitely part of the snobbery of the Architecture world, the other a prejudist old fool that was a borderline bully and infamous for a bad teaching record but somehow has managed to dodge a bullet year after year. The mere thought of 2011 makes my blood boil as it reminds me of the total disregard many teachers have towards their students, an overally blazae attitude that can only be explained by a lack of interest, communication and a whole lot of complacency. However, in the end I had myself to blame because I allowed my work to suffer which resulted in a huge blow in confidence when approaching design. All in all the year was not a complete waste of time as my drafting skills earned me distinctions and the belief in myself wasn't totally annihilated.
The last 6 months of this course have been a complete blur, learning revit whilst simultaneously trying to design a project, that's both aesthetically pleasing and structurally sound has proven challenging to say the least. Again, teachers lacked communication with their students but mostly with each other. There was definetly evidence of an ego struggle between the two buddying architects. But as frustrating as this was, I believe each of them truly tried to assist as much as possible with every student. And for that these two teachers have my respect.
This course is a good stepping stone for people who need hands on training in this industry, however, it's not an excellent course as I feel some teachers need to be shown the door. RMIT needs to get organized and instead of knuckling down on its students should inspect its employed teaching staff. Often you find yourself in the dark, questioning whether or not to continue but in the end you can only do the best you can.
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