Thanks guys :)

corsair

Thanks guys

Reverend Hedgash

Dear Corsair,

I am an architect in my late thirties and am also very passionate about design. I have taught final year architecture for 6 years (not now though) and am a director of a practice in Melbourne.

With this in mind my advice is biased with the above and I am advising not to just do a drafting course in that it doesn't really teach anything about design, merely the tools to describe that design.

A full architecture course can be insanely long for someone with a family (5 years with a year out typically) and so may not be what you are after although I have had a number of students much older than you that have done the hard yards successfully.

Being a builder you would have a number of exemptions which obviously speed up the process which is good, and you would have a natural understanding of how things go together which puts you about 90% of most students who don't even know which way of a pencil is up, let alone how a nailgun works.

So the trick is what to do?

You could do an arts degree and pick up the design type subjects that you are missing, in particular the history of design so you know what was built when and why, and in what world context both artistically and politically.

Then start to specialise in any area that you have a particular interest in.

Arts courses do not of course specialise in teaching architecture though and you would have to be quite prudent in your selection of classes.

You are from Torquay so I presume Geelong Deakin would be your campus of choice, where you get up and go for an early, go to class and be home to tuck the kids into bed and muck out the stables. In particular you could go for a distance learning package with an arts degree more than an architectural one, and therefore learn while everyone else is in bed or playing on the Xbox..

A second direction you could take is set up with an architect and submit for the number of design and construct tenders that are around. That way you can be involved in the process and learn whilst getting paid for it.

If you would like to discuss this potential with our firm, please Private Message me and we shall discuss the potential of this relationship.

Yours sincerely,

Reverend H+

archiprix

builders can make excellent architects, and then become even better builders too.
you just have to forget some of what you know so you can design things that sometimes can't be built in order to push your mind.
i think a drafting course is a waste of time for a builder.

good luck

sherman

i am a 3D artist for architecture, i hope i can help you to put your design conception into reality, hehe.

MB

sherman wrote:

i am a 3D artist for architecture, i hope i can help you to put your design conception into reality, hehe.

What's "real" about what you do?