sukhpreet swahney asked:


 

An architect is someone, who gives shape to the dreams of people. To become an architect, one does not only require a clear vision of thoughts but also a natural talent of being able to visualize.

 

First and foremost, to become an architect you must have cleared your ten-plus two with physics, chemistry, mechanical / engineering drawing and mathematics with a minimum of 60 percent marks.

 

After that, start preparing yourself for the entrance exam. Entrance to an architecture course is through national and state level entrance examinations.

 

A national level entrance exam is conducted by the Council of Architecture for entry to undergraduate programmes in government and private institutes

 

Tamil Nadu holds separate entrance exams at engineering and architecture colleges

 

Private Architecture Iinstitutes in India conduct their own entrance exams

 

One can appear for entrance in architecture programmes at the India Institutes of Technology through the Joint Entrance Exams (JEE) held in May every year

 

You have to also appear for an aptitude test. This test is conducted to assess your ability in the following areas:

 

    * Visual and Spatial Perception

    * Colour Concepts

    * Freehand Drawing

    * Aesthetic Aptitude

 

What are the skills required to become an architect?

 

    1. Good judgment and that power to analyze which is mainly seen in business people, artists and scientists are essential for an architect.

    2. Good academic skills and background.

    3. Analytical approach to look at things.

    4. Observing vision.

    5. Attitude to appreciate social and environmental factors.

    6. Intense knowledge about the history of architecture.

    7. Basic knowledge of well-known architects and their styles of working.

    8. Keen interest to be a part of political, religious and historical events.

    9. Good imagination and dynamism.

    10. Responsible and disciplined approach to things.

    11. Ability to work in a team.

    12. Well-versed with legal language related to the profession.

    13. Healthy body and physical stamina, which will be needed in the sites.

    14. Good communication skills and the ability to build up a convincing image of the project.

 

One the whole, a successful architect must be talented, practical, interpersonal and organizational skills

 

Colleges to study architecture:

 

Sir JJ College of Architecture

78/3 Dr D N Road

Fort

Mumbai — 400 001

 

College of Architecture

S No 341

Opposite Kherwadi

Bandra East

Mumbai — 400 051

 

Rizvi College of Architecture

Rizvi Educational Complex

Off Carter Road

Bandra West

Mumbai — 400 050

 

Indian Education Society’s College of Architecture

791, Bandra Reclamation

Bandra West

Mumbai — 400 050

 

National Institute of Construction Management and Research

Trust Office

Walchand Centre

Tardeo Road

Mumbai — 400 034

 

Marathwada Mitra Mandal’s College of Architecture

302A Deccan Gymkhana

Pune — 411 011

 

Specialisation:

 

Some architects opt for specialisation at the post-graduate level. One can choose from an array of option available like urban designing, regional planning, building engineering and management, architectural conservation, industrial design, landscape architecture, naval architecture, architecture concerning traffic and transport planning, etc.

 

There are architects who also work in construction housing societies and apartments, schools, hospitals, commercial complexes, etc

 

Where all you can work:

 

i. Government organizations: In this case, pay scales are as per the rules set by the government. An architect in such an organization gets fixed salary and it is not as lucrative as the private sector. However, as we all know that there is job security in government jobs and also enjoys the advantage of perquisites like pension after retirement.

 

ii. Private architectural firm: The starting salary (stipend) in such a firm is around Rs 3,500 that increases to Rs 8,000 with a few years’ experience.

 

Third is the category of consultants. They charge anything between 4 and 10 percent of the total cost of construction for apartments and multi-storied buildings. For independent houses and bungalows, they charge 15 to 20 percent of the total cost of construction.

 

To choose architecture as a career is definitely an interesting option. A career like this not only gives a vent to your creative abilities but also the visibility it deserves. Such a work, is seen and appreciated and if you build something extraordinary, it gets known to the world. So, get set and start preparing for your dream career now.

 



Alvin

golfking100 asked:


I really love architecture but I don’t think I have it in me to be an architect. When it comes down to it I don’t think I have the patience and sensitivity to sit and design. BUT I do have high appriciation for design and I have a strong memory for design (as in the actual aptitude based on aptitude research). Anyways. I know I want to be in the industry in some way but I don’t know what other jobs are avaliable in architecture that will pay pretty well. Obviously there is drafting but that doesn’t pay that great as I understand. Could be wrong there. What jobs are out there and how do you enter the industry.

Julie

Amy Thomas asked:


Very few of us actually get to live out our dream careers.

In metropolitan areas where style meets form and function in the world of architecture, Level 3 Architects earn-on average-more than $60,000 a year! Making a living that nearly doubles that of most Americans… for doing something you love? Why not?!

If becoming an architect is your passion, here are a few tips to get you on the way to becoming the professional you want to be:

Do your research. Learn everything you can about various careers in architecture to narrow your focus and see where you fit in. You can learn more by writing to the Director of Careers in Architecture Programs at The American Institute of Architects, 1735 New York Ave. NW, Washington, DC, 20006.

Practice. Set up a professional drafting table at your home and spend time using it. In case you’re not pulling that 60K a year yet, we found a top of the line, adjustable drafting table for only $499 at versatables.com. You can choose the color to match your existing décor, and the company ships for free (unlike most that will charge well over $100 for shipping), making that table an even better deal.

Read up. Invest in getting a few subscriptions to good architectural trade magazines like: Architect, Architectural Record, and Architectural Digest. You’ll be inspired every month when you open the mailbox and see the current issue. And you’ll stay on top of what’s happening in the industry.

Take Classes. There are 105 schools accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board (NAAB). Enroll at one of them. Don’t turn your nose up at the idea of taking supplemental classes at a local community college though. These classes can give you the practice you need under a guided expert, without putting you in a financial slump.

Save Money. You’ll need to work as an intern-architect for very little money for almost three years before taking your ARE (the exam you need to be a licensed architect-the real deal), so get on a budget that will allow you to do this and still maintain a standard of living that doesn’t include eating Ramen noodles and boxed rice every night for dinner.

There’s nothing keeping you from achieving everything you want for yourself. But be smart about it. Anything worth getting takes time, discipline, and dedication. But someday, when you look out the window of a building you designed, my guess is that it will all be worth it.



Ida

Asking For My Son: asked:


Which foreign language should my son take to prepare him to be a successful architect? He’s registering for his freshman courses in high school now. He needs to choose a language. His options are: Spanish, French, German, or Latin. He will be taking 3 years of whichever one he chooses.

Tracy

Lisa B asked:


We are considering doing a home addition & need the services of an architect or someone who can help us formulate our ideas. How do I find them? Is there an agency or society that residential architects belong to?

Caroline

Gen Wright asked:


Many years ago, when 3D technology was not readily available, architects, developers and real estate agents often encountered difficulty communicating their proyects and ideas. They relied on 2D drawings and images, largely ineffective and prone to cause misunderstandings. As a result, a lot of time is wasted in unnecessary communications to clear up such misunderstandings. But why is a 2D representation not an effective communication tool?

The problem with a 2D drawing is that it’s not a very good visual aid. In other words, it doesn’t really help the viewer in a way that closes the gap between visualization and reality. What one sees on a 2D image, and the concept that forms in the individual’s mind, can be very different from another viewer. So a lot of time and patience is required to clarify the concepts.

The marketing process usually works like this: The real estate agent first speaks to a potential buyer, and the buyer communicates his or her needs and wants to the agent. Assuming that the agent gets it right the first time round (which is unlikely), the agent then communicates those needs and wants to the architect. Even at this early stage, it can get rather confusing. Therefore, it is common for buyers to speak directly to architects to prevent miscommunication.

The architect then draws up some plans and proposes the plans to the buyer. The goal is to ultimately find a balance between what is needed, what is required, and the budget available. The proposed plans may require several rounds of modifications before anything can be confirmed.

As you can see, the above process can take month. It makes things worse if the architect and the buyer are living in different countries. That will make communications even more difficult. Fortunately, with the evolution of technology, 3D representations of the property can now be presented in digital format. When you have a 3D representation, everyone can be on the same page. There is no need for mental visualizations. Everything has taken form in the virtual world. 3D representations, as visual aids, are the most effective tool because the are the most accurate representations of reality. No other visual aid can achieve the same results.

Therefore, architects, real estate agents and developers often find 3D visualization software an indispensable marketing tool. It helps them shorten the selling and development cycle. If the buyer rejects a proposal or asks for some changes, a new proposal can be revised or created from scratch in a very short amount of time. With 3D visualization software, architects can now create image galleries of each and every room – the living room, thestudy room, master bedroom, etc. The buyer will also be able to review the 3D plans and if the images look appealing enough, the buyer may just sign on the dotted line.



Travis

Max J. Pucher asked:


While I am not a typical Enterprise Architect as I am responsible for our products at ISIS Papyrus Software, I face the same problems as someone being in charge of Enterprise IT. I am in fact linked to EA architects problems with our solutions. Let me point out a few things that I see as problematic with current EA thinking and analyst stance related to the subjects in your email. These are essential architectural issues that are not enough covered and therefore I will also cover them in my upcoming book.

• Re: Effective planning to optimize shrinking IT budgets

Lets face it, IT projects have neither become simpler nor more successful. Rather the opposite. More than half of IT budgets are maintenance cost. More than half of projects still get canceled. More than half of project budget is manpower. And more than half of software cost is ‘cost of sales’ at the vendor. That leaves around five percent of IT budgets actually going into software development at vendors. With current technology being sold in current market conditions that is hard to change. No amount of EA planning will improve that situation. There is a huge amount of money going up in smoke. Why is anyone surprised? Things have to become way simpler!

• Re: Agility with SOA and BPM (Arrrrggh!)

Very soon this will make me want to scream. The reason business process management (BPM) implementations and service-oriented architecture (SOA) are white hot is that there is huge amount of money spent on marketing! Neither BPM nor SOA make a business more agile. SOA makes IT just a lot more complex (and thus rigid) and BPM is about long and expensive process analysis that is dated the day it is finished and outdated once implemented. Large scale BPM deployment is a failure where ever you look because no one has a handle on metadata, versioned deployment, and process interdependencies. The huge effort of putting SOA in could only make sense with large scale BPM and therefore these two are doomed together. The reason that everything is being outsourced is the immense cost of complexity. Obviously SOA life-cycle management is important, just like life-cycle management of eveything else. It makes however no sense to manage SOA and not manage BPM as an integrated element of the overall application. In all cases that I have seen putting in SOA and BPm meant substantial Java coding, that again is managed some place else. Forget agility …

• Re: The bottom line depends on new capabilities.

I could not agree more! IT is stuck in mud, soggy with programmer’s tears. True innovation is the name of the game. Not product buying and renaming as most vendors do. We at ISiS Papyrus do actually deliver game-changing technology. Do enterprise architects care much? Most of them are in CYA mode and if at all they take some vendor from the ‘Magic Quadrant’ that is chosen from past market share analysis … not really the new stuff. Please, don’t use Microsoft and innovation in the same sentence. They have long forgotten how to be innovative. They only know how to spend marketing billions.

How do we address thise issues at ISIS. What is so innovative about our Papyrus Platform?

Papyrus WebRepository promotes ‘Experience Sharing’ in the enterprise rather than rigid planning, and combined with the consolidated BPM, CRM and ECM capabilites in its own transaction and OR-DB engine it is a unique, innovative solution. We are only a medium size, privately held company, but have around 200 implementations in major organizations worldwide since its availability in 2001. The largest are 3000+ workflow users.

The ISIS Papyrus WebRepository has full life-cycle (DEV-TEST-PROD) project management with alerts and reports. It (project) manages all aspects (analysis, design and implementation) of the business process as well as the service registry, regardless of its implementation … SOA or not. While we can easily manage UDDI and WSDL files and their parameters and use in projects, but we get chosen in most cases because SOA is not mandatory. I yet have to see a company that has a readily available SOA interface that we can simply latch onto. A change in (SOA) interface metadata is propagated automatically to all processes and process elements, such as rules, user interfaces and created content! The user interface for the BPM implementation is much more powerful and extensive than Adobe Flex and runs in either Flash or the Papyrus Desktop with the same definition. The integrated UML capabilities of the WebRepository give it enough power for enterprise architecture planning. No Java, no .NET, no SOA, just process oriented applications that are simple and manageable!



Carla

sumeetha Gowda asked:


There are also individuals who are specialized only in residential design. Most often, these designers have less post-high school education, but can design home plans without working under a registered architect. A national organization called the American Institute of Building Design, or AIBD, offers certification in residential design, and by passing a set of comprehensive tests, a person can become certified in residential design. A residential home plan designer can also do small commercial design, but they are restricted on commercial designs by square footages requirements.

So which one do you choose to design your house plan? Well, that’s a tough one, but there are a few questions I’ve come up with that you can ask your potential home plan designer that might give you a better direction when choosing:

1. How long have you been designing homes? Make sure your home plan designer has ample experience designing unique house plans, especially in the style and size that you are planning to build.

2. How many residential house plans do you design each year? Make sure your home plan designer creates more than four or five house plans a year.

3. Can I see samples and photos of your house plan designs? Ask to see photos of home plans they’ve designed for others, and don’t just settle for one or two. Someone who specializes in house plan design will have plenty of samples for you to take a look at.

4. How do you charge for your house plan designs? Do they charge a percentage of the final building cost? Hourly? On a fixed fee? Make sure you are comfortable with the entire fee structure before you begin the design process so there will be no surprises at the end of the project.

In the end, your goal should be to find a house plan designer that you are compatible with in personality, budget and experience. You are building your dream home, and choosing the best home plan designer for the job is the first step in that process.



Vernon

Gman asked:


Project scopet to include: Architectural, Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing Permit Drawings. I am supplying the architect a sample floorplan and some ideas about what I would like in the design.

Beatrice