As an architect and an educator, I firmly believe in the quote above especially in the field of design. The more you do, the better you understand and you practice, and practice and practice. As a student of Architecture, it was indispensable that we practiced and eventually learnt understood a number of things by doing them repeatedly. One has to learn to be patient with himself/herself, as some people need more time to understand and do things as compared to the others.

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I would like to discuss design exploration, which is an important step of the design process. The academic world and professional world taught me that these explorations were extremely important. A designer should not be stuck with a design idea if it is not serving its purpose or not meeting the requirements of the client or the user. I have often seen students getting stuck with one idea and not able to explore further. What happens in this process, that many unexplored ideas are still stuck somewhere inside their minds and not able to make their way onto the paper or as final design projects? From my experience I have observed, that better ideas and explorations come out with rigorous practice. The principal architect where I worked earlier in US back in 2010 always came out with a number of explorations in design, which paved the way for great designs and also addressed the project requirements in a better manner. What we learnt at the design school was even being practiced at a design office.  I always encourage my students to try different options for the same design problem. Again, this requires practice so that a designer is able to quickly chalk out different options for the same problem. An untrained mind cannot come out with various design options; it actually comes through practice. In Spatial Design Classes, I design assignments and tasks, which can help and encourage students with various explorations. These explorations can be in the form of sketches, physical models, mood boards or in other formats.

During one of the thesis project mentoring back in 2018, one of my mentees, Nisha (name changed) actually went through this process, after I encouraged her to try other design explorations. At the beginning stage, she was able to fit in all the requirements of the design program into the structure; however, the user experience seemed to be missing, which was so much important from the project aspect. The project topic focused on Solo travelers who could come to this experience and information center and get equipped with first-hand information from travelers and trainers on how, could they prepare for solo travelling. Nisha was enthusiastic enough and went through a series of sketches and physical study models for the project. Eventually, a number of interesting ideas came out. We used these ideas to design the final structure and the interior spaces. What started just as a simple structure of bricks and mortar develop into a beautifully designed architectural building with quality interior spaces. The building now seemed to have a life of its own now and was not just a mere skeleton system made of building materials. An average project became an excellent one. If Nisha would have skipped that design process, she would still have been standing there with an average project. Even at the portfolio event, organized at Pearl for the graduating students, she stood there confidently beaming with her project and talked to the guests with enthusiasm and pride. It was definitely an achievement as a faculty seeing my student with an excellent design project.

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Another important factor I have realized over the years is the quality of drawings that need to be produced for a project, suitable for construction purposes. While we are taking feedback from the industry on our alumni’s performance in their offices, the common feedback that comes is on the ‘quality of drawings’. The suggestion is that the students at Pearl need to be more rigorous with their drawing work during the college time. This journey at any design school starts in the initial years when the student is a novice. If one realizes the importance of drawings initially, they will groom into designers who can produce well-detailed drawings suitable for understanding and construction purposes. If one neglect it, it will even get reflected in one’s final year Thesis work and even after graduation.

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I remember working with a student, who was hard working and had a knack for learning. When I was teaching a module called Spatial Context-1 back in 2017, Aarushi (name changed) had just come to Level 1 after completing her Level 0 from the School of Foundation. I noticed that she had good observation skills, understood the importance of research, was explorative and had a knack for learning to make drawings. Towards, the end of the semester, she had produced excellent hand drawn drawings, beyond the expectancy at Level 1. I still remember that during her design project jury, an architect who was an external juror at that time complimented her for good drawings and said “Even some architecture students are not able to produce such good drawings in their initial study years”. The student was beaming with pride and innocently said “Sir you made us an architect”. The course I was teaching at time was called ‘Interior Architecture and Design’ and students were required to learn and absorb many of the basics of Architecture as well. At that time, I found the Aarushis’s comment confusing, although she was trying to thank me, as it was not my intention to turn an Interior Architecture student into an architect, but had all the intentions for the students to learn good drawing skills, which will help immensely as they progressed to higher learning levels. When Aarushi came into Level 2, there was a module on Internship, during which the students seek out internships at architecture and interior design offices. Aarushi had prepared a great portfolio, and her drawing work stood out as compared to the others. Aarushi applied with an Interior Design in Jaipur, which was extremely selective of their interns. Some other students also applied but eventually Aarushi got the internship opportunity. One of the main criteria’s for selection she explained later after the interview was her ability to understand and produce good drawings. It was proud moment for me, as her teacher, as I knew that this skill and attitude would lead her to places. I am extremely glad to say that during her internship jury, she showed work which looked like if it was done by some professional with at least 2-3 years of experience. This was an extremely proud moment for me. I felt all the pains and extra efforts taken to teach the students how to draw was worth it.

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I am still a practicing architect and interior designer, and after being in the industry for fifteen years, understand the industry requirements. As a teacher, I have always felt that one needs to grow professionally also, so the new learnings could be shared with the students. The market is ever changing bombarded with new materials and technologies now and then, however, some of the basic requirements never changes. Some of these requirements as we discussed earlier were the importance of design process and explorations that happen during it, and the ability to draw so one could put his/her ideas on the paper in a tangible format for others to see and understand. As a professional and academician, I especially lay stress on working hard and smart to develop and learn these skills, as they are an indispensable part of a design schooling process and one of the simple ways of learning these is learning by doing. Being disciplined and practicing regularly will improve one’s designing work and hone their skills, as one will have a better understanding and would be able to pass on the learnings to another set of individuals and thus a beautiful chain reaction continues.

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