How to get the best out of the studio (studio culture)

The studio is a place where imaginations and ideas come to reality, it is a place where ideas are born, where creativity finds its place, it is the sanctuary of the architecture student. To get the most out of it, one must relate with his/her colleagues. The one thing you share in common, which is the most important thing is design. Although, one’s measure of creativity varies by far or less with the other, the main aim is to learn, to learn to share, to experience, to interact, to get comfortable and engage in each and every studio activity.

I remember when I was in school, at the studio there were so many different personalities. Everyone had different taste in almost everything, and design was not an exception. At the beginning, being in the studio was almost boring, but then we began to understand each other, bit by bit, we interacted, we understood our differences, we began to learn from each other, and eventually we became friends with each other. Everything else turned out to be fun. We helped each other, not with our designs only, but with ideas as some of us had better experience at so many things than the others but we learnt the most out of anything together.

The point here is don’t refuse to interact with your colleagues. Don’t isolate yourself from your colleagues, because you’ll miss out on so many things. Here are some tips to get the most out of your studio:

1. Never fail to learn, engage, and interact.
2. Learn to plan: make a studio timetable, know the hours to spend at the studio, know when to take a break and let off some steam, know when to continue and when to stop, but never quit.
3. Learn to make good research, and case study of your design, talk about your ideas with our lecturers.
4. Do not refuse to improvise, always.
5. Always have in mind that the design isn’t just about the drawing, it’s important to always learn about the philosophy of the design first, then the process to develop your own idea from it, then the ability to put it down perfectly.
6. Never refuse to heed to meaningful corrections.
7. Whenever you think about an idea, put it down on paper.
8. Take your design seriously, and always make time for it, it should be on your top priority list.
9. Learn to make neat and presentable sketches, especially of new ideas, or imaginations.
10. Always go for consultations and make the corrections.
11. Learn to make a good presentation of your design.
12. Take good care of your drawing tools/instruments, and do not misuse them.
13. Lastly, have fun!

These are some few tips (from experience), to make the best out of your studio, and bring out the best in you. Be part of the studio, for it is your home too, it’ll help build and shape your initiative. As they always say, “failing to plan, is planning to fail”. I hope you find this helpful and learn from it.

Stay tuned for more posts like this from Quif Studio. Thanks.