I believe my essential question, wondering “what … I, as a future architecture student, [can] take away from this [Senior] Project that will inform me in my future studies,” has, in my opinion, been left both answered and unanswered. I expected to leave my project with a clear takeaway: that I would decide whether architecture and/or design was the right career path for me or not, and that I would choose whether I truly wanted to study it in college. Though I am still uncertain of whether I will study architecture, I can say this for sure: I am more excited about the subject than ever before. Beyond learning the subject alone, I found that I have learned much more about myself than I ever could have imagined. I learned what aspects of physical drafting mattered the most to me: exploring with line weights and different lead pressures, carefully considering each mark I make on my page so that my draft is precise as possible, understanding a space in a different way than I usually would, etc. I learned about my work habits, having had the opportunity to completely work under my own schedule for the first time in my life.

My Senior Project has changed the way I view three-dimensional spaces. For much of my life, I did not think about objects as forms. They were just couches, tables, and chairs. Now, I am able to see objects for more than “what they are,” and view them as forms, in the same way that an abstract, three-dimensional shape is. I now view drafting differently as well. I used to wonder how architects made such perfect right angles, vertical and horizontal lines, circles, and other shapes in their work. Now, with the instruction of my teacher and much trial and error, I better understand how to translate my ideas in clear ways. I used to think the most difficult part of architecture school would be creating clean and neat drafts, but now that I have so much more control over this, I realize that the greater challenges will be working out my ideas. My goal in this project was to understand what an architecture/design studio would be like in preparation for college, and that is exactly what I accomplished.

What I mainly want people to understand from my project is that this class is nothing like what I think architecture courses will be like in college. In college, I will be building  physical shapes, drafting spaces in ways that will allow me to think critically, and creating complex digital models. I accomplished none of these things in my class, and I am happy that way. Instead, I learned how to use the tools in order to create the complex models I will create in the future, measure in a way that will allow me to translate a space, and organize my designs in a way that people will understand. That is what I felt was most necessary to learn before I stepped into my first architecture course in the fall.