Being
an architect depends on balancing a few unique personality traits and
aptitudes. For starters, you’ll have to simultaneously have your feet
firmly on the ground and bring a bit of imagination to the projects
that you wind up working on with your colleagues.
While
architects should always be clued into their surroundings, they also
need to see their surroundings in the context of potential future
developments. If you’re serious about becoming an architect, you
might see a future housing development or public park instead of a
drab tract of land. Imagination is important.
Blending
passion and imagination with creativity and logical thinking will
serve you well throughout your training and career as an architect.
People skills are also helpful since you’ll be working with clients
who have a particular vision for a project. Learning how to blend
your creative skills and passion with that collaborative vision will
be extremely beneficial throughout your career as an architect.
An
architect isn’t someone who lets his or her passions control their
every move, though. You’ll have to be disciplined and dedicated
enough not to be blown off course with the slightest setback.
Remember that architecture depends on working with others from the
brainstorming and planning phases to project development and project
management. Patience, then, is also important.
Your remaining
conscientious and planning for contingencies throughout all of the
projects that you’ll be involved in can help you sidestep problems
and have a backup plan at the ready should any adversity arise —
adopting a lifestyle of planning for the inevitable and coupling that
contingency planning with an optimistic, can-do attitude is a
wonderful blend for a future architect.
You might well get an
interview over another applicant to an architecture program or a
contract over a competitor thanks to your ability to plan. Imagine
this – a client is taking bids, and you’re evenly matched across the
board with two other bidders. You’ll likely win if you’re much more
organized because the client can see that you’ve done your homework
and know what to do in the event of a setback. Going through a guide
on how to use SketchUp now can enable you to right the ship
later.
Up to this point, you might well have thought that an
architect moves from point A to point B without having more than one
job in the air at one time. The truth is that architects frequently
have more than one job going at once. What’s more, you might find
that you’re at the beginning phases of one architectural assignment
as another is wrapping up, and yet another is facing adversity.
You’ll do your best as a future architect by being able to
multitask without getting too stressed and bringing knowledge in a
number of disciplines (e.g., history, human psychology, and local
geography) to bear. That said, planning and creative thinking will
always be in-demand skills as you move up the ranks and fulfill your
dreams as an architect.
