ARCHITECTURE CRITS |2| 7 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR CRIT SUCCESS
This post is the second in our series on Architecture Critiques & Reviews.
You can explore the rest of the series here.
While there's an element of luck* involved in the architecture crit scenario, I truly believe that having a productive, formative, and inspiring crit, like many things in life, is all in the preparation.
But what's the point of preparation? What are you preparing for? Before you start, you need to be clear about your own aims, goals and dreams, and understand how this one event - the crit - fits into them. Because at the end of the day, the crit is about you, your learning, and developing your skills. When you understand this, you'll quickly realise that the point of preparing for a crit isn't so the critics will be happier with your work, or so you can get a better grade. It's so you can learn the most, take the best risks, and develop better skills than ever before.
With that in mind, here are my TOP 7 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR YOUR CRIT
* luck isn't really the right word here. What I mean is that in any scenario that involves other human beings, there is always an element of the unpredictable. You can't control every aspect of the situation.
1. Crit preparation starts at day 1
No, I'm sorry, you can't start to prepare to have crit the night before!
At that stage, you're in ambulance-at-the-bottom of the cliff territory. And, while you can implement some of the strategies below and see some improvement on where you might have been, you'll never be able to resurrect your crit to the level it could have been if you'd begun preparation earlier.
And the people who tell you they did no preparation? They're the ones who have actually been preparing - subconsciously - the whole time.
Some people treat preparing for their crit as a separate exercise, a separate box to check in their list of things to do to get the project completed. To me, this makes no sense.
Why? Because crit preparation is fundamentally about having a rigorous project...and being able to communicate that rigour. And that starts at day one, not one day or even one week out from crit day!
2. Know your why
There's no point trying to have a productive, inspiring crit if you haven't first tried to generate a meaningful and rigorous project.
This is what I call 'knowing your why.' It's knowing what drives you, what you're interested in exploring, and what your personal goals are for the projects. It's not the same as the project brief - although there might be some overlaps there. It's deeper and more personal than that.
Why do you need a 'why?'
Beside the fact that knowing your why will provide you with the motivation, inspiration and direction throughout your project, there's the simple fact that if you haven't zoned in on your why, critics will see right through you immediately. They'll sense your lack of investment in the project, your uncertainty about the direction and smell that even you are second guessing your decisions.
If you're clear about your why, it's much easier to bring others in the conversation, and invite them to come along for the ride with you. The crit will be on your terms, which is what you want, and you can drive the outcomes so they are meaningful for you - rather than defaulting to the critics expectations.
This is particularly useful when you've taken a big risk in a project and things haven't 'workout out', or you've ended up with lots of 'unresolved' parts. First of all, good on you. Projects like this are what architecture school is all about. Secondly, if you know your why, you can open out the discussion to include rather than brush over the difficult aspects of the project, and find yourself getting great feedback and ideas for alternative explorations, different methods, or far-reaching thinking you're tapping into.
How do you know what your 'why' is?
You why for each project should fit into your broader goals for architecture school. Are you trying to develop your weaknesses, answer a bigger question about architecture and space, or develop your skills in a certain area? Remember, this is about YOU - not about your tutor, the critics, your parents or the project. This is your chance to make it meaningful.
Here's a hint: your why should never be:
Because it was in the brief;
Because my tutor told me to;
Because it was easier than xyz other option;
Because I ran out of time.
3. Understand the aim of the crit
An important part of preparation is understanding exactly what you are preparing for! It seems obvious, but I've seen so many students spending precious time and energy stressing about the 'unknown' factors of their crit...when they could have just asked for these to be clarified - or defined them for themselves!
Worse still, I've noticed students over- or under-preparing because they have assumed the crit will unfold in one way, when in reality it goes another way.
These are all avoidable situations.
So, the things you need to know about your crit before you start preparing for it are:
What is the purpose of the crit?
Will you be marked based on your presentation?
How long will you have to present?
Who will the critics be (and what is their level of architecture understanding and/or knowledge of the project?)
Are you expected to present 'final' images, or is process as (or more) important?
What technology or presentation space will be available?
This should all be made clear in the course outline, but if it's not, ask your lecturer or tutor to clarify.
And most importantly, know what YOU want to get out of your crit, and hold it close. At the end of the day, the crit isn't about the critics, grades, or your project - it's about you. And only you can make it count.
4. Don't rely on your words - draw it.
Whether or not you agree with the age old adage that a picture is worth 1000 words, in an architecture crit, pictures are your best friend.
Most of us are good at talking ourselves into a big mess, many of us have trouble coming to a conclusion, and almost all of us forget to mention one or another aspect of the project.
Pictures are clearer. Pictures don't forget. Pictures don't disappear with time.
That's why you need to think about what you want to say, and then figure out a way to get your drawings, images, and models to say most of it for you. There will always be gaps to fill in, background to provide and links to make, but in general, the rule is: show don't tell.
It also means you won't need to spend as much energy stressing about what you need to 'remember to say' - it's all there already.
Of course, this is where creating convincing, complete and compelling imagery and models comes to the fore. But you don't have to be an artistic genius to get your images to do your talking - just strategic, thoughtful and expressive in your work.
If you need a helping hand with making your images convincing, I wrote about how to make your architecture project believable - click here to read that post.
5. Talk about your project
This is one of my top tips, and one of the easiest to implement too. It seems way too obvious to be useful, but it is.
To talk about your project well, you need to get comfortable talking about it.
It never ceases to amaze me how many students work tirelessly but silently on their projects for a whole semester - often even refusing to discuss their work with their tutor - and then are frustrated when they can't properly communicate their project in the crit at the end.
They way to get comfortable talking about your project, is to talk about it as you'rE working on it.
It doesn't matter who you talk to. It can be your tutor (great for project-specific feedback), your friends and architecture school peers, your parents, or you can even talk to yourself (don't knock it until you've tried it).
Talking is a great way of consolidating ideas and thoroughly understanding your arguments. It forces you to verbally construct your ideas into a sequence. The more you practice doing this the better. If you're listening to other architecture students tell you about their work, you'll also notice how difficult it can be to follow a scatter gun approach! Try to learn from others as much as from yourself.
Finally, other people might use great phrases you can borrow to describe your work. Obviously I'm not suggesting you borrow their ideas, but the way they help you articulate your ideas or processes can be invaluable.
6. Map it out
Architects are (usually) visual people - so one thing that I've always found helpful is to map or diagram out your project thinking. This in turn, roughly becomes the map for your presentation.
When I set about making a map, I usually grab a big piece of paper and a pen, and it goes something like this:
First I identify key aspects of my thinking and write them down. These might be words, phrases, or questions;
Second, I write down all the influences and references I've included in my work. This might be writers and philosophers, other architects, specific buildings, or artists;
Third, I'll write out all the key steps in my investigation;
Then, it becomes a process of figuring out how best to sequence each of these items, how things connect, and the direction of my thinking. I'll draw arrows, dashed lined and bubbles to show where things are picked up again or loop back in. I'll highlight or put a box around the major items.
Then, all I need to do to plan my presentation is focus on describing the map.
In the past I've sometimes found it useful to keep a project 'map' like this in play while I'm working on the project. Each time I start something new, or investigate a new thread, I'll make note of it on the page. This makes it easier to trace my path, to analyse the dead ends, and to figure out what is really important to the project.
7. Practice, Practice, practice
Of course, it wouldn't be a proper post about crit preparation without mentioning the magic word: practice.
While I'm not a huge believer in the 'practice makes perfect' idea (that's another post for another time), I do think that practice gives you the ability to make mistakes while you're in your own comfort zone, and to develop techniques to deal with parts of the process you're less comfortable about.
Practicing is also a good way to figure out whether your planning has worked, or, if you just sound super confusing and unconvincing.
The key to useful practice is being able to review yourself. So, you could try:
Practicing with friends (great for supportive feedback - even better if they're going to be in the audience to support you on the day);
Practicing in front of the mirror (great for self-confidence);
Recording yourself practicing (simple cellphone audio recording tools are fine).
Personally, I like to keep a sense of spontaneity and responsiveness in my presentations - I find it makes me more able to think on my toes and respond to the situation or questions at hand. That means my version of 'practice' is never running through a whole presentation work for work. Often, I'll just work through key phrases, figure out the important turning points in my presentation, or do a quick run through with my presentation boards to check their sequence. Here, I'm not trying to memorise everything I'm saying. Instead, the aim is just to familiarise myself with the situation, confirm that I've got the drawings in the right order, and convince myself that I know what I'm talking about!
Whatever practice looks like for you, the key is to remember to start practicing early enough so that you can comfortable implement any changes you might need to make before the crit-stress starts!
