Building a career

Updated on: Sunday, November 14, 2010

Since an understanding of shelter is the key to the understanding of a society, with the passage of time the technique of building has taken on the form of a new discipline in education — architecture. Architecture deals with the planning, designing and construction of buildings and structures. The discipline was adopted as part of the curriculum by major universities after the advent of the British, who had a keen eye for the built form.

Where can you study?
The earliest schools of architecture were the Sir J.J. College of Architecture (Mumbai), Centre of Environmental Planning and Technology (CEPT, Ahmedabad) and the School of Planning and Architecture (Delhi). Today, every major university in the country runs courses in architecture with many private colleges having also sprung up like the Sushant School of Architecture (Gurgaon), TVB School of Habitat Studies (Delhi), Chandigarh College of Architecture (CCA), the Bengal Engineering College in Shibpur and Jadavpur University in West Bengal to name a few. In Uttar Pradesh, there are four colleges offering B. Arch — Government College of Architecture, Lucknow; Babu Banarasi Das College National College of Technology and Management, Lucknow; Institute of Integral Technology, Lucknow and APJ College of Architecture and Planning, Greater NOIDA.

Job profile
The job includes not only designing and building but also developing final construction plans. These include a building’s appearance, provision for sunlight, air-conditioning, heating and ventilating systems, electrical systems, plumbing, site and landscape plans. The job may include interior designing as well. Today, architects also take into account meteorological aspects, earthquake resistance and Vaastu Shastra, while designing.

Before a building can exist, an architect ideates, sketches, and makes blueprints of his designs. The work starts on the basis of the requirement of the client.

Today architecture is a lucrative profession. “With the globalisation of the economy and the development of real estate as a full-fledged industry, apprenticeship is fast disappearing and more and more students of architecture are setting up their own practises and diversifying into related fields like interior designing, exhibition designing, town planning etc. What used to be a cultural principle has today become a commercial enterprise,” says architect Rajiv Gupta. Adds fellow architect Achal Kataria, “A new interest has emerged in architecture after independence. Today, there are two groups of architects in the country – the first who are engaged in finding their roots and the second who want to make architecture more universal in form.”

Says noted architect Mohit Gujral, “An architect provides shelter be it be a home, office or a factory. His work is related to the basic needs of the human being and therefore, there are ample opportunities for everyone provided he or she has a creative bent of mind. The field has become quite lucrative with more diversified career options before students today like stage and theatre designing, landscape designing, developing software for CAD (computer aided designing), product designing, interior designing, environmental designing etc. To the best of my knowledge, there is not a single architect sitting idle today.”

Selection process
Eligibility standards vary from 50 to 60 per cent aggregate in 10+2 for entry into a Bachelor’s programme to 55 per cent for a Master’s course in most architectural schools. Entry into the field is through the AIEEE. Only those students should apply for a course in architecture who have a passion for the profession. As far as the entrance test is concerned, experts advise that candidates rely more on their thinking ability and commonsense.

To be a successful architect, one must possess qualities like excellent communication skills, a three-dimensional space perception, the ability to sketch free hand, a good mathematical ability, awareness of social and cultural factors etc.

Specialisations
Architects could specialise in one area of work like Urban Designing, Regional Planning, Building Engineering and Management, Architectural Conservation, Industrial Design, Landscape Architecture, etc. They may prefer to go for these specialisations at the postgraduate level or after gaining experience in a particular area of work.

Building a career

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