My Son Wants to be an Architect. Any Help? (Page 1 of 2)
Posted: Yesterday 7:40:46 PM EDT
Hey all, need some help. My son is interested in architecture. He's eleven, good at math and drawing. Pretty sure this would be a good fit and the fact that he knows it, makes me happy. WISH I knew what I wanted to do at his age. I was pretty much garbage at eleven  Any architects, structural engineers, etc. out there that can pass on some knowledge? Looking for project ideas or even just things I can order off of Amazon that will help. Right now he wants radio kits. I would appreciate any kind of feedback. |
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Originally Posted By Rincon_11: Hey all, need some help. My son is interested in architecture. He's eleven, good at math and drawing. Pretty sure this would be a good fit and the fact that he knows it, makes me happy. WISH I knew what I wanted to do at his age. I was pretty much garbage at eleven Any architects, structural engineers, etc. out there that can pass on some knowledge? Looking for project ideas or even just things I can order off of Amazon that will help. Right now he wants radio kits. I would appreciate any kind of feedback. Architecture is a very competitive field, hard to get a good paying job, you have to be the best. Structural engineering is a good paying job in very high demand. Requires a minimum of a 4 year degree from a ln ABET accredited college and 4 years of on the job training to get your PE or SE. Different states have different but similar requirements. Recommend the engineering path. Full disclosure, I'm a registered PE in 6 states and work with structural engineers and architects. I can answer any questions you have. |
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My uncle made a damn good living as an Architect. Of course he owned his own firm. Get him the book Architect Academy by Steve Martin. Yes, Steve Martin the actor. He’s written some great kids books. My 11 year old son who wants to be an engineer or Architect loves it. |
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Keep up the math, drawing, legos, etc. Get him into different types of distinctive buildings and looking around. Draw them. It’s a bit early, but find an architect willing to do a job shadow for a couple of hours. Download some home plans and have him trace it. Give him a project, like redesign / relayout your bedroom, or the basement. Take him to a home under construction with a foreman willing to spend an hour with him. |
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Godspeed my brave little warrior.
Godspeed my brave little warrior.
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Originally Posted By Rincon_11:Any architects, structural engineers I would like to point out there is a wide, wide gulf between these professions. An architect can spend an entire career making stupid, fucking, decisions. A structural engineer only does that once…….and there are serious consequences. |
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Coworker of mine graduated with a bachelors in Architecture. He immediately went into construction project management because it made more. I have a friend from jiu jitsu who is an architect that works fully remote, makes enough to pay the bills and enjoy life and his family. Money isn't everything, if he truly enjoys it, get him learning basic drafting and CAD. If he still wants to dive deeper he can find plenty of books and research home and commercial building design. Commercial architecture is more likely to make decent money. And there's more of those jobs out there. They can be more specialized as well. |
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Spend some time learning to actually build shit. Understand what its like from the perspective of a tradesman. My dad was an architect. Before he went to work in architecture he was in the Seabees. He never stopped building. I think he loved being up on a ladder, swinging a hammer, and pulling wire as much as he loved the design aspect. |
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First have him write a paper on the merits of using either popsicle sticks or toothpicks for construction projects. Then do Lincoln Logs. Then tell him to be an Engineer of some kind. With computers and now AI, architecture will be dominated by firms that come up with creative designs developed using those tools.  
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Originally Posted By dalegribble87: Architecture is a very competitive field, hard to get a good paying job, you have to be the best. Structural engineering is a good paying job in very high demand. Requires a minimum of a 4 year degree from a ln ABET accredited college and 4 years of on the job training to get your PE or SE. Different states have different but similar requirements. Recommend the engineering path. Full disclosure, I'm a registered PE in 6 states and work with structural engineers and architects. I can answer any questions you have. This, One of my degrees is in Archi, from a good school in that field(or was at the time). Most of the graduates from that school, who at the time wanted a job had to get a job in an unrelated field to buildings-most common was furniture design. That was a long time ago in Texas and things have changed big time, so I may be outdated. However we were told repeatedly by our professors, the only way to make money was to take a stake in the project, otherwise your just hired day help. We have a family friend who also graduated from the same school as an Archi and was able to work his way up the ladder and take a stake in the projects he works on. He is doing well, and that is an understatement. |
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Originally Posted By Eponymous: First have him write a paper on the merits of using either popsicle sticks or toothpicks for construction projects. Then do Lincoln Logs. Then tell him to be an Engineer of some kind. With computers and now AI, architecture will be dominated by firms that come up with creative designs developed using those tools. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jfN_73LDFPw/maxresdefault.jpg https://t3.ftcdn.net/jpg/10/88/58/94/360_F_1088589403_xw40DfehgHwMuTPF3aAYCGHzEiQNB7Nk.jpg Just a fun side note, Take a guess at who invented Lincoln logs? Its a fun topic for us nerds in Architecture. |
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Get him in the STEM pathways at his school. The Eng & Technology pathway if they have it. Get him in TSA (Technology Student Assoc.) My Son took the Eng & Tech pathway at his high school- he just graduated and is now off at his first semester of Electrical Engineering in college. TSA has regular opportunities to compete in 50+ Eng & Tech competitions including Architecture, Structural Engineering, Mechanical Design, etc. He enjoyed competing with the robotics team and all sorts of other tech competitions. They take 2-4 day trips to conferences around the state where they compete in tech competitions with other students 4-5 times a year. The Robotics teams have regular competitions with other teams around the state from Sept through March. Most Eng & Tech pathway classes have 3D printers, Laser engravers/cutters, machine tools, water jet cutters, woodworking, robotics, animatronics, electronics, etc. and they get to use that technology for their projects and competitions. The pathway will give him the knowledge of what all the different disciplines and careers do to better help him make an informed decision on what he wants to pursue. Most engineering and tech pathway students leave High School with a wide range of soft skills, communications skills, Teamwork, hands on skills, programming, and CAD skills. My kid can use AutoCad, Solidworks, and Onshape- can draw pretty damn well in the 3D CAD- he can draw stuff, use 3D printer slicing software, and 3D print all sorts of items he designed from scratch. He can program Robots and animatronics. He originally thought he wanted to go for mechanical, but he decided his interest was more in electrical engineering. He's got to have strong math skills for any formal engineering education- that kinda goes without saying. |
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| -did some work for Skidmore, Owings & Merrill back in the day (Google them, they aren't nothing...). Learned that architects are best served by having a rich uncle if they want to be anything other than a draftsman/CAD person. Local architects have more than proven that out from those I've worked for or known. |
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I really do hate architects. When I pull up to a building and see lets just say interesting design I know it's going to be an absolute pain in the ass to work in. Here's some advice. Think about how the building will be used by the occupants. How will the maintenance staff maintain the HVAC equipment, plumbing, electrical, etc? If a piece of equipment isn't accessable it's not going to be maintained. In fact put all equipment in accessible areas where it's easy to walk up to them. I've seen schools with hallways that zig zagged through the building. The classrooms were triangular shaped. One mechanical room was triangle shaped with 3 units in it. If the unit in the back needed to be replaced you had to remove the 2 other units just to get access to it. I've seen VAVs placed 30 feet high above a small office. There's no way in hell you're ever going to get a ladder/lift up there to even maintain it. I do like buildings that look nice, but at the end of a day it's a building that will need to be maintained and it seems no one is even designing with that in mind. Have him work construction to see how buildings are actually built then try to design it for easier construction and maintenance. |
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When he gets to school tell him in his first architecture class to look at the person on his left, then the person on his right. Amongst the three of them : One of them will not graduate. One will graduate but never practice. And one just might be an architect. Or at least that's what they told us at LSU in the 1990s. You really have to love it because you will be licensed by the time you are 26 (5 year program, 3 year internship), financially stable by the time you are 55, respected by the time you are 80 and famous by the time you are dead. I graduated but never practiced as did many of my friends and some of the people I've met along the way. Volunteer for habitat for humanity, Work a construction gang, get in with a contractor or working as a CAD monkey (if they even still have those) for an engineering firm. |
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Originally Posted By DoctorCAD: 100% this. Archetects know EVERYTHING. Just ask one. But engineers are never wrong because they are taught from the time they are little if they make a mistake people die. Makes them extra fun to deal with when they get older. Architects (even failed ones) have more respect for lifetime learning and are a bit more flexible mentally. |
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Originally Posted By camarojsmith: Architects and structural engineers are the exact opposite in the design world. I prefer engineers.  Engineers treat the human being as a constraint to solve rather than being the central subject of a design, be it a habitable volume or a a consumer product. You can build a place to live or a product, meet all the requirements, and it'd most likely still be a miserable experience. The approach is different, and that's why engineers aren't the ones doing the front-end design work. The engineers I've worked with have had little imagination and are inflexible in their thinking. Instead of adjusting the design to the human, they adjust the human to the design. Engineering school teaches you how to do math, run calculations, and evaluate static and dynamic forces – it hardly teaches you how to design anything. |
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There is a reason we called it Architorture at GaTech. You essentially have to get 2 degrees, art and engineering - double the work in the same amount of time Then after you graduate you get to work at a low level as to what amounts to being an underpaid apprentice or journeyman. It takes a looong time to climb up the ranks. One of my close friends who is around my age (40s) is just now starting to get some really meaty projects. By all accounts he is successful. It just takes time. I’d honestly recommend mechanical engineering with a heavy emphasis on building what you design and ride the wave of re-shoring mfg in the United States Former Aerospace stress and structural engineer, now doing automotive mechanical design engineering |
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As others have said the emphasize art in training architects also. Focus on drawing. By the time he's in school he should be able to draw what he sees. If he struggles with this purchase a camera lucida. Its a tool that used properly (can take some patience) can optically overlay what you are looking at on your paper. You can also consider digital tablets and a drawing program with a stylus. In college they will emphasize design but there will also be deadlines to meet so you need to be good at getting your concepts down fast. |
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I have a Bachelors of Architecture. I have never worked as a professional Architect. It took me five years of college to figure out that I DID NOT want to be an Architect. Support and encourage your kid’s interest but also support and encourage when he moves onto something else. |
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The above posters have mentioned and I think it bears repeating- Architecture is as much about the aesthetics as the design details. You cannot be a sucessful architect without having the asthetic eye for design. I am near the end of a career in mechanical- and I can draw pretty well- field sketches, working drawings, design drawings, fabrication level drawings- but I cannot draw pretty, artsy type drawings to save my life. Most engineers cannot. It is partly learned, and partly an inherent skill- and then honed over time- but not everyone is capable of it. By all means, if that is what he wants then direct him as has been posted- give him the tools and put him in there and let him go for it. I agree with other posters saying the kid has no idea at 11. For right now make sure he stays strong with his math grades, nudge him towards STEM classes and clubs, maybe buy him a decent 3D printer, get a couple CAD programs and make them available to him. Buy the time he is 16-17 you will have a better idea what his interests and proficiencies are. |