15 (Long-Term) Benefits of Studying Architecture – Explained!
You have a burning desire to become an architect; it has been your dream since you were old enough to talk.
Or, you don’t know what degree you want to study, you are uncertain about your path beyond High School and are wondering if architecture would suit you as a career and as a person.
Architecture is a long course with plenty of hurdles to overcome, so what are the benefits of studying architecture?
1. Unleash Your Creativity
There is something authentic and inspiring about the life of a creator. When you create something, you feel a level of satisfaction and pride that makes the world a brighter place.
When studying architecture, you benefit from creating scale models, freehand sketches, drawings, plans, 3D computer images, student portfolios, design briefs, design presentations, and the list goes on.
Every day you are working with your brain and your hands to innovate and create to make the whole world better – or at least a corner of it. It is not just you that benefits from studying architecture, the world you help shape benefits as well.
2. Make a Difference
You live in a building; you work in a building, you get health care in a building, you get educated in a building – all human activity revolves around structures.
Even in the stone age, there would have been some guy or gal looking at the cave and musing out loud – do you know what would make this better?!
It is not just the significant attention-grabbing buildings that make a difference, but the humble facilities like a daycare center or an assisted living apartment. Architects touch lives in a meaningful way.
Architects design the world, and they make it spectacular for people to live, work, bring up families, and go sightseeing. The human world is the result of architecture and has been since the time of the Romans with their revolutionary straight roads and town grid system.
The desire to make a difference is one of the top signs you should be an architect.
3. Live Forever
How long will your name live in your descendant’s minds? One generation, two, three? What will they remember?
Your name and a few family stories, perhaps.
Now go and visit the landmarks in a major city – these buildings are the brainchildren of architects, and they may not stand until the end of time, but generations of people admire them.
Architecture is a form of immortality that lies within your grasp. If you want to be remembered by unborn generations – be an architect.
4. Go Far and See More
A substantial part of architectural studies is seeing other cities, other cultures, and understanding them through their architecture.
Most architectural degrees involve a year or two abroad, along with field trips and plenty of travel. Studying architecture abroad benefits a budding architect’s development professionally and personally.
As an architecture student, you can travel the world and learn what makes a place unique from a human perspective.
5. Problems are Your Jam
Architects are problem solvers. As a student, you train to approach problems with a ‘can-do’ attitude – problems are not an impossible object but a challenge and a puzzle to be solved.
Once you acquire the flexible thinking mindset of an architect, you can apply it to all walks of life. You see challenges as opportunities to be creative and innovative.
You find new solutions to old problems by thinking outside of the box and bringing a fresh perspective.
6. Dream Big
Architecture is a vast multidisciplinary subject with its fingers in many pies. Not only will you dream up outstanding and remarkable designs that may change a city skyline, but you will also personally achieve and do more than you can imagine.
Unleashing your capacity to dream big and know you have the capabilities to make it happen – priceless! Unleashing large scale ambitions is a definite benefit of studying architecture.
7. Pack Your Tool Kit
When it comes to acquiring skills, the benefits of studying architecture outrank most other degrees.
An architect needs to know something about many different fields so they can design structures that work for people, landscapes, functions, and climates.
There are practical skills, theoretical calculations, art and design, communication, and so many more.
They need to be a bit of a mechanical engineer, a material technologist, a builder, an interior designer, an ecologist, a lawyer, a project manager, a civil engineer, and a town planner. They need to appreciate history, art, and practicality.
When you study architecture, you benefit from the opportunity of trying on many different hats.
You might find one of them such a good fit that you travel down a different path and become a graphic designer, a teacher, an artist, or perhaps even a filmmaker – some of the many exciting career options available to an architect.
Architecture is the gateway to a rich and varied life filled with opportunities. Plus, your tool kit is packed with useful skills to help you achieve your dreams.
8. Fighting Fit
Life is stressful, and architecture degrees class as more stressful than most because of the variety of subjects a potential architect must master.
It is tough and challenging, but it builds resilience – that quality that lets you deal with stress without crumbling and falling apart.
Architects and architecture students learn strategies for dealing with stress, manage their time, and juggle conflicting priorities and deadlines. Learning to deal with and thrive under pressure is one of the benefits of studying architecture to degree level.
9. Best Pitcher on the Field
An architect may not be a born salesman, but they can sell by the time they finish their studies. If you think about an architect’s working life, they are always pitching and selling their vision.
First, to the client – they need to convince the client that they dream the same dreams and that this architect will deliver on their promises and within budget. Then to the planning authorities and the design and construction team.
Architects can pitch and sell anything from the benefits of a green roof to a multi-story building that looks like a fruit. If you have selling skills, you can work for any industry in any country.
10. Walk Tall
When you have the letters and the office and can present yourself as a fully qualified architect, you and everyone who knows you understands that you have strived to be the best in your field.
You are a professional, an expert, and a specialist.
An architect has a professional status and is welcome to participate in community projects and business developments because of the robust skill set they bring to the table.
When you achieve your goal of qualifying as an architect, you can walk tall knowing you work in the best profession.
11. Responsibility
An architect bears responsibility for a structure, including its fitness for purpose and the safety of the people inside and outside.
Architects learn how to accept responsibility and work to avoid failures and mishaps that adversely impact human lives.
It is a heavy responsibility to bear if something goes wrong, which is why architectural studies teach the importance of data and information.
They show the process of prototypes and trial and error because, ultimately, a building must endure through wild weather, human use, and possible seismic activities.
12. Compromise
Architects are acutely aware of managing the budget – a platinum-coated roof may be eye-catching and corrosion-resistant, but can the client afford it?
If the client can afford it, can they stop thieves from taking advantage of this precious metal?
All architectural projects are compromises between vision, cost, function, space, and practicalities.
One of the benefits of architecture studies is recognizing conflicting desires and achieving a compromise between what is desirable, possible, and affordable.
The creative skill of acceptable compromise in decision making is a valuable life and business asset.
13. Teamwork
Architects are the ultimate team players because they work to a social purpose with other people, companies, and organizations. Architects study how buildings work for people in towns, cities, and isolated homes.
An architect student learns how to manage a team and be a team player because, in their working life, they are going to work in multiple overlapping groups.
A hospital building serves the needs of patients, visitors, staff, and the population as a whole. Every architectural project has various stakeholders and conflicting demands.
14. Understanding Space
No one experiences space quite like an architect – everything from spatial awareness to the flow of people through a foyer.
Architects think about form and function all the time with a deep understanding of how to experience the world through the spaces we inhabit and create.
An architect can design a building to manage sound, light, and people.
The benefit of studying architecture is that you develop great sensitivity to the nuances of space. An appreciation that the area within a structure is more important than the frame itself.
15. Understand Yourself
The final and perhaps the most essential benefit of studying architecture is that when you look outwards to the process of creating excellent living and working spaces, you understand yourself and your place in the world.
Studying architecture changes you through your encounters with other people and cultures. Your studies teach you about niche areas that most other people never experience.
Through the study of architecture, you study yourself. You find out what you can dream and achieve and how to defend your ideas and thoughts against all opposition.
Architecture is the foundation of most faiths and philosophical thought through ancient times and modern.
Architects keep the past alive and shape the future, so it is hardly surprising that the study of architecture is the study of the human heart and mind.
