Why We Created Another Student Architecture Work Website
Last year, we launched Pitcrit, another student architecture work website. But we wanted to go beyond showing the best project of the year.
We see student work as untapped sources of ideas and as a starting point of organizing architecture as a collective body of knowledge.
Instead of focusing on digging up the next star student, we want to look at the body of work as a whole and uncover themes, make comparisons, and point out differences among regions, institutions, faculty, years, and so on. So here are some thoughts one how we are approaching this project.
Why are student works important?
Fruits of Labor
To the students, the projects are the fruits of their labor. A triumph over countless all-nighters, failed laser cuts, 3D prints, test plots, and moments of defeat. While the projects had their moment of glory during the 30 minutes of final review, most projects go obsolete in portfolio pages once people get their first job. Currently, there are so many expired links to personal portfolio websites covered in dust. What a waste? Can these projects serve as an inspiration to others?
Studio Projects Represent a Body of Research
To the faculty and to the discipline of architecture, studio projects act as a testing ground for novel ideas or reexaminations of older concepts through carefully crafted studio briefs. While other disciplines such as the field of science have an organic network of research topics and papers, our field lacks that organization. It is difficult to figure out who is working on what. Let’s stop reinventing the wheel.
The body of work as a studio represent a rich collection of works that could add to the knowledge of architecture as a discipline if people chose to work on top of existing ideas to push the concepts. Before we even talk about collaborating with other disciplines and the building industry, can architects work in a collaborative way with their ideas? How can we make this information more accessible?
What is missing from current student work websites?
Databases can do more than showcase the best talents with the best images. As a database, it must provide framing tools that let the viewers look at the projects in different contexts.
Emphasis on Studio Work
By looking at the works at a larger scale, at the scale of collections of projects by brief, we can track the projects by studios, and even by faculty. This is where we can generate larger branches of ideas and modes of thinking; this is where we can build the knowledge tree of architecture.
Connections that Show How they Relate to Other Projects
If grouping by studio or faculty is the most elementary method, users and curators can group the projects under themes of their choice through their discovery of projects. People can build their own reference libraries under topics and present the material in a new lens
The Design Process
It would be beneficial to be able to see the projects during the development phases. Design generally takes a non-linear approach and by the database could provide tools to shuffle the uploaded material in several manners to track the development of the idea.
As our work environment continues to shift and digital and physical interfaces begin to merge, we have to find new ways of working. However, this is the beginning of building a network of collective knowledge in architecture. Through Pitcrit, we would like to address these issues and explore more possibilities in which these projects can live on to serve other architects.
