Starting my Journey in Architecture

So I’ve been away for a while, huh? Well, I have a good reason for that. I decided to go back to school for something I’ve wanted to do since I was in middle school - architecture.

With the help of some government grants, I was able to have the chance to take two courses this past Fall semester - one of them being AutoCAD. I haven’t taken a CAD course since high school when I was preparing myself to go to college for architecture the first time around (I was stopped for various reasons I won’t get into here) and it was a tough course! It covered both drafting by hand and digital drafting. I wasn’t good at the hand drafting, mostly because I wasn’t able to afford the course materials I needed for that part. So I suffered through with a mechanical pencil with an awful eraser…and my work suffered because of that. So moral of the story at this point kiddos: have the right tools for your work, or else it will definitely show when you go to do your assignments! Once we got to the digital part, I was a lot better. I usually fell behind everyone in the class, but I managed to get my work done. I passed somehow with a B and was happy with my grade.

And then life happened…..and I was unable to pursue my dream of becoming an architect. That is, until now. Finding out what AI can do, and how much it can take over your job prospects when you’re in Tech, has led me to try and find something a little more AI proof. (Not totally AI proof as this YouTube video will show you, but definitely better chances.)

So I signed up for the course and made it through with a 97% for my final grade. I feel like I needed to prove to myself that I could do AutoCAD and prove that I could thrive in this type of environment. I think I managed to do that fairly well. 😁

The images I’m posting are some of my best work from the semester. It took a lot to figure out how to do some of these drawings, but once you realize it’s the same basics you’ve been having reinforced all semester, things get a little easier. And I have to laugh, because I was upset when I felt like I was falling behind in the course after coming back from EpicNerdCamp, being very tired and strung out since I had less than a day to recover before class started, and I couldn’t figure out how to count the spaces to draw out the basic forms we were learning. Once I was told I needed to not count the “dots” on the grid as the spaces but the “squares” the dots created, I had a better time with the course.

Was I terrified to start something new once again, not knowing if I would be able to find a job this time around? Not really. I’d done my research and found I could at least become a drafter with AutoCAD if I wasn’t able to become an architect. And there are a LOT of jobs out there for both drafters, AutoCAD drafters, and architects - so I’ll have my pick once I’m done with school.

Needless to say, I’m pretty excited to move forward with my path. I’m planning on taking the second part of my course next semester - AutoCAD Inventor - so I can learn 3D modeling of the drawings I create.

Then I need to decide on where I’m going for school. I did happen to find someone I can talk to about architecture programs in the state, so I’m ecstatic to have that meeting and make my decision. I do think I’m going to end up in a Masters program - not sure where yet, but that’s probably going to be the plan.

And I did take the time to create a basic portfolio of my work. My current partner said it reminds him of a textbook with the color and font choices I decided to use. I’ll have to admit, after I looked at it again, it kinda does look like that…which means I need to work less in Dark Mode in Word the next time I made something like this. 😅

But I wanted to share with all of you my best work from the semester. I decided to go with a flipbook to show off my work, and now it really does look like a textbook lol! I do hope you enjoy viewing it.