studio culture .

Now this is something familiar: spending the night working away in studio. One of the amazing things is that there are so many people here, I'd say maybe a good quarter or third of the people who are in my year. I was talking with another fellow architecture student in my year, and we were discussing the way we have to work and function, and the way it is viewed by people outside the major.

I'm pretty sure most everyone knows that architecture is a difficult major. Clemson even has a really good program, and thus it can be assumed that it will simply be that much harder given the high expectations of the program.


But it's obviously not impossible, or people would never do it. Every time you say you're in the architecture major people give you this "oooooohhhh....." answer. What is that even supposed to mean? I suppose in some sense we are truly a unique breed, if you want to go so far as to call it that.

The studio is where we pretty much live; we don't have much time for outside extracurricular activities, we rarely are seen outside of Lee Hall, we work our butts off, and our "parties" consist of throwing fruit against a wall to relieve stress (haha, Matt and James).

I don't even know how we do it. It's not easy. I've had this blog up and been trying to write it and add to it over the course of the night. It's currently 6:53am, and I have yet to get a wink of sleep. My eyes are heavy, I have a bit of a headache, and I'm just exhausted in general. And yet, all-nighters are one of those things that you sort of not only get used to, but do your best to prepare yourself physically and mentally for, because they are virtually inevitable.

That's not to say that some people aren't really good at managing their time and dividing up the content between shorter sessions and having a great project. I guess I don't really feel like working until I get that kick in the pants that results in my mind finally finally finally getting going and working. I have a bad habit of leaving what I need to do until last minute. And by that point, you are forced to make concessions and rush things. I wish I could do better.

Although, at the very least, at least there are other people in there with you to spend the night with. You all know you are all in the same boat, and you all can sympathize with each other. The whole point of the studio workspace is not only to have your own place to work with the teachers and gain feedback... but to be able to work with your peers and bounce ideas off of each other and build both your relationships with them and have instant little crits of your work. It's a pretty awesome idea. And I'll leave you with that; I would save goodnight.... but it's really morning. Hope all of your Fridays are spent productively and I hope I make it through without looking like a total zombie.

Lyric of the Day:
"if you're my girl, swirl me around the room with feeling"