Congratulations to the 2013 Architecture and Urban Design Graduate Class!

Photo and layout: professor Ronaszegi

Bradley Lunz AIA, and a SCAD alumnus was a guest speaker.

Photos Professor Ronaszegi

I felt very thankful that Julian took time from his busy schedule (he just came that morning from the airport flying in from New York) and spent several hours sharing with me ideas about his office and how they approach architecture. We had a great lunch in one of the local oriental restaurants. Julian maintains an exciting office environment and produces inspiring designs at all scales – furniture, architecture and cities.

JDS Architects

• Hedonistic rooftop penthouse – Copenhagen DK
• Maritime youth house - Copenhagen DK
• Mountain, residential, parking and retail complex - - Copenhagen DK
• VM house, residential and retail - - Copenhagen DK
• Office images, including Holmenkollen ski jump, model photos

All images copyright professor Ronaszegi

I had the privilege of meeting and interviewing Stefan Rappold, partner at the Stuttgart office, and one of the projects architects, Dennis Wirth. I am also thankful to Bettina Wassermann, who helped to arrange my visit, including a private tour of the Unilever Headquarters in Hamburg. I definitely find Behnisch Architects as one of exemplary offices as they have one of the most effective creative work environments among the offices that I visited.

Behnisch Architects

• images from their Stuttgart office
• Unilever Headquarters and Marco Polo Tower in Hamburg, Germany

 All images copyright professor Ronaszegi

NL Architects

• Kameleon housing and retail mixed use complex, Amsterdam NL
• office images, including model photos of Groninger Forum

 All images copyright professor Ronaszegi

Photography by professor Arpad Ronaszegi

Graduate

Evan Gray :: architecture portfolio and thesis book

Lauren Fraley :: urban and landscape design

Eric O’Neill :: architecture

Candice Alinovich :: architecture

Felipe Cardenas :: architecture and interior design

Martin Ronaszegi :: architecture

Thesis

Brian Behnemann :: Thesis 2010

Undergraduate

John Kirsimagi :: undergraduate

AIA 2012 Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct

 NCARB Rules of Conduct

Saieh , Nico . “Infographic: The AIA History” 17 May 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 21 May 2012.

AIA History – The Burbs – more at ArchDaily.com

Quirk , Vanessa . “After the Meltdown: Where does Architecture go from here?” 17 Apr 2012. ArchDaily. Accessed 21 May 2012.

After the Meltdown: Where does Architecture go from here?

Steven Holl,FAIA 2012 AIA Gold Medalist

Congratulations to the 2012 Architecture and Urban Design Graduate Class!

Photo and layout: professor Ronaszegi

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On portfolios and interview

Fatima Ribadeneira

Presentation by Fatima Ribadeneira (SCAD MArch. 2010) Gensler, Washington DC

2012_05_24_Portfolio presentation_Fatima Ribadeneira

Johan Tristan Kinnucan

Junior Architect at standardarchitecture a leading design firm in Beijing, China

As for the portfolios, Id give them a big SOS – Structure, Organization, and Simplicity. The offices I’ve worked for already know how chaotic the environment can be, so they don’t need to have it shown to them in a portfolio.

Structure – Layout should be consistent and predictable enough so the viewer isn’t constantly guessing where the title of the next project will be.

Organization – The projects that you decide to share should be introduced in a understandable order, both within each project’s content and with the ordering of the projects within the portfolio.

Simplicity – Show only the most clear and potent imagery with the most clean and concise text to explain the most personally exciting and provocative projects.

Finally, consider the viewer, use your resources at SCAD for critique(graphic designers, peers), and, most importantly, show projects you are proud of and excited about sharing. Enthusiasm is infectious.

Peter Barlow

Leed AP BD+C, Assoc. AIA, Designer at LWPB Architecture Oklahoma City, OK

1. If at all possible get an internship while in school, anythign where you are in a firm or a related field is a big help, I know I struggled at first having zero office expericne when I was looking for work.

2. Spend a lot of time on the graphical layout. Good work can look fantastic if it is presented in a clear, creative, and unique way.

3. Dont be afraid to put projects that you do on your own in the portfolio. As an example if you want to work for healthcare firm but dont have much studio experience in that area, find something healthcare related and do a design study. It could be somethign as simple as designing a better hospital room or an ideal lobby space, use real codes and back up the decisions you make with functional reasoning.

4. On a related note, go back and improve upon the work you have done in studio. Maybe the requirements only called for certain drawings or images but if additional images would showcase it better then do them. Also if you have done projects early on in your schooling and have gotten better at different software go back and redo them, make them as good as you can.

5. the last piece of adivce I would offer is the hardest to follow, and not originally from me. I met marlon Blackwell ( http://www.marlonblackwell.com/ ) and he was nice enough to talk and offered this advice:

Don’t be afraid to only show your best work. If something is less then great leave it out. Dont ever show someone something that is not the best you can do.

It’s very hard to do, often I feel the tenendacy is to try and overalod the person reviewing your portfolio with as many images and as much content as possible, but I think quality is better then quantity. There is nothing worse then being in an interview and having that doubt as someone looks at your work and being self concious about it.

Maxim Nasab

Architectural Designer/Intern, REVIT Coordinator at PICS, Montreal Canada

The biggest thing I noticed was that there is almost no point in putting any text. They look at pictures and listen to you, if you put text they might start reading while you talk and lose focus on what your saying. I think what they were attracted to was the basic plans, a section a rendering and use diagrams to replace whatever text you were going to put. It explains the project alot better. I believe that simplicity wins in this case.

As a second point, but this is mostly in Canada, a popular thing here for M.ARCH students that have zero experince is to remove there Masters from their resume and only keep their Bachelors. It is a little sad but they receive alot more responses for interviews as the firms are not as worried about the salary. It is unfortunate but I know alot of people that received jobs by doing this.

Michael Aziz

Associate Architect at Cooper, Robertson & Partners New York, NY

Breadth – Select projects that demonstrate design aptitude at a range of scales and disciplines

Clarity – Clearly explain design process and principles

Joy- Convey the passion and joy that inspired your work

In general, focus on crafting a story with the look, feel, and physical production of your portfolio, resume and cover letter. Use the design of these documents to convey a sense of your personality and give it a unique and memorable voice.

Andrew King

Assistant Architect at Dennis Lau & Ng Chun Man Architects and Engineers

On job search, portfolio and interview

I think the process is a lot less about generating a graphic product as it is about conceiving your brand – who you are and what you want to do.

I do have a few thoughts about portfolio, and hope i am not too delinquent in getting back to you! First, I think that in this economy that if someone really wants to work in architecture, one needs to be ready to go to where the jobs are – wherever that may be. I was fortunate to have landed in Hong Kong, where after floundering for almost a year looking for work in the states, I landed a pretty good job within two weeks of active searching. In my office, there are a small handful of other expats that left the US and UK to come to HK – and this is without having a job lined up! I have friends in Beijing and Shanghai whose stories are similar. So my advice is to find out where the jobs are and be prepared to go there. A good friend sold all his things to buy a plane ticket to Beijing and used the duration of his tourist visa to job search.

On portfolio content, I think it is important to have a good conception of your brand. I know the instinct is to pepper the market, responding to every job post and blind-soliciting every office you can find. There is a want to have a tailored product for each and every job application, but I’m not so sure that’s a good idea. Here’s why: First, it’s a lot of work, and second, you end up trying to read the mind of the employer and guess who they want to you be. Instead, I say figure out who you are – what you can do and what you want to do – and sell that product. Put your work into the front end and save yourself the hassle and heartache of bad interviews later.

For the interviews, it is imperative to research the hell out of your potential employer. And have something you can leave with them. I found a lot of interviewers wanted to keep my portfolio, and it made the end of the interview a bit awkward to tell them it was my only copy. And go in with both confidence and humility. Confident that you can handle anything they throw at you, and humble enough to know that you know nothing and are eager to learn. If you are interviewing at a small firm, you will likely be talking to a/the principle. At a larger firm, maybe an associate, director, what have you. Regardless, one must remember that this is their life (the interviewer, not the interviewee), and they have a lot invested in the work they do and the office they have created. Enthusiasm, interest and respect go a long way.

One last thing: I had put a lot of effort into making a Flash-based website for my portfolio, and I am not convinced it did me a whole lot of good. A web presence seems like a good idea, but i get the impression that most employers really just want to ver quickly see your CV and sample of work. One thing I have been seeing is people will have a QR code on their business cards that has their contact info and a link to a very simple html website that hosts their CV and work sample in pdf form, and maybe a slideshow or video of their work. You don’t have to show them everything, just enough to get them excited enough to call you.

And don’t be scared to have something interesting on your CV. Most of my interviews started with them asking me about my experiences in Iraq, not my savvy with Revit.