In this episode we talked about civil engineering vs. architecture so you can decide the best major for you.
What's up everyone this is Jake Voorhees and you are watching episode 020 of The 1% Engineer Show.
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This is a question that I've been getting a lot lately.
I answered it on Quora, and I did a blog post about this, and it's a common thing that people
are confused between architecture and engineering or in this regard civil engineering because
that's the one form of engineering that's most related to architecture so that's really
what this video is about architecture vs. civil engineering so when I say engineering
it really means civil and I'm a civil engineer so I can directly speak to this.
As a global summary, although architects and engineers perform parallel functions in design,
implementation of infrastructure, buildings and things like this, they’re actually very
different.
There's a big delineation between the two, and this video is going to tell you more about
that, so you know which one to choose so you know which career path to go down so you make
sure that you are following your dreams and you can be a 1% engineer, or in this regard
1% architect.
But engineering's probably the way to go.
So this video's going to give you four differences between the two, so you can pick the right
major for you.
1, Character Traits.
Architects and Engineers often approach problems and situations from different foundations
.Architects have a tendency to think more outside the box are connected to the aesthetics
of things, whereas Engineers have a tendency to be more quantitative more numbers driven
rationale driven instead of how they feel, instead of how it looks.
Engineers want to know, how's the thing going to stand up, how's it going to be done, how
much is it going to cost - its all numbers driven with an engineer.
There's a right type of person for each one.
If you have a tendency to like to draw be very creative and have a colorful type of
personality and way of thinking, than architecture's probably for you.
Contrary to popular belief there's actually tons of Engineers out there who are very numbers
driven, but they can't draw at all.
They can do stick figures and free body diagrams for their classes but in terms of thinking
outside the box and being creative and actually being artsy, a lot of times engineer struggle.
And that way you know engineering is for you - if you fall into this mold.
Two, Design.
Engineers rely on equations, formulas, and scientific principles to solve problems, develop
solutions, and conclusions to whatever they're working on in their field.
Whereas architects have a tendency to consider the spatial functionality, the connection
to its surroundings, how things integrate into aesthetics and overall connectivity to
neighboring entities weather they be buildings or roadway facilities or functionality of
a park or something like this.
The approach that overall design thinking is different between the two.
Three, Workflow.
This is where architects have a big advantage.
Because it comes down to feeling and energy and aesthetics and creativity and how it looks,
architects typically are the starter for the planning.
They are the ones that create the blueprints, they are the ones who have the vision for
what we're going to build, and then the engineers take that vision and say, okay, how we going
to do this, what's the most cost effective approach for this the right materials for
this type of design, so again if you want to be in the creative camp if you want to
be architecting these types of concepts then you should probably go for architecture.
Whereas if you want to calculate and actually crunch the numbers in a data-driven fashion
behind what's going on than engineering is probably for you.
This is one of the reasons why I became a transportation engineer and not a structural
engineer.
It's because I knew if I went into bridges or buildings, it becomes quite cookie cutter
most of the time.
We already know how bridges stand, we already know how structures are going to maintain
themselves in terms of their integrity, so when it comes to being free, and the ability
to do something a little bit different, we dont always need that in engineering, but
an architecture you're always trying to come up with some sort of different approach and
be more creative so that's one thing that engineering does actually lack.
In this regard if you want to be trying to do things different and trying to deviate
from the curve for whatever is going on in your city your region in terms of building
trends and status quo than the architects have a big leg up here.
They typically are the visionaries behind what's going on but they may not actually
know how this thing is going to be built.
That's where the engineer's come into play.
So there's a big difference in workflow in terms of planning.
It starts with the architects and engineers execute this vision that they have.
Four, Curriculum.
And again we're hitting on the same core principle, where an architecture curriculum in university
is typically going to be a little bit more artsy, it's going to be a little bit more
theoretical, it's a little bit more about history.
Because I was a civil engineer and I know that curriculum in and out, but I reviewed
some architecture programs and it does have things like, the history of society, and history
of architecture, and design drawing, and these types of things that engineers don't take.
We barely had any breadth requirements.
At The University of Delaware, I could not take many courses beyond math, physics and
engineering courses that involved heavy, heavy, heavy mathematics.
If you don't like math, then you definitely shouldn't be an engineer, because I think
I took something like 3 calculus's, 3 engineering maths, engineering statistics, and that's
just the math courses.
There was statics, structural analysis, structural design, concrete and steel design, geotechnical
engineering, fluid mechanics...
Some engineers have to take thermodynamics, which will destroy you, material science,
which is math driven, so math math math math math, if you don't like math, if you don't
like physics, if you can't tolerate a few chemistry courses, then you're not going to
survive engineering.
So maybe if math is a struggle for you but you still want to be connected to designing
buildings and infrastructure and you have an architectural brain then go for architecture.
But help people say this all the time questions on YouTube questions on Quora "Can I still
be an engineer if I don't like math?"
Well, it's like, sure maybe, but you're going to definitely struggle.
I like math a lot and I struggled myself.
Okay?
So there's some differences in the curriculum.
Architect still have to take some math but no where near as much as engineering courses.
So those are the four core differences between architecture and engineering guys.
Character traits, design, work flow, and curriculum.
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