Alright, let's talk about architecture.
So, hello, my name's Nana-Yaw.
I'm a third year architecture student
studying at the University of Nottingham.
And today I'm going to be giving
you a brief break down into what
it's like to study architecture at this university.
So, the first question I usually get is why architecture?
I think architecture is incredible because at the core,
it's about people and design and how
we design our urban environments to relate to everyday needs,
from our homes to our places of work,
to a place of leisure.
And it's so exciting to be going into a career that controls that.
So, yeah, that's why I love architecture and that's why I
chose to go into this career. I choose Nottingham
because I feel like Nottingham provided a course
that had a good balance between
the creative side of architecture engineering side of architecture.
And it allows students to navigate their way into the career.
And choose the kind of architects they want to
be. I would say that the course itself is really engaging,
you're constantly being challenged to
apply your creativity in different ways.
Sometimes it's a written essay or report or a group project,
hands-on tactile bill, sometimes or an interview.
And so you're constantly faced with different kinds of problems
and you're being challenged to approach them in different ways.
And it's so interesting to see how all these different students
come up with different solutions for one problem.
There's a lot of engagement and
interaction between you and your course mates.
And I think this builds a very strong sense of
belonging and a kind of companionship between all the students.
So that's really cool. I'd say it's definitely demanding,
but that's purely because each student
is passionate about making a work the best that it can be.
And the university provides you with
the support system to elevate you to,
a high level of creative thinking and creative expression.
With the tutors, we have six.
who support us in first year.
In our studios we're with second.
and third years is in the same studio space.
It means that we're constantly learning from each other.
Your creative skills grow a lot
faster because you're learning from one another.
Some people are really good at model making,
some are good at Photoshop,
others are good at writing essays or drawing.
So it really helps everybody skills to come together in a
really organic way. Lot's of people don't know where architecture
is located. It's located here behind the big Nottingham sign.
So from that sign all the way to the new cripps health centre,
that's all architecture and the built environment and it's tucked away
But there's loads of different facilities there. We have
studio where we spend
two days a week with our tutors taking tutorial.
We have a cafe,
which is our department dedicated eatery,
where you can go to get lunch or coffee.
We have computer rooms as well with other software that we need.
And you have printing rooms.
So that subsidised by the university.
I mean, it's a lot easier to print work to
show our tutors to other 3D Workshop,
which is a facility that has a standard work workshop.
We have more high-end workshop machines there as well.
We have Five-axis router are laser cuts in 3D printing.
And these facilities are there to supports
us and express my creative ideas.
They have technicians who are trained in different fields.
So it makes it really easy to find somebody
who can kind of guide
you right way to approach whatever you wanna do.
In a typical week. I'm in studio two days a week.
So that's the EEC building.
And you're there with
your tutor and your fellow classmates as well,
working in the same space and that's
divided in first year into five different units.
And then second year you get an option of
nine different design studios
I'd say that the students really vary as well,
everybody's different creatively and most of us are.
Problem-solve but it manifest in different ways.
Some people approach it through a model making
others through drawing others through technical drawing
rather than creative drawing. Others like poetry,
while others like to write complex and technical briefs.
But everybody's really friendly.
Everybody's always there to help each other.
It's much more of a companionship and
camaraderie rather than competition.
So that's really refreshing. if I had any advice.
I'd say don't panic.
That process of learning is very organic and the course
is organised to help that to happen naturally.
You don't need to come along
with a wealth of knowledge of what architectures is
because architecture is always evolving and it's
very broad and very complex.
Everybody's in the same boat.
So just be friendly,
be open to learning and making mistakes.
That's fine. That's a natural part of growing
and good luck with everything.