("Growing Up" by Sean Valy)
- Hey, I'm JC.
I am a student here
at Cornell University, studying architecture.
I've been here four years
and most of the time outside of class
tend to maybe go to the gym, hang out with friends,
and, you know, pretty much do what
every other college kid at Cornell does,
and you'll find out more about it.
("Ryan's Garage" by PA.CK)
- [Interviewer] Okay, so where are we now?
- [JC] We're at Milstein Hall.
So this is the architecture school,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
which is part of AAP, so Architecture, Art, and Planning.
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- They're at the building next to us,
but this is pretty much all the architecture studios here.
Basically the floor plan is designed in a way where,
you know, this is where the first years sit,
so the freshmen, and then the sophomores, juniors, seniors,
and then pretty much going all around
there is the graduate studios.
So pretty much you have this big mixture
of different levels of, I guess, expertise and experience.
I think that's pretty cool because, you know,
even being, like, sort of a senior you can learn a lot from,
you know, because architecture is sort of like
a creative industry where you really need
inspiration from other people.
You can draw a lot of inspiration from people
even if, sort of, they're a lower year.
So, you know, we sort of tend to see this space as
something that is just like a big melting pot
of all these ideas that come out of, you know,
everybody that comes to Cornell and studies architecture.
- [Interviewer] Right.
(chill hip hop music)
- This is my room.
I guess it's got one of the few favorite things of mine
in the world, and I guess I'd like to show you my alpaca.
(JC chuckling)
Basically it just shows that I'm the
residential music player (chuckling).
So this alpaca has, actually has a lot of history.
He's been passed down from, like, a lot of brothers.
I know it's not usually like up here or anything,
but, it's pink, and I don't think
I've ever seen anything like it before, so, ha ha ha.
Yeah.
- [Interviewer] So are you gonna pass it down?
- Definitely, definitely, too many people
have held this for their lives, ha ha ha ha.
("Wanna Fly" by Chris Nixk)
- The architecture program,
what are the, sort of, requirements to graduate?
- Pretty much first to fifth year studios always sit.
You have to take the studios.
There's certain elective classes, like I mentioned before,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- Just to teach you a little bit about history, and,
- Okay. - in first and second year
you have to learn about, like,
there would be elective classes, like, about acoustics,
building technology,
- [Interviewer] Okay.
- you know, structural properties.
- So what has been your favorite class that you've taken?
- I think my favorite class was
digital fabrication last semester,
where we had to build a 12-foot column.
And we, you know,
we don't just stack bricks, - Mm hmm.
- cause that would be too easy.
- Right. - But, like,
we basically had to challenge ourselves
and use different properties,
so what we try to do is, sort of like,
make an impossible column, where it was, sort of,
made with triangles of wood veneer
that didn't look like they were connected, but they were.
And they were just stacked into a 12-foot column.
It's not really about, like, the physical thing
after that, - Right.
- it just, sort of like, goes away,
where you can throw it away, it doesn't matter,
- Sure. - but it's the fact
that you achieved it, and then you've recorded it,
and, you know, you can use that for your portfolio later
to, sort of, find a job
or go to graduate school for architecture.
- Why do you get drawn to architecture?
- I think everyone has a very different reason.
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- So I can't speak for everyone here, but personally,
it's because, you know, my father's an architect,
- [Interviewer] Mm hmm.
- And both my grandparents were engineers.
As a kid, I remember, like, running around, just like,
seeing all these, like, plans and things
being thrown around the house,
and I just sort of grew up in that environment,
and I think growing up in that environment
definitely influences some of the choices that you make
- Mm hmm. - later on in life.
And during high school, you know like,
I guess I was relatively all right
at physics and maths and drawing
and somehow one plus one equals two, and they,
and everyone just figured I should be an architect.
So, you know, I wasn't too sure,
but I came to the school and I applied and I got in,
and I'm senior now, so.
You know, this is a point in life, I think,
someone my age, that it's kind of like,
you're kind of a little bit lost.
- [Interviewer] Yup.
- And it's not necessarily about architecture.
I think it's just, like, life in general.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- That you're not too sure where you're gonna be.
And even if you do make some predictions,
I think in the end life will, basically,
veer you off course, and then you'll probably end up,
most likely, at some place that you didn't expect.
(chill hip hop music)
- How would you describe the academic culture at Cornell,
both, like, more broadly
and within the architecture program?
- Broadly speaking, everyone is very hard working, and,
you know, there's a lot of, like, prelims
or preliminary exams that go on throughout the semester,
where it's sort of like everyone's always, sort of,
taking these exams, so you get used to just always
studying and, like, preparing for your next exam.
You know at first it's a little bit,
it's a little hard to get used to, and you're just
always complaining about how many prelims you have,
but you get used to it, and I guess it just prepares you
for, like you know, the world out there,
where there's much harder tests, and more frequently too.
- Right. - And more unexpected as well.
With the architecture school, they also draw you into,
like, into that same kind of mode where
you're always striving for the best, and, you know like,
if your project is unsatisfactory,
they're not afraid to let you know that.
It is very like, I guess like, for some people
it may be very stressful, but I think it's just a matter
of getting used to it, - Mm hmm.
- and once you get used to it
I think you'll be better prepared for, like, you know,
other bigger and greater things.
- [Interviewer] Fair enough.
(chill hip hop music)
- So down here, these are final exams going on.
- Yeah, so this is what we call the Final Review,
and currently it's the second years' day today.
So it's usually one year per day.
So this is this sophomores,
and they're doing their final review
for their studio projects,
and, you know, what basically, it's just their,
the culmination on the entire work
during studio this semester, basically.
- So how are those graded?
Are, like, professors just going through
and basically taking notes?
- In terms of grading, because architecture isn't, like,
something that you can just give a definitive,
sort of, mark, - Mm hmm.
- [JC] or number to, or a score, to be honest,
because a lot of it is subjective, you know.
In someone's eyes great architecture,
a piece of architecture could be good,
and then in someone else's it might be bad.
- [Interviewer] Right.
- Yeah, so,
I guess, like, in terms of grading, it's usually done
with sort of like a matrix, and people, I mean,
the professors will sort of look at
the amount of work that you've done throughout the semester,
and what you pin up at the end.
(chill hip hop music)
- Overall, was Cornell what you thought it would be?
- Definitely not.
I think I've asked many people that same question before,
- Mm hmm. - and they all kind of
have the same feeling that I've had where everyone
came into Cornell with a very different expectation.
- So what surprised you the most?
- I think, for me, it was definitely my major .
- Mm hmm. - I think, like,
I expected architecture to be a very normal major.
You know, even though my father was an architect
I think seeing practical architecture and like
seeing an architectural firm run
is not the same as being in architectural school,
- Right. - Where, you know,
in some ways I think, like, it wouldn't be inaccurate
to describe an architecture student
as almost just, like, an art student,
except you have to take into consideration more, like,
real world,
like physics,
and you have to apply some of those,
- Right. - but really
I think at the core of it,
you're still just purely creating.
And that wasn't what, something that I always, like,
thought it would be like.
I thought it would be more, like, technical
and making things work.
So I guess in my, I had more of an engineering mindset
coming into architecture, but then now
I sort of understand it,
and I understand what the professors expect
and expect us to learn.
- What advice would you give to students who are thinking
about making the same decisions that you did,
applying to schools overseas, applying to Cornell?
What advice would you give?
- I think the best advice that I can give someone who was
in the same position that I was
is that I think you should just do it (laughing).
Because I was quite against it, to be honest.
You know, I didn't, like,
my dreams and hopes weren't always at Cornell.
I was quite content with New Zealand.
But it was, it is because, it's like,
if you're stuck in a small box and that is the world
that you know, it's hard to see outside of that box.
I guess in the end you just have, sort of
have that blind faith that I did
in the people that really cared for me,
and I believed that they knew better than I did,
and I trusted in their word, and I think,
and I wouldn't regret that decision,
and I will make the same decision today again,
because it turns out that, you know, I think it was,
it turned out pretty good to me, in my opinion.
("Work" by Big Wade)