Finally, it is departure day! I am really looking forward to being outside of the country for this spring. It feels like an opportunity to continue my education, but in a less formal setting. Honestly, the value of studying abroad is vastly underplayed as I believe most see it as a vacation rather than an educational experience. Sure, I am excited to visit Chile and see a part of the world I have not yet experienced. However, I am even more excited for the fact that this trip could potentially change how I experience architecture.
As I have been pursuing an architecture degree for 2 years now, I believe I have become a bit jaded about my own perception. Being successful in school means you have to be highly critical of not just your own work, but of work done by people you might admire. To do this I have had to be more evaluative of work and have not just stepped back and actually enjoyed the projects in their entirety. For this reason, I really want to force myself on this trip to not find faults with the projects I encounter and instead appreciate the effort or intent of the project. Since I will not be in a school setting, it will be easier for me to simply admire the work and focus on representing it through sketch. Essentially, I would like this to trip to be an exercise in how to perceive and represent the architect’s vision.
Thanks for the thoughtful consideration of how you hope these travels will help you (most definitely it should) experience architecture. I would say in most of my travelling and experiencing new architecture I often do look through a fresh lens that is not as critical but more positive (there are exceptions). It is wonderful to see the world in a new way. I look forward to traveling with you-Aimee