Greetings, friends and colleagues, after many months of virtual sessions, we were back at The Urban Centre for the 32nd architects ወርሃዊ session on the topic of “The Path to the practice of Architecture: Experience sharing with the architecture graduating class of 2021 G.C.” It was an exciting session that created the platform for the graduating class to speak up about their experience in the five years of architecture school. The discussion was more of sharing personal reflections by selected volunteers from the batch. We would like to thank the participants of the discussion from the graduating class of architecture (2021G.C); Arsema Kahsay, Bereketab Feleke, Blen Leulseged, Eyob Biruk and Tesfaye Abebe for taking the initiative to represent their batch in the experience sharing session.
Moderator Semawit Ayele opened the discussion by introducing the fellow graduating architects. She began the discussion by noting out that recognition, as well as the mentorship of graduating architects by the association, is long overdue. A preliminary session like such would aid in creating links Since the main purpose of the architects ወርሃዊ session is to bridge the gap between fellow architects and to introduce new ideas to the profession.
The first speaker from the invited representatives started on by summarizing his last five years by captioning it as “A wholesome life lesson from the environment”. He further stressed that EiABC thought him several unteachable lessons like inspiration and searching the motive to pursue projects at difficult times. He also mentioned a memory he had of his freshman year instructor acknowledging the project he himself had lost hope for. But the encouragement by the teacher sparked a pushing plug on his design curation with motives and initiatives.
A second participant discussed how his entrance to the school looked like at the beginning of the registration period. Mentioning that he had little to no clue of what architecture was, he was able to join the profession due to his long-lived talents in the arts field as well as paintings. A significant point stressed by the second participant was that the instructors’ approach has a prominent effect on how a fellow student might look at the school.
After listening to the second participant’s take on his path to architecture, the 3rd participant addressed his observation by telling the audience about a funny backstory that happened at the starting days of school. He had to buy wires to fold them as models into a defined space of his choice. The misunderstanding of the whole class he was in and them missing the point of the wire folding process created a fun first day for him at school. He later discussed how several experiences led to him being inspired about management and responsibility which later enabled him to take certain positions at the school student administrations.
The fourth participant started off by discussing that passing the entrance exams and joining the school of architecture was of great value to her. She noted out that Her understanding of space evolving through time still amazes her. She further discussed that she still has questioned if architecture is going to be this challenging in the professional world. The last and fifth participants ended the sharing session by pointing out that her being duly enthusiastic since her childhood about homes and fascination with buildings kept her wandering mind at ease when she drew disproportional pictures of them. After high school, her deep desire to enroll in architecture aided her in school life itself. After a thorough investigation of her deep desires in life, she mentioned that she might be thinking of pursuing architecture as a profession with other related options at hand.
In conclusion, the whole scope of the discussion by the graduating class was that architecture is not a common practice that is known by high school students which need to be improved. Their generalized suggestion was that a certain type of consultation or consistent mentorship in time management, stress coping and life improvement training is mandatory.
The session was concluded when senior members of the association like Mahder Assefa(Architect) and Amanuel Teshome(Architect) shared their past experiences and thoughts with pictures of themselves at school. They further provided key advice for the graduating class to think of what they want to do and exceed upon it because that is where they will be successful. Finally, several engaging games were played by the volunteers of the batch. We would like to acknowledge moderator Semawit Ayele for facilitating such a fun and enlightening session.
Congratulations to all graduates of architecture class 2013 EC / 2021 GC.
We hope you will all join us on the upcoming sessions of architects ወርሃዊ. See you all there and keep your family and yourself safe from Covid-19 by applying the necessary precautions!
