Week in the life of a 25-year old Architecture Student repeating 3rd year, living and studying in Uitenhage, South Africa
Written by Anonymous, Edited by Aliya @archistudentnotes
This week we have a week in the life submission from a 25 year-old architecture student repeating their 3rd year of university, living in Uitenhage, South Africa.
Would you have tackled the week any differently?
Monday
I started with a new group project. It’s about creating a new typology for social housing in South Africa. I presented our research component today and it went really well. Our focus is on affordable living that connect to nature with community integration. The class and lecturers congratulated my team on a job well done.
Starting out strong definitely makes an impact on how our focus for the rest of the project will go. I have always loved urban and community projects.
Tuesday
I took the day off, which rarely happens. I got to sleep in late for a change, make pancakes for breakfast and watch some movies.
Even though it was a relaxing day, the stress of portfolio 2 months away was still in the back of my head. I always make sure that I get enough rest and that I have a balanced lifestyle.
Note from Aliya: Rest is great and necessary but we all need to reduce the amount of time stress thinking about a project whilst on a break. I find the best way to do this is to ensure I have a set time maybe the next day or next week to focus on the project. That way I can relax into my break knowing I have a plan.
Wednesday
Today marks the end of term 3 and we will have recess for a week, but we all know archi-students don’t get break time.
Note from Aliya: You definitely do!
It was back to work for me and I spent the day applying for bursaries and getting all the documentation ready for submission. I will probably finalize the applications in the next couple of days. Fingers crossed for a good outcome.
Mid Week Plug
Enjoying this weeks ArchiWeek? Interested in sharing your own week?
Thursday
I woke up with little energy today, not achieving much regarding design work but any work done is still an achievement. My university held a webinar on postgraduate research and I attended to grow my knowledge for when I need this information next year. I really enjoy the webinars and lectures presented by my university and Golden Key Society.
Friday
My design group had a meeting today to discuss our next submission. We developed our precinct site-, spatial- and environment strategy to align with the social housing objectives. Because it is break time, most students are back home in their rural areas and communication was difficult because of poor connection. We still ended up finalizing our concept and moving onto the next step of our design.
Note from the Writer
In 2022 I lost my passion to study Architecture and unfortunately that lead to me not getting into honours. I passed all of my classes but missed the entry mark with 6%. I believe in second chances and used 2023 to redo my design module to enhance my mark, and knowledge. I also joined societies that grew my leadership skills, academic focus and was service focused. Failure is not the end of the world. It’s part of the process. Today I am stronger for it and I know myself better, know my passion for architecture is true and want to use that to change the world.
And that’s the week!
Thank you so much to our writer for this weeks submission. I love the focus on and passion for urban and community projects. A clear interest in a project can help keep on you track throughout the process, just be careful to be aware of the deadline and not get too carried away! (Talking from personal experience).
Also a really great note from the writer at the end of their submission that really resonates with me and I hope a lot of other people in the architecture world. Failure is not the end of the world. It’s part of the process.
If you’re interested in sharing your own ArchiWeek, your own reflection - click here!
