How To Avoid All-Nighters | Design’s Biggest Hurdle In Architecture

[@hunteryan7782]

What you guys said is absolutely correct! This is what I experience in Year1 and Year 2, not having the problem of the design, but having the problem of how to handle the task and how to handle myself correctly. "The important thing is done, learn in the process of design, not provide a perfect result." But sadly I think most of the architecture education at the undergraduate level fails to make us aware of that. And I see a lot of hard-working students who have great enthusiasm for design quit and feeling disappointed because they feel they are not talented to produce perfect work meanwhile cannot handle the stressful schedule. What makes me angry is there are also many tutors who don't understand this and more look into the work we produce rather than how much we learn in the process. Can you guys share your opinion on architecture education? Because I almost graduate and I look back at my three years of learning, I feel disappointed. I am not sure it's just my school or it happens in other schools as well, the knowledge we learn just too shallow and too broad, waste a lot of time but meanwhile fail to make us prepare to understand the industry. If we treat the whole architecture education as a semester, I feel the undergraduate level it's just like an orientation week, you feel you know something, but its nothing. In the end, you spend a lot of time and effort but get a very little takeaway, and I feel this takeaway is not what the industry wants.

[@Archimarathon]

I think our view of current architecture education is already expressed in the videos and this is why we are making videos trying to fill in the fundamentals that should be taught and understood.

[@stevenmoussa8590]

Best channel for architecture student EASILY. you guys should be much bigger, thank you guys

[@Archimarathon]

Thank you. Please spread the word

[@Fatlou_]

Had a good laugh today. Very relatable discussion. I only just learnt to work out my strategy in my final year of studies - have a solid idea in the first 5 weeks -> push that idea til week 8 -> model the shit out of it til week 10 -> render and presentation design for one week -> give two to three days for printing and think about what to say in the presentation. I enjoyed having the time to design my presentations!! Knowing how to present your ideas(done better than perfect agreed with you guys) is far too important

[@Archimarathon]

I would say modelling should have been part of it since the start and presentation should be at least 3 weeks prior

[@gabybordino6024]

You rock! I think the highlight of the video is to focus on the skills you have instead of regret (and apologise) for those you don´t. It´s a great advice not only for architecture, for life! We architects tend to overthink too much. It´s important to learn when to stop and move forward. I mean, the design process is not easy, but it necessarily has to evolve to a presentation, or a construction.

[@Archimarathon]

Yes and it’s all an ongoing learning process. Got to learn to play the long game.

[@chuunyu]

The part at the end about architects who make a simple sketch and give it to a team hit me so hard because it made me think about the Portland Japanese Garden and how when I went on a tour with the two architects from hacker who really made it, they kept noting how Kengo Kuma would give them these extremely vague instructions and drawings and they somehow had to work off of that. Once I learned about everything they did in the design, it felt way less like Kengo Kuma's creation and way more like the beloved child of those two guys. But the person listed for credit is Kengo Kuma!!! AAAAA the pain :(

[@Archimarathon]

Thanks for the story. I guessed as much with many of Kuma’s projects

[@Dev1nci]

1:00 that and when you do something just do it properly the first time rather than a quick note with the idea of coming back later to do it properly. My one classmate used that workflow and it worked brilliantly for him.

[@Archimarathon]

Good to hear

[@dulguunbold2067]

want more these kind of episodes.

[@sara2.021]

this talk was so relatable

[@Archimarathon]

We all have been there

[@Smashthatkeyboard]

Really helpful video thanks Kevin and Andrew. I'm definitely in the minority of one of those people who never do all nighters, having only doing one all-nighter all the way back in 2nd year architecture was enough trauma to promise myself to never do that again. I dislike how there's a culture in order to be that typical architecture student, you need to do all-nighters. One thing that helps me be on time is setting goals and micro goals, say by Friday finish a set of drawings, by today complete a floor plan, then I would set certain hours in producing the drawing then post production. I share a lot of my thought process to my tutors, ask them at what stage of design we're suppose to be at before we have to start wrapping up so both of us know what's expected and set ourselves another timeline.

[@Archimarathon]

Yep you sound like a minority for sure!

[@Totallyfine29_]

I am living your past now :)

[@islamehab4590]

thank you guys for this genuine conversation, I wanted to hear this so bad...

[@Archimarathon]

Glad you enjoyed it.

[@mfanelohlophe1084]

Thank you for the Videos. Please give us an idea of how Architecture firms work, the process and where I fit in as a fresh graduate in design and so on.

[@ShoaybKhattab]

Amazing content guys, I am enjoying and learning by watching your videos, keep it up

[@Archimarathon]

Thank you

[@raadyusuf6763]

I love how you guys integrate humour into your videos while talking about the subject of one of man's greatest creations, it's really funny and definitely is relatable hahahah

[@darshanadhande7882]

Needed to hear this ! Simple words yet amazing...

[@danielwong9608]

Ah the 2 week rush... miss those days. Great advice guys and as you said, it's not something often advised on at Uni. Oh and epic finger bang too...

[@Archimarathon]

Lol @ “finger bang”!!!! I am sure that came out wrong.

[@anthonykrithinakis7431]

great advice on bringing the deadline forward - wish i'd read this earlier!!

[@Archimarathon]

There is always the next time

[@annz707]

Thank you for another insightful video guys. As a few other people have pointed out, I think the all-nighter/deadline issue stems from archi culture. Most of the studio leaders I've had were the type to work 12h days and still have all-nighters even though they are 10 years + in their architecture career so of course they are going to project that to their students. I am halfway through M.Arch and it is only this semester that I have encountered academics that encourage you to keep developing your ideas rather than asking you to start over all the time which is such a refreshing change but also kinda sad that it took that long. We definitely need more of this mindset.

[@Archimarathon]

Glad that you are understanding the importance of developing an idea rather than starting over from scratch.

[@lukesevior6778]

I've switched my late night panic work to very early morning. Its far harder and there is more discipline involved in waking up earlier to work than staying up later

[@Archimarathon]

Interesting trick

[@pompei1009]

Back in Uni, I played games to reset my mind or get inspirations if I got lost in the early process~It helped me to meet the deadlines all the time. But I guess this is not because of the game itself, but the 'think-out-of-the-box' process and the 'take-it-slow-and-steady' mentality.

[@Archimarathon]

We still play games.

[@MrPelikan500]

wow. i must say i am really valuing these videos! thanks again *Archimarathon!* ;-D we are problem-solvers as designers ... great that you pose this issue all of us must deal with ... now, i have to have solution/opinion on it ... here it goes ... i am a strong believer in being *Authentic* and working with our in-born *Human Nature* (the good bits that is). make it easier on ourselves. don't fight it 1. *Parkinson's Law* - "work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion" 2. Most *Enjoyable* part (therefore the *Best* part) is the Design/Design Development so, i do see this as a *Self-Discipline* Issue ... *How Do We, and Why Would We Restrict/Reduce the Part we Enjoy Most ? ? ?* ... hmmm i might try a mind-trick, sort of use Rational Flip (i.e. Allen Carr's Method to Stop Smoking) to overcome the Emotional ... 1. instead of being a slave to deadline (given by others). i will set the deadline, it will be a slave to me ( *i am in control* ) 2. by restricting the "Best Enjoyable" part. i am not *depriving* myself ... in fact i am *Rewarding* myself to be less-stressed at the end production part.

[@Archimarathon]

Thanks again for your detailed comments.

[@wrongcreativity]

I have a foot in both camps. I do set a deadline for things that HAVE to be done 1-2 week before the deadline - the concept, model, presentation layout/narrative, etc. Then the remaining time to basically produce visuals and polish them as much as I could until the day of the presentation. I also fall into the trap of post-rationalising my "design intent" of components that aren't shown in my presentation. Oh uni.

[@Archimarathon]

Post rationalisation is fine if it is integrated into the design as opposed to trying to wing it during presentation. We will make an episode on that at some point

[@mapout.studio]

The first thing that should change is the studios timetable. Being open 24/7 is not a good start. My best memory related to this is when as students we where propose the guidelines of a competition as a semester work. The deadline for the real competition was only tree weeks ahead and it was up to us if we make a submission or not. We did it and basically we ended our work in tree weeks.

[@Archimarathon]

Sounded like great experience !

[@WelcomeToSteph]

Getting lost in the fog of war is inevitable when it comes to design... I am definitely guilty of redesigning several times during a semester, and it's all well and good to plan to finish early but actually doing it takes another level of discipline! I have proudly never done an all nighter. Not quite as annoying as Andrew finishing early but I would certainly smugly drop off my models and drawings late at night before a submission while my friends were steeling themselves to pull an all nighter. The culture of it is still rife though, and while having studio space on campus is good, having 24 hour access only encourages staying up. When I studied in Denmark on exchange most classes had either their drawings, models or both due a day or two before presentations which gave everyone a chance to rest and pull together their thoughts before presenting.

[@Archimarathon]

Yes I have seen universities even have digital submission before midnight the night before submission and there should not be any difference between digitally submitted content to the printed physical content. So there is time to sleep or otherwise it’s a late submission and all things go downhill from there.

[@Nynke_K]

Sadly, after this video I'm all caught up with no more backlog videos! Lots of recognisable things here for me as a deadline junkie. I'm glad to say that after dropping out of architecture school, I've never pulled another all-nighter and during my one year there,there was only one. It was classic in terms of panic though: I spent all night building a model and then realized I couldn't finish it by the 9 AM deadline, at which point I threw myself onto it and took the crushed model to school, explaining to my tutor that it had broken when I'd fallen carrying it in. Most ignominious episode in my life. Glad I switched careers :)

[@Archimarathon]

Great story

[@Dev1nci]

14:40 thank you guys 😂😂 I have a project that is scaring the crap out of me. It’s been taking quite long because I’m too scared to move hahaha.

[@Archimarathon]

Make a decision. Move on.

[@Dev1nci]

@@Archimarathon Hahaha! Done! thanks XD

[@tummytimeCHRIS7]

I the only “miracle” in my miracle fortnight is the fact that I even get it done at all despite my constant hyperventilating at 3:40 am while I stare at my drafts and reconsider everything.

[@Archimarathon]

Then give yourself an extra week and push hard to finish the week before as if it is submission.

[@RB-zm4fk]

Is the game good?

[@Archimarathon]

We wouldn’t play it otherwise

[@rev_dude]

First step to avoid all nighters: dont watch youtube when you should be building models ... ... ... Wait a minute...

[@Archimarathon]

I like turtles!! 🐢 🐢 🐢

[@maynardarchitects]

Lol

[@maynardarchitects]

"Sincere and Vigorous"? Lol Kev. Pretty sure it was "Sincere and Rigorous". Haha.

[@Archimarathon]

Thanks dude. Testament to late night editing! Another oops. “No such thing as perfect”.

[@Archimarathon]

I will vigourously defend my spelling of vigorous and it’s use in complimenting rigorous

[@Sy2023hk]

Plan ahead and ask the right questions, be mindful to optimise strategies. This reduces abortive work, hence earlier nights.

[@Archimarathon]

Yes! But seeing the big picture seems to be a common problem for a lot of people.

[@lExN34]

Watching this after 2 late submissions 🥲👍 Done (in time) is definitely better than perfect