What preparation is required before architecture school?

What major did you apply for?

In university teaching, architectural design is usually studied in all three majors. Moreover, the three principles (architecture, urban planning, and landscape) are courses to be taken in all three majors, but the content has its own emphasis. Taking South China University of Technology as an example, the main courses of the three majors from the first year to the third year are architectural design, and the other courses (such as the basic courses of the major) are basically the same.

Since the beginning of our year, we have introduced some courses of our respective majors for urban planning and landscape in the third year, while in the past, these courses were arranged after the three majors were separated from the senior year.

In theoretical research, the three majors are by no means distinct.

In actual engineering, the three majors will have upstream and downstream or parallel and intersecting relationships.

Back to the topic of what to learn. If you try to summarize it in as simple terms as possible, architecture is a major that will learn a series of knowledge about architectural design and what it serves.

Let's try to illustrate with the lessons I've experienced from my freshman year to the present. If it's too complicated, you can skip to the back for now.

The most important course in the first year is the fundamentals of architectural design. As the name suggests, this course is a basic training in architectural design. Of the assignments in this course, only the last semester of the freshman year could be considered to be designing architecture, a landscape architecture sketch.

At the beginning of my freshman year, after the military training, the first assignment was to look at architecture for the first time - as a group, design a route to visit the architecture in Guangzhou, shoot the materials during the visit, and finally cut a short video as the result. Although most of the shots are gags, the purpose of this assignment is to let students have a preliminary understanding of architecture through communication with teachers during the visit. After that, there are line drawing exercises and small architectural drawings to practice the basic ability of needle pen drawing; The plane, three-dimensional, and spatial composition allows most students who have no sense of design before to understand the most basic design methods and processes; Small building surveying and mapping, so that students can understand the standard architectural drawing and understand the components of each part of the building; Interpretation of masterpieces, allowing students to get in touch with the methods of analyzing architectural works, increase their knowledge reserves, and train watercolor rendering by the way; Landscape architecture sketch design is a process that synthesizes what students have learned in the first year and exposes students to the use of real site design schemes.

I graduated with a major in architecture, so I should have a say in this issue.

If you don't have a foundation in art, it's best to take a painting class during the holidays. But I don't recommend learning pen drawing watercolor and mark at the beginning, those that are too difficult for beginners and are not suitable, these are more suitable for people who have a little art foundation and skills. The most suitable for beginners is definitely the sketching training class, which mainly focuses on practicing the feel of painting and the most basic perspective structure and the relationship between light and shadow, which are the basis for pen and watercolor painting in the future.

I don't think it's necessary to learn software first. In the first year of architecture, I basically learn the basics and hand-drawing, and I don't use software. Moreover, professional software, after you have a certain understanding of architecture, you will get twice the result with half the effort.

In terms of electronic equipment, I personally think that the camera is based on your personal hobbies, and there are no specific requirements. If the economic conditions allow, you can always use a good one, and if the conditions are not good, it doesn't matter if you use an ordinary one, it is not a necessity. As for computers, they are a necessity for architecture majors, but you should not be in a hurry to use them when you enter the freshman year, so it is recommended to check the curriculum of the school after entering the school before deciding when to buy it.

Regarding the computer configuration, except for the graphics card and memory requirements, there are no other special requirements. It is better to have a discrete graphics card, otherwise it will be slow to run some professional software.

For the basic knowledge of architecture, I recommend that you find a book that briefly introduces the development process of architecture in a more systematic way, and has a preliminary understanding of the development history of architecture and various architectural schools. You can also read books that introduce and evaluate some famous or excellent architects and architectural works. As for more professional design method books, you can also take a look if you are interested, but I personally think that kind of book may be boring and obscure for beginners, so I don't recommend it personally.

Overall, I personally think it's more necessary to learn sketching. The others can be chosen according to your personal preferences.

If you have financial strength, it is best to sign up for a hand-drawn class to practice your drawing ability (pen line practice, watercolor, marker practice) If you don't have an economy, you can find some architectural theory e-books from the Internet to see, and you can also practice pen sketching at home, but the progress is small, and these will be of great help to future learning.

Learn about the design software TENGEN CAD or something.