Friday, February 29, 2008

Architecture Internship

Hi all, I was very fortunate to be able to do a 1-month internship with a local architectural firm - Zahidi AR Arkitek. As its a relatively small firm, I was able to take a look at all the various jobs that the staff were involved in. My mentor was really good because he let me have some hands on experience designing a house, making a model (pic above), and receiving a crash course in AutoCAD (designing software). I also went on site visits and meetings together with him to view several of his company's projects, each of which was at a different stage of constuction.


Anyway, an architect's job is not just about the designing of buildings, which in itself is already challenging because of various contraints. For example, a design would depend on the size of the land and how much weight it can carry. The authorities have regulations on the height and land area of the building. Clients have their own set of ideas of how their house should be like, esp those who are into fengshui. Then there's also building materials, cost, aesthetic appeal and function to think about.



The architect is also responsible for the whole contruction process and so he oversees everything. He needs to liase with the clients, the contractors, the suppliers, the authorities etc. This is challenging because he must work with different parties and get them to stick to their own deadlines, make sure that they do their job well, so that the project can move ahead and ensure that the building is completed on time.





Yup.. so its a busy job being an architect. But nevertheless I would think that it is extremely satisfying to stand back and admire your nicely completed project after months of hard work. I believe some of you passionate art club people would like to venture into this field in the future. Haha maybe I will but im not sure yet :)




ps. I've uploaded more pics onto the yahoo groups, so you can check them out there.

posted by yiwennie @ 3:24 PM Comments: 2