Patrick Machado
Essay #2 Community Observation
ENGL 21002
10/17/20
I was fortunate enough throughout this pandemic to guide young architecture students throughout this crisis. Before I entered this community, my friend Estefano asked me to help new students attend an online studio meeting. I decided to focus on this community because a lot of students do not have a clear idea of this program. During the American Institute Of Architecture Students or AIAS meeting, the community job is to welcome new students and to collaborate with other students and professors. Estefano trusted that my experience will convince them not to feel overwhelmed by this career online. This community is unique because it prepares everyone to have the resources in their education. The AIAS community follows these five value statements such as impact, community, growth, passion, perspective, and balance.
Before this pandemic, half of my class including myself went to this community website to just talk during meetings. However, we did not realize this community gave a lot of resources and advice for overcoming this career. Also, this community brought model making and competition such as for photoshoots, illustrator skills, and Autocad skills. These competitions and events help my comrades and I to bring us together to bring the best version of ourselves. It may look intense however everyone collaborates and gives us great ideas to innovate our projects. According to the AIAS, “ The AIAS is looking for members to share their models to showcase the work our members do and to provide inspiration. This competition is open to all years and skill set” In Studio Model Competition. (2010, January 1). This demonstrates how this community is welcoming all people with different backgrounds to showcase their skills. This community showcases everyone’s architectural styles from different backgrounds.
The issue that the community is facing is no one is teaching us how to survive as an Architect student. Which is the reason why this community created a blog. The blog has helped me to bring my personal experience into the meeting due to the students taking the online studio. The blog will also help incoming freshmen better succeed in the studio. For example, the advice that my friend Julia gave me and other high school students was that “There is a rigorous studio culture and architecture is not always fun and games. I love the studio because the end is intensely satisfying and hopefully the process can bring out your determination” Lu, J. (2016, October 27). This proves that there are people who are in the same situation willing to give their advice. In hopes, we do not struggle as an architect student.
The leaders of this community are people who are upper class students of the program. For example, when my friend Estafano needed me to advise new students, they looked up to me. I was being introduced by Taylor who was the AIAS’s Chapter President and former treasurer. I was given a zoom tour to give the new students a concept of what it is like to be an architect student. After the tour, I was being overwhelmed by the number of questions in the end. There were a lot of students saying they were not feeling prepared for this career. They were satisfied with the tour but requested I should stay a lot longer for them. The most common question I heard was “Do I have to buy materials” and “Are we going to do more digital drawing or sketches”? I briefly told them not to worry about it because the professors do not want them to risk their lives trying to buy materials. Also, I learned that for the first year students, they care more about on hand drawings than digital due to the reason that it is more organic. The term I mean by organic is that everyone prefers hand made drawings and models than anything that is from the computer.
This community has an insider community such as calling each other AIAS members. We often address each other by calling our rankings, age, gender, and our architecture interests. Usually, we like to say why we are interested in architects and then we bring up what backgrounds we come from. For example, there was a freshman who was from Spain, he was interested in architecture because of Antoni Gaudi due to his work as La Sagrada Familia. Then we keep the same process with other students. This method helped us to be more cultural with other people because we do not want people to be left out in this community. Overall, it keeps the conversation interesting and helps us bounce off ideas from one another.
As of now, we only interact virtually due to this pandemic. Before the pandemic, most of the AIAS members interact in one city to discuss the future of architecture. The rules of interacting are that we interact by saying what school we went to and the year we are now. We do not discriminate against people of different ages and backgrounds. We meet each other once a year in big cities such as New York City, San Francisco, and Toronto. According to the AIAS community, “All members are encouraged to attend and the location. In addition to the energy of being surrounded by others with same interests, the new Board of Directors is elected from a pool of incredibly inspiring candidates” AIAS Events. (2012, October 28). This demonstrates how people are welcomed to interact with each other with the same interest. It is an encouraging behavior for the community inviting all the members to different locations every year. Everyone can participate in this community if they are interested in architecture. Even the architect professors from different universities attend this community to give lectures.
From this research, it does not say that the community is being marginalized. No one in this community is being separated by their backgrounds and incomes. This community brings the best out of you and pushes you to participate in competitions that will help further your career. The importance of this community in society is anyone with the right passion can survive to be an architect student. They serve the society at large when the campus turned online, I was being tasked to welcome new students with open arms. My job is to make sure that they are not alone and they should work together as a unit to help each other out. Also, I had to teach them to persevere through these hard times and not to be afraid to ask questions. I can inform others of this community by telling them to log into the AIAS website or visit CCNY Bernard Spitzer School to apply for free submission. Then you may ask for personal advice on how to survive as an architect student.
Work Cited
AIAS Events. (2012, October 28). Retrieved October 16, 2020 from
In Studio Model Competition. (2010, January 1). Retrieved October 16, 2020, from
http://www.aias.org/competitions/studio-model-competition/
Lu, J. (2016, October 27). In Studio Blog: City College of New York. Retrieved October 16, 2020, from
