#453 - BALANCING HOBBIES AND ARCHITECTURE
SUMMARY
This week David and Marina of FAME Architecture & Design discuss importance of having hobbies outside of architecture; making time for activities beyond architecture school; making passion into career; influence of external hobbies on architecture career; transitioning from school to work; nightmare stories; and more. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Hobbies outside of Architecture.
“I found that having another craft to hone and to focus on was really important. It was like breathing… architecture was constantly inhaling, and music for me was like an exhale. It was the down to the up and I needed to be in that space. Did it inform my designs as a student? Does it inform how we think about architectural design today? Yes, it does. But I think more from an emotional and creative regulation standpoint, it was critical more for those purposes. I would not have sacrificed my time in the orchestras for more architecture at all.” (01:18)
(11:16) Importance of activities outside architecture school.
“Hobbies of any level, either high-commitment or small, enjoyable things, are very important. If you love plants and you like taking care of plants for three hours on the weekend, make sure you do that. Anything that brings you enjoyment, peace, and makes you feel good is some sort of hobby, and it’s crucial to exist. It doesn't matter how busy you are with your job; you should always find a little room for those things. Because I do believe that if you skip them, at some point, it accumulates. Your emotion, exhaustion, ability to think creatively, be social, or be in a good mood just degrade.” (13:56)
(17:53) Making passion into a career.
“The thing (hobby) that was just for you is no longer just for you. Because as soon as you have to make money for it, that means someone’s paying you for it, and now it’s about them. That’s the problem with [turning passion into a career]... You start worrying about the buyers, the market, the listeners, the clients, and you have to think about them to survive. But if you're an artist, do you really care about the people buying your work? It's naive to say that if you love architecture, then have your own practice so you could do architecture all the time, and that will equal a much greater chance of happiness. It's not true. Architecture is tough. You can't do architecture without clients who have a lot of money and without a good team. There's a lot of other stuff that has to fall into place for you to do work that makes you happy.” (18:57)
(22:56) Influence of passion on architecture career.
“A consistent trait in some of the most interesting and successful people in and outside of the architecture industry is that they produce things that are somehow a mixture of elements that you wouldn't expect to be together. There's something about their background, experience, and education that is a little bit different. Those spices mix together to make something special. Sometimes it's obvious, and other times it's very, very subtle. It’s very easy to make the mistake of dedicating too much time to architecture… because rich architecture is informed by a deep understanding of life, people, landscape, and everything else, so, if you're not out in the world experiencing those things to a degree, then it's really difficult for you to make astute observations about a site, a place, and people to then create great architecture.” (23:56)
(26:44) School vs Work.
(39:39) Transitioning from school to work.
(46:06) Nightmare stories.
(52:39) Making time for hobbies.
“Having a hobby is also another way for architects to connect with another body of people who are not architects. One of the risks of our profession is that, in the end, you only end up being surrounded by architects. So having another arm out there that's reaching out to a different pocket of people and communities is very healthy.” (59:09)
