Elena Chestnova                                          

Overseas Student, who studied

at UK independent school

Third-year Architecture student

Looking back to my applicant days, I seem to remember encountering many pieces of writing which told me about the interdisciplinary nature of my subject. The recurrent phrases were “great opportunity for creative design”, “wide range of skills” and “drawing upon humanities as well as sciences”. These referred to the aspects that attracted me to the course in the first place and did not give the slightest idea of what it is really like to be an architecture student.

Upon arriving at university and re-emerging from the permanently alcoholically enhanced state of the freshers' week, I realised that it is in fact very hard to coherently describe an architecture student's life. The typical strategies of talking about a Cambridge course do not apply here because architecture stands very much apart from any other discipline taught at this university.

The teaching is constantly tied in with practical application, while providing the intellectual challenge equal to that of any other Cambridge tripos. From day one I found myself dealing with issues which belong to the world of everyday life while linking in with the tasks of the profession. I must say that I found my first project very obscure (I had to document the process of putting on a jacket!), but in retrospect I realise that it was aimed at breaking stereotypical views which we as first years might have brought with us from our previous spoon-fed education. This is very much coherent with the whole of the course, at least in as much as I have managed to understand it so far. We are all here to become independent designers, and to develop our thinking and judgement with the guidance of some of the top academics and professional practitioners in our subject. It is not easy. It requires effort and self-discipline as well as motivation. It is common for an architecture student to feel in doubt about whether what they are doing is right, simply because in our subject there is no clear-cut right. In the light of this it comes in useful to have done at least one of the humanities subjects for A-level, in my case it was History of Art along with Art, Physics and Further Maths. None of the aforementioned subjects is obligatory – I know plenty of people who found it manageable to cope without having not done art or any of the sciences. The Department of Architecture consists of people from varied educational and social backgrounds, which makes it a source of great social life and contributes to the atmosphere of the studio - which provides as much support and opportunity for learning as any part of the official system. All the architecture students have individual desks at the Department, where most studio work is done and much time is spent. Cambridge is unique in providing this facility for all three years. Also here, unlike at most architecture schools across the country, we are taught a lot of history and theory, which, apart from being of great interest themselves, provide a context for our studio work.

Architects have a legendary reputation among other undergraduates. My friends perceive the studio as some kind of a temple where I am obliged to live most of the time during term (this is mostly fulfilled only in short periods before deadlines). All the more relief getting back to college in the evenings – Clare is great fun and a very friendly place where I just happened to apply for no particular reason. I simply thought I like it. Now I think that this is exactly how it should be. After all we are all stuck here for at least three years (since it's pretty hard to drop out as we are told!) and being at a place one enjoys is very important for keeping your sanity while living an intense student life.

 

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