Marianne Cadio
My third year has been possibly my most chaotic year yet. I started off my fall semester with a very intense co-op in Paris, did an on-campus semester where I familiarized myself with the PhD route of architecture and got the amazing chance to connect with so many people, and as I'm typing this, I am starting my 3rd co-op, and 2nd in Tokyo!
ARCHITECTURE
For this year's architecture, I only had one semester to improve myself in an academic setting but I truly think I was able to experiment much more than past semesters and learn about my work style as I work alone and as a team. This semester was the housing semester where we focused on different modes of housing, from duplexes, to transient housing, to a 100-unit apartment complex which we completed in pairs. The duplex felt definitely rushed as a project and I wished I'd asserted myself more in the limited manner I could for the design. As for the transient housing, a sort of apartment-hotel mix, I was quite satisfied with my concept and theory behind the project, and want to push myself a bit more with the graphics, but I think I did quite well with the time I had and while working with my professor! And finally I worked on a 100-unit apartment complex with a partner and for this I found myself surprisingly satisfied as we approached the end of the semester. We were able to balance deeper conceptual thought with more complex graphic styles which were all things I'd hoped to improve on.
SIDE QUESTS
Still exploring architecture, I completed a few activites outside of my school and internships. For example, I was able to compete in two competitions this year, a bathroom design competition, and a nuclear war memorial competition with a group, the latter getting shortlisted internationally. In addition to that, I had the lovely chance to take a class with some PhD students in my program, helping me learn more about that academic route and helping me meet plenty of amazing people. I started attending figure drawing sessions which have been a blast and an amazing way for me to keep up my art, and am now working with NOMAS' competition team to compete in a national design competition next year!
2nd CO-OP
My second co-op was with Tane Tsuyoshi Architects in Paris. This was probably one of the most intense internships I've experienced. The work was very interesting, though also disappointing in many senses. As the firm is more well-known, I got the lovely chance to interact with high-end clients, other famous design firms, and made an amazing number of connections through this experience. However, I also learned that much of the design process the firm boasted was more of a facade, and the actually internal structure of the firm was messy, patchy, and quite toxic. Many times the projects relied too heavily on the interns working illegally unpaid overtime and I even presented to clients because of the lack of preparation from my supervisors.
CAREER OPTIONS
This year I learned a lot of hard lessons, amongst others. As I worked with a wider range of international and european architects, I was able to learn more about the different work cultures around the world, and getting a glimpse into the more "glamourous" side of architecture taught me that many things aren't as amazing as they seem. And it also taught me that I do truly need to get better at setting boundaries. Talking to people at the more atelier-esque firms has also made me question if I want to pursue that route post-grad where I'd be working for insane hours with little pay. Perhaps academics are more of a feasible route than I had once thought.
This year has been integral in helping me decide what I want to do with my future, meeting more people has also widened my view of the world drastically. As I look back, I'm grateful for all the hard work I had myself do this past year and hope and believe I can keep it up for the future. Now as I move forward towards grad school applications, the question is what do I want to do with architecture? I hope to find and get into a school that will satisfy my growing love for design, my newfound admiration for theory and history, and my constant itch to put my hands to work in a real-life setting, both inside and outside the field. Let's see what happens!
