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Thursday 4 February 2010

Stage 4 – Single line n concept stage


“Yea she is fine, in her final sem.. she has her concept stage submission no? So she is busy with that”

When you hear your mother talking ‘technical’ terms like “concept” “submission” “thesis” “review”.. you realise how much thesis has influenced your lifestyle and the ones who live with you..
Its that time of the thesis, when architecture students start talking philosophy , explore about human evolution or start to appreciate the elements of nature! Confused? Welcome to the CONCEPT stage..
Its THE word that haunts us since our 1st year of an archi life.. concept concept..! we get so bugged up that sometimes we come with our own proverbs like:
“Concept is not important. Comfort is important” - credits to R.

Deadline this time – Jan 29 (after a successful postponement from 28th . one day matters a lot) :P

The last five days before the submission was very crucial. Because, in that short period of time.. you have to finalise the concept, apply it and finalise the plans and work on the presentation.
For non-archi people who are reading this, the above mentioned process is not as easy as it seems and takes huge amount of scribbling, head banging, discussions, calculations, cups of coffee, days without bath, sleep, food etc ..
It is the finalisation or freezing of the design which takes time, once the design is finalised schematically, presentation consumes lesser time (relatively).

Finalisation of the design requires hours of brain storming! You have to curse, request and plead your brain to come up with something innovative/creative to attract the jury members :D

I remember a quote from the Calvin & Hobbes comic series:
C: Creativity cannot be turned on like faucet! You have to be in the right mood
H: What is the right mood?
C: Last minute panic


The problem is, the right mood doesn’t arrive until the night before submission! :P

After a mind bugging, mentally and physically distressing week.. we managed to submit our sheets. Some complete.
Some incomplete.
Some with awesome presentation work(thanks to juniors).
Some with AWFUL presentation(like me).

We had two days in between the review (weekend) which was meant for doing a study model. But given the level of frustration we had after a dreadful week, we preferred watching a movie than starting a model.. 2 movies back to back .. and we felt relieved :D

So asusual, the last minute story begins and we started with the model on Sunday evening, after a successful nightout and with help from Dad(he helped in cutting mount board) i managed to complete something which almost looked like a model!

I came to bed at 2:00 am and i was not getting sleep. Too many things were running in my mind, above all that was MONDAY! I had my review the next day..
I was awake for a long time and i don’t remember when i slept..

Feb 1 – Review day
The day greeted me with a (un)pleasant surprise. I was lot no. 1 .
Oh shit. Right from that moment, tension ran through me. Friends and my guide wished me all the best. It was a very tense moment ( only bcoz i was 1st )

I pinned up my sheets and saw 5 jury members in front of me sitting coolly. I started off, and for nearly 10mins my presentation was uninterrupted.

Mindvoice: wow i rock. They don’t seem to question me.. thats..
It was interrupted by the jury panel.

“Wait a minute, i don’t get it.. can u plz explain?”
And thus began my official review “kili” (local slang for getting bashed in the review)

They were displeased with whatever i had done! I started defending my design until a point of time, when suddenly one of the jury members said:

“This is not a viable solution.. this is very much UNACCEPTABLE! I guess this must be a half an hours work! “

Yea right. I stopped defending my design and became temporarily deaf and dumb!
There were many laughter, mocking, arguements and i was waiting for the two words:
“OK NEXT”

Finally the bell rang and i started removing my sheets, my guide who felt sympathetic towards me gave me some consolation!
But then, after few reviews, i realised it was the same case with most of the students(the kili i mean) . So i was satisfied :D

Everyone who came out of the jury room, looked exhausted and depressed after hearing continuous suggestions from the jury members.
Irony is that, the following was my fortune for the day(source: FB )

Here is your Today's Taurus Horoscope
Step back and let the experts take over today while you sit and watch -- and learn.


How true!! Stage 4 was not so good for many! Fingers crossed :(