Are you an Architecture Student? - 5th Edition

YEM Yayın has published the enhanced 5th edition of the book Are You an Architecture Student? written by Prof. Dr. Havva Alkan Bala.

For architecture students, particularly in their first year when they are introduced to their profession, the experience can be quite challenging for some. Havva Alkan Bala, as a former architecture student who went through this process and an architecture instructor who closely observes it, addresses young aspiring designers in her book:

“I understand what you are going through. Calm down, it's normal to be bewildered, but your questions have answers...”

Havva Alkan Bala begins the book with a letter addressed primarily to the parents of young aspiring architects:

“... We know that after your child, whom you raised with so much effort, became an architecture student, some of their habits started to change from the very first year. By the end of the first semester of freshman year, you might not recognize your child anymore; don't panic. Especially dear mothers, please put your worries aside. We know your child's way of speaking, clothing choices, room, and friendships have changed a lot. Their room has turned into a 'dump' with sketches, model scraps, and rows of coffee cups! You find it hard to understand why your child, who used to agree with you easily, now constantly criticizes, questions, and even acts a bit 'know-it-all'. Actually, the situation is not as complicated as you think. Your child is just attending architecture school, that's all. At the end of the process, both you and your child will receive your reward....”

She then turns to the young designers and lists the questions they constantly seek answers to in their minds and frequently encounter in their surroundings; she shares her answers in a sincere and simple language:

“Is architecture a matter of talent? I can't draw, how will I be ready? What is an architectural studio? What good are juries? Are you an interior or exterior architect? What kind of life is there after school? These questions go on and on... But don't worry. You will try to find your own way during your school years. This effort will end when you discover that school is only a place that teaches you 'how to learn' and 'how to develop by drawing from different fields, not just one channel of information'...”

After the highly popular first edition, Havva Alkan Bala revised the book, considering suggestions and critiques from readers and academics, and enhanced its content. In the enhanced second edition, with approximately 40% more pages, Havva Alkan Bala added new chapters such as “Will Artificial Intelligence Replace the Architecture Profession?”, “What is an Architectural Studio?”, “What Good Are Juries?”, “To Those Who Ask What Should I Read?”, “What Did Readers of This Book Say?”. She summarizes her reason for undertaking this work as follows:

“Architecture students – who will be referred to as owls in this book – sometimes struggle greatly as they face the unknowns of the new design world they have entered. Architecture is not a chosen profession; it is a way of life and thinking. Throughout history, the actors of the act of building have been described as mysterious, impressive, and charismatic individuals. This book is written with the aim, feeling, and intention of providing some tips to make the lives of owls easier. The book makes no claim other than to 'inspire' new enthusiasms through the sharing of past enthusiasms experienced in the architectural education environment. During my twenty-four years as an educator in various architectural schools, my sharing perhaps made the exciting and traumatic dimensions of being an 'architecture student' apparent as a natural part of architectural education. This realization awakened the urge to share and, ultimately, the feeling of 'write to get rid of it'. So I wrote. Hopefully, it will be useful to the reader…”