Do you remember the first time?

I hated every crit I ever had but I can’t say I remember many of them as I was usually well full of dutch courage before I stood up. It’s basically a panel of half arsed “architects” trying to win points over each other by trashing the work of some poor sod. I remember one professor reducing a girl to tears then turning to the next victim and greeting them with ” I hope you’re not going to bloody cry”

On a related note myself and 4 other architects (all 10+ years qualified) agreed in principal last night that the University years were, in effect, totally useless as far as our careers panned out. I can honestly say that I could have gone straight into an office and learned more about the real world of architecture / business than I was ever taught in college.

But then again, I might never have had my thesis described as rubbish by Richard Rogers.

i once had lecturer from the AA stand up in my crit and act out a scene from pulp fiction exclaiming redfaced with excitement ” samuel L jackson makes killing look cool” while shooting an imaginary person on the ground with his fingers. i’m still trying to figure out what that had to do with my scheme for an beach hut. He was also the same guy who put us through a 1hour and 45 mi lecture on the new york gay ballet scene. Once again i’m still trying to figure out what exactly it had to do with architecture!?

we once had a crit where the visiting critic was from sutherland and hussey in glasgow, i forget which one is which. anyway, he pretty much harrased this girl to tears, telling her repeatedly how she wasn’t confident enough to be in architecture, how he didnt understand her, that her work was rubbish, even that her accent was too strong. all of which was bullshit as she was pretty talented, she left the course within weeks of that experience.
the other tutors sitting beside the pompous prick said nothing.