The Quack Architect

Honesty is refreshing.

I will never pretend to be what I'm not, which is a real architect.

I'm more of a writer, so I write.

Even as I did finish that lengthy five-year Architecture course in college back in the mid-80s.

Still, I'm a quack.

I had not taken up the board exams.

So, I got to graduate as architectural draftsman, building construction technician, and finally, as architecture grad.

All my classmates were beaming, wearing their togas, clutching at their hard-earned diplomas, and there I was, with a pained, unhappy expression on my face, distancing myself from them, knowing I was going to be a quack architect all my life.

Sure, I did the necessary drafting apprenticeship for a couple of well-known architects.

You know how it feels to pretend your heart is in your work, and that you know what you're doing?

I had no love for drawing endless tongue-and-groove illustrations, to signify wooden flooring, but in this case, I was asked to draw it for the ceiling, as the Chinese clients wanted it for their four-story building.

How mechanical I had become!

Those were the pre-computer, pre-CAD days, and we did it all by hand, by pencil, by ink, by tracing paper, by watercolor, by blueprint.

I knew I was not going to end up as an architect, so I was careful about asking my father for stuff needed in my course.

He was a very hardworking physician, and I couldn't bear to ask for anything.

I knew I was going to disappoint him.

It was only as I neared my thesis, that I finally asked to buy a lettering set, for it was needed.

It took me that long.

I couldn't ask for an expensive tool, that eventually won't get used anyway.

Throughout college, I asked for nothing.

Well, except for that obligatory lettering set.

But surely, I learned from Architecture, yes?

You bet!

Lots, and lots, and lots.

And that's no quackery.

The next post tells you what I learned from Architecture.

Published on 25 May 2020

(Updated 28 September 2023)