Action Plan

After finishing my first year on the Interior Architecture course, I think I have become a lot more aware as to what being an interior architect will be like. In total we had 9 projects throughout the year, and I think I preferred the more architectural side to them, rather than the interior part. I also like designing my own furniture and objects, which could also be another possible career to consider. I’d have to say that my favourite projects would be ‘Castles in the Sand’ or ‘Park Hill Flats’. Although I did enjoy our last one, The Church Renovation project, I don’t feel like I achieved my full potential.

When I first started this course, I was quite familiar with Photoshop, and had used Illustrator a few times before but was not fully confident with it, but now I feel like I have a good knowledge of both of these programs and have definitely improved my skills on both. I was very confident with Google Sketchup before I started this year, as I had used it in my last course, and at school before that, as well as using it at home to create things. One thing I wasn’t confident with at all was AutoCAD. I had used it years ago in school, although the AutoCAD I had used was to create 3D Models, and was very complicated to use, whereas this one, although still quite complicated, was for drawing floor plans neatly, and accurately. I can use this more now and have found easier ways of drawing floor plans will experimenting at home, but I think there is still room for improvement next year.

I feel as though my overall visual presentations on boards have improved since the start of the year, as well as my ability to explain my work to either a client or my tutor. I still find it difficult to present in front of large groups of people though, especially when I have to stand up in front of everyone. I feel more comfortable with a relaxed presentation, like the one with Simon Gregory. My SWOT analyses have helped me understand my weaknesses, giving me an opportunity to improve on them, or find ways around them, as well as seeing my strengths and maybe gearing my work towards my strong points.

My goals for next year would have to be to really push myself on projects, because I don’t want to just skate by another year, I want to be able to see what I’m really capable of and achieve something better than average. I want to be able to improve my time keeping, set certain hours aside in the day to focus on college work, and become generally more organized. I want to improve on my writing skills as well. English is not one of my strong points so I will find this difficult to accomplish, but as long as I work on it, I’m sure I will improve.

I think that overall I am happy with what I have learned over the year, but I’m not as happy as I’d like to be with the quality of work I have produced, and next year I’d like to really push myself and see what I can really do when I put my mind to it.

Wow..^Essay much!?