My Future Trajectory

I have a strong driven passion to become an Architect, however, the professional studies 3 module has opened my mind up to different means of approach to an end goal that may ultimately be different to the one I currently foresee. I have carried out 6 years of Architectural education, including 1 year of professional experience, and I am still yet to fully involve myself in back-end development, construction and project delivery. I truly believe this is a vital skill for what I intend to be doing as a professional and I am keen to attain as much of this experience as I can as young professional. In addition to this, I believe that engaging in procurement from the offset in my career will be crucial for me as I continue to grow as an Architect as I believe that working in RIBA Stage 4 and onwards interests me much more than early brief writing and conceptual design.

My reasoning for not wanting to become a design-led architect in construction is that within a design and build lead industry there is little say for the conceptual designer. My goal is to working on projects that have a major impact on the communities that we live within and if I can have a greater influence working on project delivery, within a contractor-led team, then this is something that is of a great interest to me. I have been looking at other roles within construction in order to attain early experience in the later work stages such as consultancy roles, specification and design management. The avenue that interests me the most is that of a design manager working for a contractor, however, I am still unsure on the transition from architecture school to construction management and this is something I would be looking to seek advice on. When leaving Manchester School of Architecture, I intend on staying within Manchester as I believe the opportunities that are currently here will be incredibly valuable to me, especially with the current boom in construction in Greater Manchester. My only criticism on Manchester practice in comparison to London is the number of practices that use a computational, algorithmic approach to design, however this is a skill set that I will hold highly and begin to introduce into conversations with future colleagues and senior staff, should a specific project benefit from such a design approach.

[Fig.24] Future Trajectory