Why I decided to become an architect

I did not decide to become an architect. My mother did. I knew I was somewhat good in Art, and my grade proved it, but I wanted to go into Science. I had Chemistry and Nuclear Physics for my first two choices. And then thirdly, Architecture. I knew at the back of my mind that I had Architecture to fall back to.

My mother was overjoyed when I got to do Architecture locally. I had a lukewarm feeling. I felt sad that I could not go overseas.

I hated first year. I did not like doing models and more models. I did not enjoy those projects. I started liking Architecture when I was in second year. My seniors in the 3rd year had quite an influence on me. They were passionate about architecture.

But I liked Architecture from the teaching point of view better. I remembered in Form Four I loved Biology and wanted to dissect frogs and do experiments all the time. I loved it when my Physics teacher in Form Five demonstrated "centrifugal force" by spinning some device around the lab. I loved the "alpha, gamma and theta rays" and all that scientific discoveries in Physics.

Circumstances or fate had presided over my life's proceedings. Architecture overruled my career path. After second year I trudged on regardless of repeating my third year. But local university had its limitations. I needed to expand my horizon and managed to get a MARA loan.

Needless to say, I excelled in Architecture when I was in the U.K. I wanted to be a designer so badly. I managed to do my practical year out training right in the middle of London, with five minutes walking distance to the AA School of Architecture. I attended their evening lectures and saw Zaha Hadid, Peter Cook, Morphosis and many other famous names. RIBA evening lectures were 20 minutes walking distance the other way.

The 1992 UK recession did not allow me to work in the UK and I had to return to Malaysia. If there were no recession, I might have become a designer / architect for longer. I did not really enjoy practising in Malaysia. It was too bullish and architectural firms generally did not like to spend on "training", so the Part 2 Graduate Architect is dispensable.

I decided to pursue being a lecturer and I started out in UTM Skudai. And the rest could be discussed over a cup of tea...

See the link on this blog on other people's view on "Why I decided to become an architect"