Ask Me Anything: 2nd Year Architecture Student @ University of Bath

How are you enjoying your degree? What's your favourite and least favourite architecture style? What are some buildings which you admire and think are nice?

Reply 2

Ruwells

1

What made you choose bath to study architecture?

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Anonymous1502

How are you enjoying your degree? What's your favourite and least favourite architecture style? What are some buildings which you admire and think are nice?

The degree's really fun! There's about a 100 Architecture students in our batch, and we did the first semester parallel to Civil Engineering, so we learnt quite a few technical stuff too. Our course adds in snippets from other courses like Psychology, Art History and Law to deepen our understanding of Architectural principles.
Every Architecture style has its ups and downs, but I'd say my most preferred style would be a mixture of mid-century modern Western Architecture and traditional Japanese Architecture.
There's so many buildings I like lol, like the Shard, and Casa Mila, and Fallingwater, but it tends to be a specific set of characteristics that make me like a building.

Reply 4

Becca216

22

Is Bath a 'posh' place?

Reply 5

OP

Original post by Ruwells

What made you choose bath to study architecture?

Tbh when I was applying to unis, Bath was number 1 for Architecture in the UK, and that was my main influence. Looking online at the course content, it was clearly a more pragmatic course than other unis were offering, which was good cuz I tend to go towards the maths side than arts.
It clearly was the best choice I could have made though. Amazing campus, amazing course, amazing people. I wouldn't trade it for anything else :smile:

Also it is a small flex to be studying Architecture in a city that was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Reply 6

Braces

13

Original post by Ruveen

Hi there! I'm currently in the second year of BSc Architecture (with Placement) at Bath!
If you have any questions about the course, uni life in general, life of an international student, or even just random questions like "What's the best restaurant on campus?", ask away!

Ruveen,
2nd Year Architecture Student

Have you ever visited Bath before? And do you like the city?

Reply 7

OP

Original post by Becca216

Is Bath a 'posh' place?

The city itself is a traditionally white city, but "posh" would not be the right word for it. The university is actually separate from the city, it's on Bathwick Hill, which is one of the hills that surround the city, and the campus is very high quality, and posh, but in a good way. The people are very friendly and chill, so don't be worried about people being snobbish and uptight, it's not like the movies haha

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Braces

Have you ever visited Bath before? And do you like the city?

I'd visited it before in 2014, as a 13 year-old. It is a touristy city, so I think I just visited the Roman Baths, to the extent of my memory.
Having lived near the city for the past year, I really appreciate it as an Architecture student. The buildings are immaculate, the people are nice, there's no shortage of shops and restaurants to go to. Overall very good vibes. Even the night life is really fun (I probably shouldn't talk about the fun we had in the city on a public forum though lol, it IS a UNESCO World Heritage Site XD)
I will be living very close to the city this year, in Oldfield Park where most Bath students live in after leaving uni accommodation after first year. That area's also very nice, but not as busy.

What CAD software do you use to create architectural drawings? :smile:

I've sat next to a fair few architecture students in the design studio and i've never worked out what programme they were using to build floors, us product design students use solidworks but i would be interested to know what architecture students use :biggrin:

Reply 10

OP

Original post by CoolCavy

What CAD software do you use to create architectural drawings? :smile:

I've sat next to a fair few architecture students in the design studio and i've never worked out what programme they were using to build floors, us product design students use solidworks but i would be interested to know what architecture students use :biggrin:

Hi there!
We definitely do not use Solidworks haha, that's way too specialized for us.

For drawings (plans, sections, elevations, etc) we use AutoCAD 2020, but a lot of practices are moving from AutoCAD to Revit, where you can collaborate on drawings in real time with the Architects, Engineers, MEP Consultants, etc. providing a very whole idea of all the drawings for each member of the design team. (Of course we tend to do some post-drawing work on Photoshop, Illustrator and Indesign to make the drawings look good, and add colours and add aesthetic XD)

For modelling, we tend to use Sketchup Pro. It's very easy to learn and super useful once you get the hang of it.

To create the very cool 3D renders with sunlight and trees and lakes, we use either Lumion (standalone software that can import from Sketchup and Revit) or V-Ray (Sketchup extension)

Hope that helps!

Reply 11

Anonymous1502

Original post by Ruveen

The degree's really fun! There's about a 100 Architecture students in our batch, and we did the first semester parallel to Civil Engineering, so we learnt quite a few technical stuff too. Our course adds in snippets from other courses like Psychology, Art History and Law to deepen our understanding of Architectural principles.
Every Architecture style has its ups and downs, but I'd say my most preferred style would be a mixture of mid-century modern Western Architecture and traditional Japanese Architecture.
There's so many buildings I like lol, like the Shard, and Casa Mila, and Fallingwater, but it tends to be a specific set of characteristics that make me like a building.

What are some architecture pieces that you absolutely hate? For example I absolutely hate brutalist architecture. What technical things do you learn in architecture?

Reply 12

OP

Original post by Anonymous1502

What are some architecture pieces that you absolutely hate? For example I absolutely hate brutalist architecture. What technical things do you learn in architecture?

Lol ngl I'm not a huge fan of brutalism too.
Ummmm tbh I don't really HATE any famous buildings specifically, but there are quite a few general housing types that I loathe.
Haha we learn a LOT of technical things in Architecture, could you be more specific?

Reply 13

Anonymous1502

Original post by Ruveen

Lol ngl I'm not a huge fan of brutalism too.
Ummmm tbh I don't really HATE any famous buildings specifically, but there are quite a few general housing types that I loathe.
Haha we learn a LOT of technical things in Architecture, could you be more specific?

What do architects know or don't know that engineers do when it comes to technical things?

Reply 14

OP

Original post by Anonymous1502

What do architects know or don't know that engineers do when it comes to technical things?

Well Architects don't really need to know too much about the actual structural buildup of a building they design, or have to worry too much about services placement, since that's the job of structural engineers and MEP consultants. But we need an overall knowledge of everything since traditionally Architects lead the design team.

Reply 15

username4666328

13

Hello! I will be applying for chem engineering at bath for 2021 entrance. The only thing I am a bit worried is their reputation. UCL is ranked high on QS table but lower than Bath on other league tables nationally for chemical engineering. Also, I am well aware that the biggest difference between the two are student satisfaction.

Does Bath have good connections with companies? I want to get straight into a stable career after graduating. (I will do a placement year with a masters)

I might be doing environmental engineering in year 5 as well, are there lots of students studying for this degree? (I appreciate you won't know much about this topic, skip this if you want!)

Thank you in advance

Reply 16

Clez

What was your first bath like at the University of Bath? How did it score compared to all your previous baths on a scale of 1-26?

Reply 17

OP

Original post by 21allthebestx

Hello! I will be applying for chem engineering at bath for 2021 entrance. The only thing I am a bit worried is their reputation. UCL is ranked high on QS table but lower than Bath on other league tables nationally for chemical engineering. Also, I am well aware that the biggest difference between the two are student satisfaction.

Does Bath have good connections with companies? I want to get straight into a stable career after graduating. (I will do a placement year with a masters)

I might be doing environmental engineering in year 5 as well, are there lots of students studying for this degree? (I appreciate you won't know much about this topic, skip this if you want!)

Thank you in advance

Hi! I do know quite a few people doing chem eng here, and about 99% of the students manage to successfully get a placement. Bath does have very good connections with companies, although I'm not sure which ones they are linked with for chem eng.
I don't think a LOT of students will be studying environmental eng, but that's a good thing! Smaller courses let you have longer and more thorough tutorials with your lecturers, and allows for more in depth learning.

Hope this helps!

Reply 18

OP