Today I sat the final exam for what has probably been the most enjoyable course that I have studied during the last four years, the ambitiously titled “History of Construction”. The course took place not at Les Ponts, but at the neighbouring architecture school EAMLV
The lecturer expertly lead us through building sites from Egypt to Millau and described building materials as diverse as granite and linoleum. But what got me really excited about the course was being in a room full of real live architects. All those asymmetrical haircuts, those interesting glasses. From the outset I fully expected to see my own haircut lose its symmetry and that my sight should deteriorate sufficiently for me to make a purchase at the opticians. I imagined myself sitting among the trendies, smoking cigarettes with my new friends (smoking is clearly an initiation rite).
In the end, it didn’t quite work out like that. On the plus side, the lectures were excellent and really quite inspiring: it constantly reminded me of all that stuff about why I went into engineering. I have to say that unlike my other exams here, this one wasn’t such a hit and miss affair. But lets look at the bad side… I left the architecture school for the last time looking less trendy than I did at the outset (I got dressed in the dark this morning), my eyesight is just as good as it was before, and I haven’t managed to give up “not smoking”. As for new architect friends, well there was this one guy who I was chummy with, who used to say hi and stuff, but when it came to saying goodbye, both of us knew there was no need to exchange emails. All I could muster when shaking his hand was a feeble “on se revoit sur un chantier un jour” (see you one day on a building site). Disaster.
Leave a Reply