EXPANDING YOUR

HORIZONS
PRADEEP NAIK
1
During the first semester of my diploma, I had a lot of
obstacles. One of them was the coloring part in the Basic
Design subject. I struggled a lot with colors and mixing of
colors. This was because I had never done sketches or
drawings before entering Diploma nor in my school days. I
tried to imitate my friend’s sheet and the good sheets of
my classmates. But, I was not able to create the level of
sheets of my batchmates. So, during the initial days, I felt
like leaving architecture because of the quality of drawings
made by batchmates. But later after practicing I got the
grip on the coloring skills.

Later in my other semesters I had difficulties in drafting

sheets and understanding scales to which I had to draft
the drawings but later with help of one of my friends I was
able to understand the process of doing a sheet.

Later I opted for b.arch where my first semester was quite

good and easy as i had already learnt the basics of
architecture. In the second semester I learnt many new
things like in Architectural Design Studio, we had to design
a weekend house on a site with contours.

2
3
Contours were scary for me as I had not worked with any
site with contours previously. And as it was an online
session, I had to face a lot of difficulties because of Covid.
But, there I learnt many related things.

In the 3rd semester we had to design a school. It was a

tough site as it was in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan. So, its
context came into the picture. Then, the other subject in
3rd semester where I struggled was History, where we had
Indian temples with a lot of detailed sketches. Then the
climatology subject in which thermal comfort, sun path
and many other aspects were not clear to me. It was
challenging for me in that covid situation. Then the most
challenging subject for me was

Structures in which I had not understood anything during

my online classes. Perhaps because od covid I got
promoted Structures 3 which dealt with vectors. Then in
the fourth semester, there were not many obstacles that I
faced, except the Structures subject (RCC) part was there
in the portion and once again Covid saved me from
Structures.

4
5
6
Then in the fifth semester, we had a Library as the type.
Here there were a lot of functions to study compared to
the earlier semesters which had less functions. Then, in
the next semester, we had Campus Planning. This was a
huge scale function given to us which had lots of
departments in it like the Architecture department which
included B.Arch as well M.Arch. The site given to us was in
Ooty which required sloping roofs typology. Here, I
struggled a lot in the function and form part as well as in
concept selection.

One day I asked the faculty if I could proceed in B.Arch

further if my paintings and sketches are not so good. He
answered, yes, you can proceed. Then I started sketching
smaller objects and paintings, and a professor told me
about a few books such as Pen and Ink and many others
related to painting such as Color by Betty Edwards.

7
8
Through all this, my main inspiration was my Father.
Though he was from the business field, he started his
construction firm without any support and told me actually
how the work has to be carried out and how finances have
to be managed. From there, I gained more interest in the
construction field. I visited many projects around Belgaum
like apartments, villas to gain knowledge about site work. I
was influenced by the work of J&D Architects from
Bangalore and Samira Rathod's works. My inspiration in
this field was my sir, where I used to work as an intern
from my Diploma days. There I learned a lot of practical

From there, I gained more interest in the construction

field. I visited this influenced me to do back in those days
I wanted to end on just the Diploma degree, but my family,
friends, and mentor told me about the value of this degree.
During my Diploma days, I had been hating that faculty.
She used to trouble the students during the viva voice and
also the classes, but later in B.Arch starting semester I
realized her importance. The amount of knowledge she
shared during that time is nowhere comparable.

9
10
Early on, she used to tell me you leave the course and join
your fathers business, but then, later on, she guided me
how to go further after my Diploma was completed. She
told me what all changes need to be done and what all
challenges I might face further in my career. Another
obstacle I face from my childhood is stage speaking
which I'm trying to develop by participating in many ways.

Some significant differences between B.Arch and Diploma

which I felt were for example, during those days we had
BCM subject and they used to draw it on the board. We
were asked many questions there itself, mostly the last
benchers and Ii was one of them. They used to ask us
many questions while they were drawing on board, each
single size was by-hearted by us. But now, the procedure
here in B.Arch is different. We deal more with contents but
less with dimensions. Here we had Drawings with
standard sizes with Neufert’s sizes as well.

11
12
But in Diploma, it was not much in detail about different
building typologies.

Here there is a lot to explore about each typology. In

Diploma, concept and context was not used much as we
do it now for the Design Studios.. We also have a lot of
details in the drawings as compared to the Diploma level.
Another change that I felt here is that there are a lot of
stage activities in B.Arch compared to Diploma. Here I
gained a lot of confidence to go on the stage and speak
which I was lagging in the Diploma. There is a lot of group
work that needs to be done compared to Diploma, which
will help us in the future when running a firm or working in
a studio. Another big change is that we have individual
Mentors for every design studio we have done so far.

My goal after this is to have my own studio after practicing

2-3 years from now by gaining knowledge from the best
studios in Belgaum or in Pune or else if I get a chance I'll
do Masters. It all depends on how my internship and
Thesis phases go

13
Images in this Manifesto were generated using Stability
AI. Below are the Text Prompts.
● Page 3: .A boy finding difficulties in sketching

and painting.

● Page 5: A mentor giving tips and suggestions

to move in his career

● Page 6: confidence building and stage fear

● Page 8: Boy looking at others work

architecture, influenced, design

● Page 10: Boy learning from the basics

● Page 12: Boy achieving his dreams in

architectural career.

14
 “Expanding your horizons”
Written by Pradeep Naik
2gi19at038

Studio elective course:-18HUM7.11

Architectural journalism

Course faculty:-Surabhi naik

Department of Architecture
KLS Gogte Institute of Technology,Belgaum

15