Zachary Kunstman
University of Louisiana at Lafayette
Degree Program: Bachelor’s Degree
Year in School: 5th Year
Describe your studio culture.
Our studio culture ensures that both students and our professors learn from one another in a safe environment.
Give one tip that has helped you succeed in studio.
One thing that has helped me succeed in studio is realizing that there is life outside of studio through joining other organizations, participating in university traditions and through attending AIAS events and conferences.
What motivates you to work hard in studio?
Whenever I am asking myself at three in the morning I think of the need for our profession. Architects and designers alike are responsible for the quality of life for many persons in society; from the buildings people use to the products that they use in those buildings, designers can have a great affect on people. People, I want to design for people and design in a way that allows them to be the best they can be to ensure they can also make this world a better place for my generation and my children.
What aspect of your studio experience do you think will help you get a job?
Working in studio, one must learn how to work in a group of people who are sometimes involved in the same project you are, creating distractions for moments or hours and the collaboration of thoughts regardless their experience; knowing how to navigate this network may help me get a job.
What can professors do to create a helpful and supportive studio environment?
Professors can help create a supportive studio environment by being open to new ideas or thoughts and to consistently assist students who chose the more complicated components in construction or design complex buildings (above what is normally expected at their level of studio).
What should a high school student understand about studio at your university?
Studio becomes a family of independent and dependent students; working independently on their projects but sometimes being dependent with the collaboration of their peers ideas to keep a project going.
What can AIAS do to help improve your studio experience?
AIAS can improve students studio experience through taking students out of studio (the building) and by hosting a coffee work night at a coffee shop. We are constantly at our desks in our architecture buildings, if at these coffee work events members could get a certain percentage off I think it would be a way to help keep our students pushing through on their projects.
What would be in your ideal studio care package?
As a freshmen I would have loved some insider information on where to get certain materials needed for my design classes. As a more experienced student a test bank could be an essential study tool for those taking some of the harder classes such as physics, math, and civil engineering.
I love studio because:
I love studio because when we all work in studio, problems can be solved much faster by asking your peers over myself contemplating the same question sitting at home. Studio allows students access to instant critiques from my peers and make me think about how well I know what I am talking about so that when I explain it in class my thoughts are clear and well organized.
