Jacob Down

'It's not only a job, it's an education.'

This is a recurring phrase within Patel Taylor, where I am employed as a Part 1 architectural assistant. It is a phrase that I enjoy and believe is relevant – as I learn from the profession, and the student community inject energy, curiosity and new architectural thought. It reminds me exactly why I wanted to be an architect in the first place

During the summer months of my undergraduate degree at Plymouth I worked for a small Cornish practice - preparing drawings and digital 3D models for client and planning approvals, as well as informally interacting with clients and attending site visits. This prior practical experience resulted in a smoother transition from the theories and concepts explored in academia to the workplace of a practicing architectural studio.

Patel Taylor undertakes a whole spectrum of work at varying scales. I have spent the majority of my time within a dedicated team working on school projects though I also get resourced onto other projects for short periods of time when necessary. My final third year degree project was actually a secondary school, so I have been able to utilise this recently acquired knowledge in my work.

For example, assisting the project architect, I produced a set of coordinated drawings for client and planning approval, attended design meetings and built a digital 3D model for visualisation purposes. Manipulating drawings and rendered images, expressing their architectural intent and making them visually beautiful by means of the latest techniques is straight from the training grounds of workshops and university studios.

However the task of drawing details of bespoke acoustic panelling was a challenging new experience. And as I currently embark on preparing complex production information, I am humbly reminded, it's not only a job, it's an education.

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