How can high schoolers explore architecture?
Architecture blends art, engineering and how people live, and high schoolers can start exploring it now. Ways in include pre-college summer programs, the ACE Mentor Program, drawing and design classes, and model building.
In ACE Mentor, architects, engineers and builders guide high school teams through a design project. The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards also have an architecture and industrial design category. Some local firms and housing nonprofits host teen volunteers or job shadow days.
What should you look for in an architecture program?
Good programs teach you to sketch, build physical models and explain a design, not just use software. Ask whether working architects critique your work and what you'll take home at the end. Pre-college programs can be expensive and residential, so compare them with local mentoring, drawing classes and online CAD courses. Check whether your school offers drafting or engineering design classes too.
How can you start in architecture this month?
- Sketch one building in your town from three angles and note how people use it.
- Redesign your bedroom or a school space to scale on graph paper.
- Build a simple model from cardboard or foam board.
- Model your own home in a free 3D modeling tool.
- Photograph five places in your neighborhood that work well and five that don't, then write why.
Where Nextreks fits
Sketches, models, photos and the reasoning behind your designs make strong pieces in your Nextreks portfolio, and you decide which are public. Architecture relies on durable skills like communication and creativity, since every design has to be presented and defended.
Programs in Explore are run by other organizations. Nextreks lists them but does not run or guarantee them.