Archi Jargons

Well, in every field you have special terms - almost insider's joke - that people in the profession know. So it is in Archi. Here are some of them...

Life (Or rather, the lack of)
The elusive thingy that eludes almost every Archi student (except the shens among us - see related entry).. granted, we have "Studio Life" (See entry below) , which is not bad either, but sometimes we do yearn to breathe the air outside studio without the burden of impending submission weighing heavy on our hearts...but how to have Life when Archi occupies you 24/7/365???

Studio Life
Can be literally translated as "living in studio", i.e. pitch your tent/ hammock / safari bed / sleeping bag on your favorite corner, to be used when you have Time (Another rare, precious commodity in Archi beside Sleep.) Studio Life consists of seeing the same people almost 24/7, (You're lucky if, like me, your studio consist of wonderful people, but woe betides if your arch-enemy is in the same studio...), working into the wee hours of the morning, glue-sniffing (No choice..when you make Models..can choose from about 8 types of glue, though!), supper (more like, breakfast VERY EARLY in the morning), watching legal/ pirated movies, walking to hall at 1 AM to shower, seeing your Studiomates get high and reveal their true colours....Man....I'm missing studio already....Oh, and most importantly, no matter what non-Archi students think, Studio Life is still a valid variant of Life!

Submission
It basically means the day the projects have to be submitted, and the nearing of Submission implies that Archi students will neglect other less important issues, such as Life and Sleep.
Do not be surprised if Archi students speaks of Submission in the tone normal people reserve for Armaggeddon or alien invasion. We are conditioned to think it's a life-and-death situation. Do be kind to your Archi friends near Submission. Asking "Where have you disappeared?" to an Archi student you know just had Submission is akin to asking "Sure, I know you just went to Afghanistan to fight the Taleban. Now where's my souvenir?"

Model
Exit Naomi Campbell and Lily Cole. Enter entities made of cardboard / wood / foam whose making is one of the main reasons we severely lack sleep. Rather than spending the night with Kate Moss, Archi students are much more excited passing the time making these building miniatures. Also,if you check the cameras / photo files of Archi students, they usually have TONS of photos of these models, from every conceivable angle, especially if it's a model of their own design. Ah well....I have to say that these are superbly gorgeous...much more than their human counterparts..

Parti
When and Archi student says "Party",banish all thoughts of fun and camaraderie cuz he/she probably means "Parti", alias a model used to illustrate spatial qualities of a building. So next time you hear us saying something that sounds like "party models" , rest assured that it doesn't mean gorgeous people hired to add spice to a party.

Studio
An artificial environment - air-con and 100% electrical lighting - geared to maximize productivity (read: an environment where we never know what time it is, sunrise or sunset, so we can slave away without realizing it.) Anyway, after spending days and nights in the studio, it will gradually feel like THE place to be. Nice thing about having a studio is you have a lot of storage and living space right smack in the middle of school. No wonder my friend say archi students no need apply for campus accomodation. The studio is free and full air-con!

The World
Anywhere outside studio.

Virgin
Someone who has never stayed overnight in the studio before. Term popularized by one of my studio mate who intends to stay a virgin for the 5 years in archi. Dream on, dude.

Shen
Comes from the mandarin word 'god'. It refers to the person who always finish his projects one day early, produces tons of super nice, gigantic models, drew 10 panels when people are supposed o hand in 6, AND manages not to have eye-bags. They are truly beyond us mere mortals.

Scoring
Scoring here does not involve a girl or a soccer team. It means painstakingly making fine lines on a cardboard using a cutter to create an embedded pattern. Potential disaster zone if you cannot control your own strength. A little bit more pressure, and that piece of cardboard you've been scoring for the last 1 hour is cut into two!

Sleep
Necessity, entertainment, luxury all rolled into one. The first and foremost activity that will come to an Archi student's mind when we hear words like 'free time', ;weekend' and 'holiday'.

Shopping
One of the few rare activities that will require an Archi student to venture out into The World. Shopping - for model materials, reference books, drawing paper, rotring etc - almost always involves a trip to Bras Basah, to visit a certain shop called Art Friend, well known for its unfriendly prices. (Also referred to as 'Leech')

Busy
A truly overused word in Archi. Well, after some time we don't even have the chance to say busy since we're always scrambling around doing the next project and Submission.

Light-boxing
Nope, it's not the cousin of Thai-boxing. Light-boxing involves a big light-box (duh..) which is like a glass table with a lamp below that we use for tracing.

"Good morning"
Saying "Good Morning" at 8 or 9 AM in the morning is passe. Be an Archi student and you get to say the phrase to your friends anytime between 00.01 to 06.00 am.

NUS Archi
THE place to be. If you want to slave away your youth, anyway.