Out of Architecture is both a call to reassess the architecture
profession and its education, and a toolkit for graduates and working
architects to untangle their skills, passions, and value from
traditional architectural practice and consider alternate pathways.
Written by design professionals and expert career consultants, this book
is informed by numerous client accounts as well as the authors' own
stories and routes out of architecture. The initial chapters follow the
narrative of a typical architecture training in the US, highlighting the
many highs and lows, skills honed, and ultimately the huge disconnect
that can occur between architectural education and practice. Subsequent
chapters explore a disillusionment with the profession, unhealthy work
cultures, mentorship, working with lead architects, toxic perfectionism,
and the notion of a "calling." Authors then present the hopeful accounts
of many architects who escaped a profession known for its grueling
working conditions to find fulfilling, well-paying, creative jobs that
better utilize the skills of architecture than the architectural
profession itself.
Written in a unique combination of storytelling and analysis, this
patchwork of client and author stories makes for an immersive,
provocative, and enjoyable read.
A wide range of architecture students, graduates, educators, and
professionals will recognize themselves within the pages of this book
and find prompts to reassess their working practices, teaching styles,
and the profession itself. It will be of particular value to those
students skeptical of joining the architecture workforce, as well as
those further along and considering a career change.
