Getting Started
Students in studio at Carleton University. Image via Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism
Figuring out what to do in life isn't always easy.
For Gabrielle Argent, becoming an architect was an idea that emerged gradually.
She first studied fine arts and realized she didn't want to be a practicing artist. But, during sculpture classes, she discovered she enjoyed building things with her hands and making spaces.
"That's what first got me in the direction of architecture."
Gabrielle went on to complete an honours BA in art history in 2015. She explored her budding interest in architecture while writing her thesis. It was on the Dutch artist Constant Nieuwenhuys, whose work touched on architecture and the urban environment.
Still wondering about a career, she shadowed an architect for a day at his office.
"It was essentially a way for me to learn more about the field, but also to have something on my resume to show that I had tried to be proactive about finding out about architecture," she says.
"It definitely aided in my decision to go to grad school because I got to hear first-hand experiences from multiple people in the office."
Gabrielle Argent’s first degree is a Bachelor of Arts in the History of Art, Design & Visual Culture.
"How are they getting in?
Gabrielle also studied the sample portfolios online at the University of Calgary , thinking:
"Are these people like me? How are they getting in? What kind of portfolios are they making?"
Calgary is one of four universities offering a three-year master of architecture program. The three-year program is for people whose undergraduate degree is in a field other than architecture.
The other universities that offer it are Carleton University, University of British Columbia and University of Toronto.
"I knew a little bit about how to do a portfolio. I had to make one to apply to art school. But it was different from architecture. And it was a little worrisome. "
She created new work, including paintings, photographs, and drawings of places she visited in her hometown of Edmonton.
She then applied to three universities and was accepted by two of them. She decided on Carleton.
"They had very good funding opportunities. Ottawa seemed like an interesting city. It's close to lots of other places like Montreal and Toronto. I was reading about the faculty. They sounded interesting as well."
Diving into the new and "crazy"
That first semester, in 2017, Gabrielle created a design for a theatre on a canal, learned about site analysis, and attended lectures on "what is architecture?"
The biggest challenge was getting up to speed on design software such as Rhino and the Adobe suite. "I had never used any of that before."
Her classmates came from diverse backgrounds included planning, marine biology, and philosophy.
Together, they began to learn how to make architectural drawings such as plans, sections, and axonometrics.
"From what I understood, most people did have some kind of artistic capability," she says. "Maybe it wasn't hand drawing necessarily, but they could make things with their hands. Most of us learned to draw completely again because we had to learn to draw architecturally, which was very different from just sketching."
The second semester introduced critical thinking. That's where Gabrielle’s art history background, which included theory and criticism, was helpful.
"I was already programmed to analyze stuff in a certain way," she says. "I'm always very critical of why things are accepted the way they are."
The first year was also memorable for a "crazy" project: to design a building for three unrelated uses – social housing, beekeeping, and a columbarium.
"You had to expand your mind conceptually," she says. "Why are these things going together? How can you make them go together? How do you create something meaningful from the three of them?"
Sometimes, she couldn't sleep at night because of stress and worry. Mostly, she was happy.
"It was so different from anything I had done before."
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