Offered in collaboration with X-Pican, the Alumni Association of Pillai College of Architecture
| Course Title | Professional Communication Skills for Architects |
| Resource Faculty | Ms. Sarita Ramamoorthy |
| PiCA Faculty Co-ordinator | Prof. Smita Dalvi / Prof. Shubhangi Bhide |
| Duration- Dates and Total Hours | 24th to 28th September, 2018, Total 30 Hours |
| No. of Students attended | 352 |
Biography of the Resource Faculty
Sarita Ramamoorthy is a freelance content writer & the founder of The Orange Box (www.theorangebox.co.in), for professional writing services. As a professional, she has worked for over twelve years in different capacities with International and Regional Non-Governmental Organisations. She lived in Nepal for over 4 years, where she taught English language skills and business communication skills to students and working adults from all over the world.
Course Description
Effective communication skills, especially writing skills, are not just for careers in journalisms or writing novels. If you have ever struggled to convince someone, you are familiar with the challenge. As an architecture student, you need to communicate your design with your peers, and your professors; as an architect, you will need to communicate with builders, peers, clients, home owners, vendors, etc. Almost every job, including architecture, requires a large amount of communication. Good communication skills can help you come across as more credible, more capable, and more professional.
Course Objectives
Participants will learn the following:
Explore ideas using words, and sentences.
Identify, analyze and summarize main ideas, and arguments.
Develop professional communication skills for a range of situations.
Express ideas with confidence and clarity, supporting persuasive and logical arguments.
Course Outcome
Reading, writing & presentation skills
Course Plan
| Date | Unit No. | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 24th September, 2018 | 1 & 2 | 1. Reading a. Techniques of reading (skimming, scanning, intensive, extensive) b. Activities: reading for comprehension, answering different types of questions. 2. Writing – Part A a. 7 c’s of writing b. Planning before you begin |
| 25th September, 2018 | 2 & 3 | 2. Writing – Part A a. Making sentences effective 3. Speaking on architecture a. 2 to 5 minutes activities on speaking about architecture, cities, spaces, etc. b. Tips for presentations |
| 26th September, 2018 | 2 & 4 | 2. Writing – Part A a. Making paragraphs effective b. Proofreading c. Activities 4. Using Narratives for Design a. Using narratives to strengthen the design process b. Read ’10 stories: writing about architecture’. |
| 27th September, 2018 | 5 | 5. Exploring ideas a. Mindmapping b. Brainstorming c. Verbs by Serra / analogues by Gosta d. Verbal Concepts e. Design Process f. Ways to organise information g. Creating outlines h. Thesis statement |
| 28th September, 2018 | 6 | 6. Writing – Part B a. Academic vs business writing b. Emails c. Key Phrases Narratives a. Activities: short narrative piece/s of writing b. Writing your own story c. Production: 10 Stories were produced by the participants- “About Architecture-By Almost Architects” |
SAMPLE OUTPUT
Story 1: The Black Kitchen
By Savina Shetty, 4th year.
About Savina:
Savina is a student of the fourth year at Pillai college of architecture and loves to describe her experience through her photography.
Every year during my summer break, I used to visit my grandma’s house. It was a typical big vernacular house, which could easily accommodate 100 people at a time. Each wall in every room had a story to tell.
The black kitchen was not some dark mysterious place but a place quite close to my heart. All the walls were painted in black because the light colors would eventually turn black. The kitchen was divided into two rooms. In one room the food was prepared on dikkel (chulha) and in the other room, all the preparations for the food used to take place. Though the two rooms appeared small, one could easily prepare food for a large number of people.
The smell of the burning wood, the smoke surrounding the room made me feel like I was inside a thick blanket. As I write about this, I can still feel the essence of the place. Tears roll down my eyes when I recollect all the memories. I remember sitting in the corner of the room, eating my dosa and my grandma putting ghee and sugar on my plate so that I can eat well. Whenever I played hide and seek with my cousins that room was my favourite place to hide in.
For the last few years, our house had been facing some construction problems and with a heavy heart, we had to rebuild the house. It has been a year since the new house has built but we all miss the old house. I especially miss the womb-like dark kitchen with the surrounding smoke that kept me warm.
Story 2: The Golden Garden Days!
By Shrutee Chaskar, 2nd year.
About Shrutee:
Shrutee Chaskar is a second-year student of Pillai college Of Architecture. Along with designing and dancing, writing interests her the most. She has a page ‘Soft Secrets’ on Instagram, where she has posted poems and quotes written by her.
When our tuition classes were canceled or when we finished school or even when we didn’t know where to go, we used to end up at the CIDCO garden in Sector-10. It is one of the largest gardens in Panvel.
One has to buy a ticket to enter the garden. There is a huge gate at the entrance standing to welcome you. The lanes of the garden are wide, and eight to nine of us could easily walk together, taking selfies along the way.
We jumped into the pond in the center to play throw ball. We used to climb on to the roof of the gazebo, under which other people used to sit. People used to come, and some used to practice dancing. Once, some movie was also shot in the amphitheater.
We used to play football, cricket, hide n seek, chain – chain and many other games. We also made friends with three young kids, who used to join us every time we went there. The big tamarind tree was our ‘adda’. It was our favourite spot to sit under and share horror stories.
Sometimes we used to climb the tree and click photos. It was great fun to race each other to climb the tree.
Once when our classes were canceled, we decided to jump over the fence to get inside the garden, which was closed. But then the security guard saw us and threw us out of the garden. As a revenge, we decided never to buy a ticket again, and jump over the fence every single time.
