<p>aside from cs... im also considering architecture as a major since i enjoyed physics... love design... etc...</p>
<p>but does it require a lot of artistic skill? i hear architects typically do a lot of design on the computer nowadays anyway...?</p>
<p>believe it or not, cs and architecture have many things in common...it's pretty interesting. if you like the physics of architecture, then do civil engineering, because arch school is all design-based. </p>
<p>artistic skill is a vague term to define...in terms of your ability to paint or draw... no. but in terms of your ability to be a creative problem solver, creator, spatial thinker and idea thinker, yes. </p>
<p>everything is computer based now but that doesn't mean there's no creative freedom in that either. there's a lot of potential behind digital art.</p>
<p>Just because architecture is created on a computer doesn't mean that there is no creative skill. The computer is only a tool to communicate the design. You still need to understand/learn what it means to be creative within the architectural process.</p>
<p>yeah, i understand that. i have no problem really with creativity. im just not sure about the hand-drawn aspect of arch.. but since you both seem to be saying that computer design plays a big part of it, i think it wont be much of a problem. thanks for your replies :)</p>
<p>Hand drawing and model making still play a huge role in presentation work in architecture school</p>
<p>See Student work at Harvard,
<a href="http://studioworks.gsd.harvard.edu/browse/launch.html%5B/url%5D">http://studioworks.gsd.harvard.edu/browse/launch.html</a>
(click on the student's names ot see the projects)
and at Cooper
<a href="http://www.cooper.edu/architecture/design/2005show/thesis/thesis01.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.cooper.edu/architecture/design/2005show/thesis/thesis01.html</a></p>
<p>Lots of models in those pictures...</p>
<p>At my school, you do only hand drawn and hand-built stuff for the first two years. After that it's computer work. Also, architecture is very design-based, but it's possible to get into the engineering side sometimes too. I'm doing structural engineering and architecture (difficult combo for sure, but possible...)</p>
<p>Creativity will always be important, computer or not. Also, digital presentations add a new level of creativity because of what photoshop and 3-d modeling software can do that you used not to be able to do by hand. Even though my studio is computer-based, we still have to build physical models to understand a lot of things. 3-D modeling can only do so much because it's still viewed in 2-D. If only we had a 3-D printer. But anyways...</p>
<p>The creative part of architecture is hard mostly because you have to be continually creative...always coming up with new stuff, sketching...your design never ends. And once you have your design, you have to present it creatively.</p>