As many people know, presentations can be a battlefield pitting you against a room full of strangers or peers! Well, architecture students happen to be veterans when it comes to presentations, critiques, or “pin-ups,” but they all started somewhere. Students often find themselves trapped working long hours to make quality graphics and models but fall short in communicating those same ideas. Our team realizes that final crits are coming up, so we wanted to share some presentation tips and soft skills to take into the battlefield with you!
A good presentation allows an audience to understand, be more engaged, and increase their receptiveness to an architectural concept. So, we will be speaking from our team’s personal experiences, giving you several paths to develop this particular skill. Everyone has unique attributes to their personality, so make sure to re-evaluate how these tips will fit with your communication style as you adopt these tips!
If you haven’t already, make sure to read Utilizing Crits to Your Advantage because we shared several ways how to leverage critiques to advance your project and expand architectural knowledge. If you combine both these articles, we’re positive it can make a great difference in your education!
Before the Presentation
Before anything, it’s important to plan several days ahead, establishing what you will present, who you are presenting to, and how you will begin that conversation. It sounds easier than done, but learning how to stop additional design changes and prepare for the presentation is another important lesson to learn early in your education. We lightly touched on this subject in All-Nighter Culture in Architecture; nonetheless, having a self-defined deadline before any presentation will allow you to digest your project too! During this process, identify your audience and consider how to communicate your ideas to them like vocabulary, graphic presentations, and models. In past experiences, having a large model to showcase details or a small model that can be passed around proved to be a great way to engage any audience during a presentation.
Be prepared to answer questions about your architectural concept or rebuttals. It’s your project, and there are specific design decisions that you chose to forego, so it’s crucial to understand your design solution and shortcomings. This isn’t to undermine your solutions; rather, it’s to showcase that you’ve thought about several scenarios of why you’re confident that your concept will be “successful.” Design is subjective, but it doesn’t mean there isn’t a plausible argument for certain design decisions.
Lastly, rehearse your presentation with a peer to see if they can understand your architectural concept clearly. This exercise is probably best with those who haven’t seen or discussed much with you about your project to get an unbiased opinion. This is also the time to accurately know if your graphic presentations reflect the amount of talking you will do. The worst part of a presentation is when an individual paints an amazing picture verbally, but the audience cannot see it anywhere. Don’t let this happen to you! This serves as a great practice not to over-sell or under-sell a concept but to deliver what’s necessary at the design stage you are in.
During the Presentation
It can be nerve-wracking to stand in front of an audience, but make sure to introduce yourself first and then introduce the design problem you are trying to solve with your design. You’d be surprised how many times I’d forget to introduce myself when presenting; this doesn’t make a great first impression at all! It’s also a great way to adjust your demeanor and loosen up nerves by just saying, “Hi, my name. . . and this is my project.” This may not fit your communication style, but something similar can still be equally beneficial before diving into your concept.
After the introductions, elaborate your concept while walking through specific drawings and use hand gestures to make sure the audience knows where you are at all times. Another great tip is to keep a visual connection with your audience, keeping them engaged and receptive. An additional benefit to visual contact is its ability to reduce the duration that your back is turned towards a single side too much. I’ve been in a handful of presentations with this scenario, and it made it difficult to see drawings and hear the presenter’s architectural concept. I almost forgot, too – slow down and speak up!
Humans tend to talk quickly or talk softly when nervous, neither of which is favorable for the presenter. Hard is an understatement, but these unconscious behaviors just require practice and patience to shed!
There are two essential things to pay attention to throughout the process; time and script. They are important factors to retain attention from the audience, even with amazing models and graphics present. Avoid reading a script to your audience! Instead, hit several key points in your project worth discussing or a problem requiring further analysis from the viewers! As we all know, humans could only stay attentive for a period of time; although varying greatly, it’s still something to keep in mind when standing in front of a crowd. In an article released by the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in 2016, Neil A. Bradbury discusses why TED talks are given an 18-minute limitation on their presentations. The article focused on durations of class lectures, but we can translate the same environment to critiques. Despite being released in 2016, the notion still applies when we present our projects – keep your presentation simple and straightforward. Also, please keep in mind, the time period doesn’t apply to answering closing questions.
However, it’s difficult navigating time when you are constantly interrupted by a member of the crowd or outside disruptions, causing you to lose focus. Now, there are several ways to handle interruptions based on the source, but an excellent way to keep track and pick up where you left off is if you can quickly write the last phrase or thought you had in a notebook. This way, when the distraction is gone, it’s as if you weren’t interrupted at all. Unfortunately, what do you do when a critic goes off a long tangent? It’s a frustrating moment that I’ve experienced when I stood 10+ minutes listening to tangents and unable to finish my presentation. Take this time to recollect your thoughts, and interject respectfully, saying, “I apologize, but there’s not enough time to present my architectural concept before having to move on. May I please continue?” or “That’s a really good point. I would like to address that in just a bit – or at the end of the presentation.” I understand this may be too direct and hard for some to utilize, which is why having a notebook and pen accessible to jot down notes of where you are in the presentation will work with many! Despite this, you shouldn’t be writing down the comments during the presentation – have a note-taker do this task. You should be focused on delivering a good presentation without the hassle of attempting to remember what a specific individual critique was!
Ending the Presentation
A great way to end presentations is to summarize key concepts that you believe makes your project strong in solving the design problem(s). This will give your audience time to digest and another clear picture of your project! Make sure to end the conversation by asking if anyone has closing questions or comments they like to raise and thanking the audience before moving onto the next individual. Don’t take any critique personally because it’s a way to advance your project and build architectural knowledge. If you’re unsure of any comments, ask for clarification! A good presentation will provide more answers and even more questions.
We hope you enjoyed this article demonstrating some great techniques and tips for pin-up time! As mentioned earlier, there are no right answers or ways for presentations. We recommend you continue to push the boundary and innovate on this front as well.
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