助理建筑师 羲和清零 011

Assistant Architect by Xi He Qing Ling

Chapter 11: Homework

When asked, Zhang Siyi was also a little overwhelmed. What are his thoughts and ideas? His mind was a mess from the meeting with Gu Yu just now.

Even so, he knew Du Rui was feeling distraught so he took the opportunity to ease the tension between them and offered a generic reason: “I first made a list, categorizing the functions of the space, like eating, sleeping, and bath… then, I imagined myself living in the apartment and asked myself how I would want the flow of space to be like. For example, I want to see the entrance of the living area, but don’t want to see the small bedroom right away so I put it to the right side and attached it to the balcony.”

He glanced at the Du Rui drawings. Because she draws them in color with such precision, he didn’t look at the details. They were so beautifying to look at, it was easy to overlook its faults.

Until Gu Yu pointed them out, Zhang Siyi discovered the many problems of her plans.

He continued: “Although the internal planning of the district has been done, the environment can’t be ignored, so we have to investigate the site map before making a design decision. See here, the land to the southwest will be green space so If we put the living room or balcony in this direction, there will be a very good view of the landscape. But in your design, you ignored the potential view, and placed the balcony where there is a low building. Even though the building will be demolished to solve the problem of low light, wouldn’t the nice view be better overall?” 

As Zhang Siyi explained, he watched Du Rui’s expressions. He could see her in rapt attention and listening closely to his words. Her features slowly softened and she relaxed. He went on to voice his thoughts and teach her without reservation.

Without realizing it, the two of them spent half an hour discussing ideas . Du Rui listened for a long time and said with sincerity: “It’s no wonder Director Gu recruited you. You are really amazing.”

After listening to this praise, Zhang Siyi was a bit flattered. He scratched his head and said: “I don’t know if my thoughts are right, but it is the method my design teacher taught.”

The two inquired about their respective universities, and Du Rui graduated from the architecture department of a general university in China.

She smiled bitterly: “I too have learned design theory, but we rarely put it to practice. Mostly, the drawing itself was only analyzed without much input about its function. At the time, our design school had a strange ethos. The one with the most praise was the design with the most visual appeal. The beautiful, dazzling picture got the highest remarks. When I began working In Boundless, it was very confusing and I became distraught because I’ve made the plans like I was taught, but the director would always criticism me. I didn’t understand what type of mistakes I was making. After listening to you today, I feel a little bit… Well, the design process is really complicated.”

Zhang Siyi was startled at Du Rui words. In fact, he doesn’t find it hard at all.

When Zhang Siyi was studying, starting from the initial site analysis, to environmental analysis and to the core functionality, each student worked on their projects for a long time. After looking at all of the details together, little by little the plan would evolve. It seemed so useless at the time. Students often repeated the research until the last week the project was due to suddenly reimagine the design and start over.

Perhaps Zhang Siyi himself did not realize, he was being nurtured from the beginning to form a way of thinking and not just to learn the task of drawing for the sake of drawing.

Even with Du Rui praise, Zhang Siyi was not proud. After all, he has heard the same thing many times at school. There was this one professor who was very good at encouraging students. Zhang Siyi often heard him say, “You are great”, “You are very talented”. At first, Zhang Siyi heart really swelled, until later he learned that the design teacher said the same thing to every student. (=_=) 

With his diminishing job opportunities when he returned home, Zhang Siyi could only hear the echo of his professors’ words, making him feel foolish. What talent? Zhang Siyi is not afraid of talented people. He is afraid of hardworking people.

He recalls as a freshman, there was a Lithuanian classmate who was not very good. The first homework assignment was to measure a telephone booth. At that time, the other party could not even draw a straight line. When the project critique came, many people laughed at it. Zhang Siyi saw him working really hard, always reading and practicing every time he went to class. In his second year, the teacher publicly praised his design skill as it reached the middle level of the whole department. In the eyes of the top students, he was still a talentless nobody. They weren’t afraid of the competition until the end, when the student graduated with the top grade in the department and went to a famous London firm for an internship. The firm’s recruitment conditions were extremely demanding, so the results of the admission made all the students stunned.

Thinking about it after the fact, everyone can agree that he worked really hard. By the time you acknowledge his skills, the difference will be too great, and you won’t be able to catch up.

Now, Zhang Siyi also saw a similar determination in Du Rui’s eyes. Even with her setbacks, she hasn’t given up. She can only have the courage to meet the difficulties, persevere and move forward.

Her attitude made Zhang Siyi really respect her. He tried to comfort Du Rui and said: “Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. You see your ability to plan is lacking, but your hand drawing is superb. Although the functionality of my design is more complete, it’s more blurred. Your drawing is so detailed you can see each room on your drawings!” Zhang Siyi squinted, Unbelievable, “How did you do this in such a short time?”

Du Rui smiled and said: “There is also a method I use. I have collected a set of room templates. There are bathrooms, bedrooms and living rooms of various sizes. When I want to use them, I can copy them from inside, oh.”

Zhang Siyi mouth twitched. Is this not similar to a puzzle?

Du Rui squeezed her eyebrows and said: “Since you have taught so many ideas with me, I will share it with you. Do you want to try useing it?”

Zhang Siyi was overjoyed: “yes I want the bathroom!” His loud, boisterous remarks could be heard by everyone. The burden he felt had been lifted.

Du Rui: “…”

With the help of Du Rui’s private “divine map”, Zhang Siyi’s toilet drawing went much faster. It took less than the time it did to refine the two sets of plans. He wanted to go to the director now, so Zhang Siyi sent a message to Du Rui.

Zhang Siyi: “Um, do you want to go and hand it in now? Even though Gu Yu hasn’t asked for us yet….” He wanted a moment to relax.

Du Rui said: “Of course! There might be a couple of revisions to reconsider. If we don’t find out early enough, we will have to work overtime in order to make all the corrections.”

Zhang Siyi: “…ah, ok.”

The two of them went to print the drawings and find Gu Yu. Since this time Du Rui was with him, Zhang Siyi had more confidence in his heart.

However, after examining the drawings, Gu Yu only looked at Zhang Siyi in the eyes, making Zhang Siyi feel nervous again – did he do something wrong?

“You drew this? “Asked Gu Yu, looking at him with a sharp look.

Zhang Siyi: “Yes.” Applying templates is also considered drawing his own, right?

Gu Yu also looked at Du Rui and Zhang Siyi clearly felt that Du Rui was also a bit nervous.

“You didn’t help him?” Gu Yu asked Du Rui.

Du Rui was silent for a moment, red faced: “I showed him the reference templates.”

Gu Yu nodded and said: “Okay, you may leave first. Send me the completed plans later by email.”

Du Rui hesitantly asked: “Anything else?””

Gu Yu: “No. Go back to your desk and finish up the work yourself. You may leave work on time.”

Du Rui left first, leaving Zhang Siyi to wait for the next order.

Gu Yu turned over a stack of blank plans in a folder and handed them to him: “Go back and refine the internal plan of these figures.”

Zhang Siyi saw that these pictures were comprised of very small offices like tea rooms and apartment types. The key point is that the shapes of these plans are irregular, which means that he can’t apply any of the templates!

Sweating, he asked nervously, “What kind of project is this?” He got the feeling that his use of a short-cut has totally been seen through.

Gu Yu: “Not a project, it is homework. Give it to me before I leave work tomorrow night.”

Zhang Siyi: “……” What is this? Gu Yu found him this morning talking with his friends, so he arranged an assignment to keep him occupied all day and night? He’s not giving him a chance to breathe at all!

Gu Yu added: “By the way, these diagrams do not have an electronic version, remember to do them by hand.”

Zhang Siyi: “…”

Seeing that Zhang Siyi came back deflated, Zhu Hongzhen was curious: “What’s the matter?”

Zhang Siyi dumped the drawings on the table, angry and said: “Ah, I’m so annoyed. Not only do I have to redo these, but I have to do them by hand!”

Zhu Hongzhen took a look at his desk: “eh, what is it? Oh, the small floor plan.……” Somehow, the entire group of his colleagues suddenly turned to gaze at Zhang Siyi with sympathy.

Bi Lele called out: “Fourth Aunt, go see the notice in the group.”

Zhang Siyi looked at the flashing icon in the lower right corner and saw that Gu Yu had just sent a new message ten seconds ago – “Zhang Siyi is currently in the floor plan training period, please don’t tell him any drawing shortcuts.”

Zhang Siyi: “…”

Zhu Hongzhen initially wanted to give Zhang Siyi some advice but refrained. This the first time the boss made such a remark in the group. “He really is ‘’attached’ to you.”

Zhang Siyi’s heart collapsed. I’m not a masochist, I don’t want this ‘attention’ Ah!

Feeling guilty, Du Rui sent a message: “I’m sorry! I feels like this was my fault.”>_>;”

As much as it would be nice to put blame on something else, Zhang Siyi knew it wasn’t her fault. “No, don’t worry about it.”

On the bright side, Gu Yu assignment ignited Zhang Siyi’s ambition. For the remaining forty minutes, Zhang Siyi took a lot of effort to draw on the parchment paper and did not lift his head.

Being focused on his work, Zhang Siyi did not hear Gu Yu’s approach. His voice rang behind him: “Do you want to work overtime?”

Zhang Siyi turned his head and saw Gu Yu seemingly in a good mood, look straight at him with a smile.

He was so angry that he wanted to strangle him. He gathered his stack of drawings up in an abrupt manner, saying, ” no.” It’s not due till tomorrow after work.

“Oh, very confident. Then I’ll wait for your results tomorrow night.”

Zhang Siyi: “……” Shit, I feel like I’m being bullied again!

Seeing Zhang Siyi frazzled appearance, Zhu Hongzhen pulled out a shabby pocket “architect’s Handbook” from his desk and handed it to him: “Here, there are some basic parameters that may be useful to you. Bring it home with you and take a look.”

Zhang Siyi grateful: “Piggy!” Thank you!”

Zhu Hongzhen shrugged: “I can only help you a little in this way.”

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