Two roads diverged in a wood, and I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

- Robert Frost-

Have you ever taken the road less traveled? When you drive home from work, do you ever explore? Sure, it might take longer than usual, and there may be unpleasant stops along the way, but occasionally you will find an unexpected surprise. By casting aside strict conventions and routines and by taking risks, we can achieve things we never considered or thought possible.

I find that many people in our religiously capitalist society only seek the fastest, cheapest, and most efficient route. While some industries hire to increase diversity and thereby innovation, many dare not attempt anything new. In particular, many established architects and developers fear taking chances and fear the risk of failure inherent in untested methods. I, on the other hand, believe that architects must not feel constrained by the past but must follow-up on promising possibilities.

Exploring undiscovered methods and paths requires self-criticism, self-assurance, and courage. In my junior year in college, I doubted the teaching style of my instructor in my first design studio class. I felt as if he pushed his own rigid ideas into the students’ creations and did not allow the students the opportunity to pursue their own original designs. Fearing my intellectual growth might be stunted by his lectures and dissatisfied with his teaching, I basically taught myself design by researching and combing through hundreds of architecture books. Through my own studies, I came to realize that architecture should be learned, not preached. That semester, I further challenged myself by working on a design of my own creation, a design not assigned by my instructor. While it would have been easier to accept the instructor’ s lessons and just follow his ideas, I realized that I could never take the easy way again now that I discovered that the beauty of architecture lies in learning it myself. That semester helped formulate my approach towards architecture and influence my design decisions to this day.

Although self-motivation is extremely important, seeking the guidance and critique of others is essential to good design since others can find what I may have overlooked. One critic who has been particularly crucial to the development of my work is Craig Scott, a Progressive Architecture Awards Winner in 1996,who worked together with Homa Fardjadi and Sima Fardjadi. Craig was my studio critic during the spring term of 1997. His instruction helped me achieve a level of design that I could not have attained from books alone. Of greatest importance, he taught me a combination of methodology and theory to the process of creating designs. He taught me to begin with a simple conceptual spatial model, then add site context and programmatic concerns to create an integrated building. The application of a methodology to the design process made my work more structured and rigorous than before.

In Craig’ s studio, I designed a furniture workshop for downtown Ann Arbor that was chosen as an exhibit in the 1997 Summer Student Exhibition in the University of Michigan. Professors chose the most outstanding projects in their studio and put them in the exhibition. Although this was certainly not a major trophy, the exhibition represented my first accomplishment in the studio and was a milestone in my architectural career. When I saw my work in the exhibition room, all the failures and difficulties I had experienced seemed worth it. Later, I designed urban housing in downtown Ann Arbor for the fall studio 1997,which was also chosen as an exhibit in the 1998 Annual Student Exhibition. For that exhibition, entitled 'Taking Aim, ' each professor chose the best three projects from his/her studio. In the exhibition, the alumni of previous years and students from other architecture schools were invited to share our success. These exhibitions were important to me not only because my designs were chosen, but also because they gave me the opportunity to display my work before the most important critics of all -- the general public, which included the students and teachers from different years and different schools.

I plan to continue my studies at the graduate school level to have the opportunity to interact and share knowledge with students who are as focused and excited about architecture as I am. I have visited Harvard Graduate School of Design several times, and each time I left impressed and enlightened by the variety and complexity of the students' work. The work I saw at GSD had that same element of innovation and freshness that I strive for, the one that goes beyond the ordinary path. I want to be an explorer and to face challenges that I can solve with sheer will and creativity.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

這篇文章之所以能吸引人的眼球，既由于內(nèi)容豐富真實(shí)，也由于脈絡(luò)清晰明了。作者不僅通過(guò)自己的成就，而且還通過(guò)與身邊人作比較，充分地塑造了自己創(chuàng)新、不走尋常路、不拘泥于常規(guī)思維這一鮮明人物個(gè)性。

文章的特色主要表現(xiàn)在以下幾個(gè)方面：

● 以小見(jiàn)大：作者用了前三段來(lái)舉事例說(shuō)明自己是與眾不同的。當(dāng)別人選擇一條最快速、最經(jīng)濟(jì)和最有效率的常規(guī)之路時(shí)，作者寧愿花多點(diǎn)時(shí)間和汗水去走一條別人未曾問(wèn)津的路；當(dāng)別的同學(xué)都按照老師所指定的題目做課程設(shè)計(jì)的時(shí)候，作者卻另辟新路按照自己的思路去設(shè)計(jì)去創(chuàng)造。這兩個(gè)事例雖小但足以證明作者為求創(chuàng)新所作出的努力和自己在創(chuàng)作上的鮮明個(gè)性－自我批評(píng)、有自信和有勇氣；

● 文章結(jié)構(gòu)合理：作者并沒(méi)有一味的展示自己與眾不同的個(gè)性特征，而是花更多的筆墨在自己的專(zhuān)業(yè)背景和學(xué)術(shù)成就上。他作品兩次參展的經(jīng)歷無(wú)形中為自己增色不少，同樣也提高了自己的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力，作者把自己的學(xué)術(shù)經(jīng)歷作為文章的核心，充分地體現(xiàn)了作者他對(duì)于建筑學(xué)不是光有一份熱愛(ài)，而更多的是說(shuō)明自己在建筑學(xué)是有所建樹(shù)的。

● 畫(huà)龍點(diǎn)睛：文章的收尾起到畫(huà)龍點(diǎn)睛的作用。作者結(jié)合學(xué)校的特點(diǎn)和自己所要追求的設(shè)計(jì)元素，巧妙地向讀者預(yù)示自己和學(xué)校將會(huì)是一個(gè)good match。而作者在文章前部分所做的鋪墊工作也能讓讀者相信這將會(huì)是一個(gè)事實(shí)。

這篇文章之所以鶴立雞群，是由于作者展現(xiàn)了令人印象深刻的個(gè)性特征，使你想更深入地了解他。這是一個(gè)在你些自己文章時(shí)要牢記的成功組合。

譯文：

森林里有兩條分叉路，我選擇了一條平時(shí)比較少人經(jīng)過(guò)的，正是因?yàn)檫@樣我所經(jīng)歷的一切都變得不一樣了。

- Robert Frost-

你曾經(jīng)選擇去走一些比較少人經(jīng)過(guò)的路嗎？當(dāng)你從上班的地方開(kāi)車(chē)回家，你是否會(huì)選擇一些比較偏僻的不一樣的路呢？當(dāng)然，這可能比你平常要花多一點(diǎn)的時(shí)間，也可能一路上你會(huì)因?yàn)橐恍┱系K物而不斷地停車(chē)，但是有時(shí)候你卻會(huì)獲得一些意外的收獲。當(dāng)我們拋開(kāi)常規(guī)做法去冒險(xiǎn)的時(shí)候，我們或許可以完成一些我們認(rèn)為絕不可能的事情。

我發(fā)現(xiàn)很多處身于資本主義社會(huì)里的人無(wú)論何時(shí)都只尋求一條最快速、最經(jīng)濟(jì)和最有效率的道路。當(dāng)某些行業(yè)尋求多樣化和創(chuàng)新的時(shí)候，很多人卻害怕作出新的嘗試。特別是很多出名的建筑師和開(kāi)發(fā)商害怕機(jī)遇所帶來(lái)的挑戰(zhàn)和新嘗試新方法所帶來(lái)的失敗。然而在另一方面我卻認(rèn)為建筑師不應(yīng)該局限于過(guò)去但應(yīng)該盡量開(kāi)拓各種可能。

開(kāi)拓新方法和新道路是需要自我批評(píng)、自信和勇氣的。在我大學(xué)三年級(jí)的時(shí)候，當(dāng)我第一次去上我的設(shè)計(jì)課的時(shí)候，我就對(duì)我的講師的教學(xué)方式表示懷疑。我感覺(jué)到他似乎想把自己一些比較死板的思想灌輸給我們，從而阻礙學(xué)生創(chuàng)新思維的發(fā)展和學(xué)生對(duì)自己最原始創(chuàng)造的追求。由于害怕自己的專(zhuān)業(yè)發(fā)展會(huì)受到這個(gè)講師的不良影響和自己對(duì)他的教學(xué)方式不是很滿意，于是我決定通過(guò)自學(xué)來(lái)加深自己對(duì)設(shè)計(jì)的理解。在自學(xué)過(guò)程中，我意識(shí)到設(shè)計(jì)學(xué)是要靠學(xué)習(xí)來(lái)掌握的，而不是靠鼓吹的。那一學(xué)期，我通過(guò)進(jìn)行自己的設(shè)計(jì)來(lái)進(jìn)一步鍛煉自己，而這個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)題目并不是老師所指定的。我知道沿用老師所指定的設(shè)計(jì)方法和理念是一條比較容易走的路，但我告訴自己我絕不會(huì)再走容易之路，同時(shí)我也發(fā)現(xiàn)了建筑之美在于自我學(xué)習(xí)和自我開(kāi)拓。那個(gè)學(xué)期里我的設(shè)計(jì)方法得到了規(guī)范，這同時(shí)也影響了我今天在設(shè)計(jì)方法的選擇上。

雖然主動(dòng)性在學(xué)習(xí)過(guò)程中是非常重要的，但尋求別人的指導(dǎo)和批評(píng)對(duì)于一個(gè)好的設(shè)計(jì)來(lái)說(shuō)也是同樣重要的，因?yàn)閯e人能夠找出你所忽略了的細(xì)節(jié)。一位對(duì)于我的作品成長(zhǎng)歷程起到及其關(guān)鍵作用的評(píng)論家是Craig Scott先生，他與Homa Fardjadi 、ima Fardjadi兩位先生共同完成的作品獲得了1996年的進(jìn)步建筑大獎(jiǎng)。Craig是1997年的我的一位作品評(píng)論家。他的指導(dǎo)讓我的設(shè)計(jì)上升了一個(gè)水平，這是我從書(shū)本上所無(wú)法獲得的。他教會(huì)了我在設(shè)計(jì)的過(guò)程中要將方法論和理論知識(shí)相結(jié)合，這對(duì)于一位建筑師來(lái)說(shuō)是及其重要的。同時(shí)他還教會(huì)了在設(shè)計(jì)開(kāi)始之前我應(yīng)該在腦子里有一個(gè)概念模型，然后再一步步地往模型里面添加內(nèi)容并注意一些設(shè)計(jì)規(guī)則以保證建筑工程的綜合完整。將方法論應(yīng)用于設(shè)計(jì)過(guò)程當(dāng)中使我的設(shè)計(jì)比以前更具結(jié)構(gòu)性和穩(wěn)固性。

在Craig的工作室，我設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)安阿伯市市區(qū)的家具倉(cāng)庫(kù)，這一個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)被選中在密歇根州大學(xué)舉行的97界夏季學(xué)生展覽會(huì)里參展。教授們都挑選他們工作室里最滿意的作品并展示在這一展覽會(huì)里。雖然這個(gè)榮耀并不算什么，但是它足可以證明我在工作室里所取得的成績(jī)同時(shí)也是我建筑事業(yè)生涯中的一個(gè)里程碑。當(dāng)我在展覽廳看到我的作品的時(shí)候，頓時(shí)覺(jué)得以前我所經(jīng)歷過(guò)的失敗和困難都是值得的。后來(lái)，在97年秋季的時(shí)候我也設(shè)計(jì)了一個(gè)安阿伯市市區(qū)的住宅區(qū)，同樣的這個(gè)設(shè)計(jì)也被選中了在98年的年度學(xué)生展覽會(huì)上參展。那個(gè)展覽會(huì)的主題是“瞄準(zhǔn)目標(biāo)”。展覽會(huì)上每個(gè)教授都挑選他們工作室里最好的作品來(lái)參展。很多舊校友還有其他建筑學(xué)校的學(xué)生們都被邀請(qǐng)來(lái)分享我們的成功和喜悅。這些展覽會(huì)對(duì)于我來(lái)說(shuō)是非常重要的，這并不是因?yàn)槲业淖髌房梢詤⒄苟且驗(yàn)樗麄兘o了我機(jī)會(huì)在接受大眾批評(píng)之前把作品展示在大家面前，而這些大眾批評(píng)包括不同界不同學(xué)校的老師和學(xué)生所提出的批評(píng)意見(jiàn)。

于是我計(jì)劃繼續(xù)攻讀研究生課程以尋求更多與同樣專(zhuān)注和熱愛(ài)建筑學(xué)的學(xué)生交流的機(jī)會(huì)。我曾經(jīng)幾度參觀哈佛大學(xué)的設(shè)計(jì)研究院，每一次學(xué)生們多樣化和及其復(fù)雜的作品都給我留下了深刻的印象，同時(shí)我也被啟發(fā)了。在設(shè)計(jì)研究院所看到的作品有著創(chuàng)新和新穎的元素，這些元素是我要追求的也是超越尋常之路之上的。我想成為一名開(kāi)拓者，懷著堅(jiān)定的意志和創(chuàng)新的精神，我可以去很好的面對(duì)挑戰(zhàn)和解決挑戰(zhàn)所帶來(lái)的困難。