Deadline season has a familiar feeling. Everything seems to happen at once. Your to-do list keeps growing, the hours keep shrinking, and the end suddenly feels very far away. In architecture school, pressure rarely builds slowly. It appears all at once, usually when you know exactly what needs to be done but no longer have enough time to do it properly.

Posters still need printing, your file refuses to export, and your model looks nothing like the image you had in mind. Most of us have been there more times than we would like to admit.

This article is not about working harder or pulling yet another all-nighter. It is about working smarter when time is already against you. From last-minute printing solutions to efficient model-making and presentation strategies, these small life hacks are meant to ease some of the stress during the most intense weeks at BK Delft. They will not eliminate the pressure, but they might just help you get through it with a bit more control and clarity.

 

So, to take some pressure off your chest, here are a few life hacks for a student in BK Delft that can save your project at the last minute.

 

Poster printing:

We all wish to have posters done right on time so we can send them to the uni printshop and get them done for the crit, but sometimes you just don’t make the cut.

Luckily there are alternatives. 

This print shop was an initiative of old students from BK who saw the opportunity to help others in need. You can send them the posters by email until 8 pm, and you can have them ready in the morning the next day, starting from 8 am. Super handy, right? Their prices are also very affordable and often discounted right on deadline season, with an A1 poster around 5,5 euros. Search for studentshopdelft.nl

Link: https://www.studentshopdelft.nl/presentations/

 

Model making:

Making a model takes a lot of time and effort, and oftentimes turns out just alright, never as good as your Pinterest inspo. So how do you approach this when you know you do not have that much time left, as well as limited resources (we are all students, and we all know money does not grow on trees ☺).

Step 1: Stick to cardboard. I know it sounds boring, but the model does not have to imitate materiality exactly. It needs to show the atmosphere and volume of your project, so keeping it nice and minimalistic on textures can often make your project more put together, and coincidentally, cheaper. For models that require in-depth materialization, you can also use paint to resemble different materials, or use a few other materials like foam, to show a bit of variation.

Step 2: If you feel a bit more confident, and you already have a defined volume in 3D, try mixing cardboard for the context with 3D printing at the lab in the workshop for your building. It is not as scary as it may seem as a new user; it makes your job much faster and cleaner, and in the end, can cost less than 10 failed attempts of your cardboard building. You have to be careful because there are cues for the printers, but it’s always worth a try. Usually, a simple STL export of your 3D model should do the trick, and the people working with the printers will guide you.

Step 3: Skip the vegetation and use symbolic items to resemble the context. Trees are pretty, and as much as we love greenery, in models, it can look sloppy, or it can take ages to make realistic-looking trees. That’s why it’s always a nice solution to use symbolic items for the context instead of actual trees. Paper rolls, like quilling, for larger-scale models or even needles and threads for a compact area of trees, can showcase your model’s context. 

Presentations:

Tomorrow, you have to present, your posters are done, but your professor still wants a pptx to assist you while presenting.

Here is how to make this process as efficient as possible:

Step 1: Stick to a simple, clean, monochromatic layout. Skip transitions or the built-in templates with colors. They do not make your presentation look better, and they will distract from your project’s content. 

Step 2: Keep the text on the slides minimal. A presentation is not a report, so do not waste time on adding long texts on the slide. It can make the presentation feel heavy and hard to understand. Instead, use your drawings and explain them verbally, and add only small representative quotes or explanations. You can use the speaker notes in the PowerPoint app to leave some ideas for your speech; there's no need to write the full text there. Go with the flow and remember, you know what you have been working on, describe your process, and deliver your intentions.

Step 3: Order your slides smartly. An easy approach is to go from large to small scale in your presentation. It's logical and keeps a good flow in your project development. Before diving into the final product, showcase your process with some of your sketches and iterations. This way, you guide your audience through a story, rather than a report.

 

So, you got this. Think of how good life will be after deadlines and hopefully earn some time with these “hacks”. Good luck with your deadlines!