Roadmap to Recognition Interview: 01 Jessie Turnbull
We kick-off our three-episode series on the ARB prescribed examinations with Jessie, a senior associate at London-based, award-winning Architecture practice MICA.
Jessie’s journey started in Cambridge, where she attended a three-year ARB/RIBA Part 1 course. Right after graduation, she secured a two-year scholarship to go study and work in Japan, joining no less than the famous Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow. She then secured a place at Princeton to attend a three-year Master of Architecture, the equivalent of (but non-recognised) a Part 2 programme in the UK. Jessie spent the following five years in the USA, working in New York, where she registered as an Architect, and eventually joined MICA in 2015 after moving back to the UK. Here, her bosses encouraged her to register with the ARB, kicking-off her road to recognition!
Jessie’s strategy
To register with the ARB, Jessie needed both Part 2 and Part 3. What’s interesting is that the ARB does not require these to take place in a specific order, which allowed Jessie to start with her RIBA North-west Part 3 course in Chester. This is an effective strategy, as a Part 3 course and the documentation produced in this context allow you to meet several criteria in the ARB prescribed examinations.
After her Part 3, Jessie talked to friends who had gone through the process to achieve Part 2. They shared with her their portfolios, showed her how they structured their work and provided invaluable advice on how to pass. In my experience, looking at examples of how criteria can potentially be met is crucial to understand what the examiners will expect to see in your portfolio.
Tip: After passing a Part 3 exam, the ARB allows a period of two years to register. Keep this in mind if you need to take Parts 1 and 2 via the prescribed exams: two years is a reasonable timeframe, but much will depend on your individual circumstances.
Five key takeaways
In our interview, Jessie shares incredibly useful insights – here’s a summary:
1- Carefully select your mix of projects
While completing the comparative matrix, Jessie realised that the projects she had originally selected would not meet all criteria. She then detailed smaller, specialised projects she did at university to fill these gaps.
2- Signpost your projects
To make her portfolio easy and quick to navigate, Jessie colour-coded her comparative matrix and used the same colours to label the front cover of each project she presented.
3- Spell things out!
Sometimes the message a drawing conveys can be obvious to you, but it may not be for others. On each page of her portfolio, Jessie added colour-coded criteria relevant to the page and a brief explanation of how she believed the materials presented would meet these.
4- Address every criterion at least twice
Jessie made sure that each criterion was covered at least by two different projects, to have a back-up in case one of them did not fully convince the examiners.
5- Document the entire design process
Jessie made sure to include a range of sketches, initial models and research that led to her designs, which showed her thought-process throughout the development of a project.
Watch the full interview below or on our YouTube channel and please leave a comment to let us know if you found this information useful.