Education in IA&C of KazNRTU gives the widest creative opportunities

In early July, the Institute of Architecture and Construction named after T. Basenov sets admission exams. These examinations were marked by two exhibitions of examination papers for entrants and their parents. The teacher of painting Kulyash Tyurebayeva told us about the examinations and creativity at the Department of Architecture of the IA&C.

Question: Kulyash, what is a procedure of the IA&C exams? What should applicants pass?

Answer: It starts with a creative exam in drafting and drawing. This is important, because the architect embodies his ideas in the drawing. The beauty, comfort, quality of the building depends on this. Therefore, architects should draw well, feel proportions. If a person knows how to feel the proportions at the beginning of the path, he will see the proportions in future in his projects.

Q: How does the exam pass? What do you pay attention when you evaluate jobs?

A: The examination is the same in all universities: a plaster head have place in the center of the class and entrants get 4.5 hours for drawing. The commission evaluates the result by two parameters. The first is proportions. The second is the constructive detection of the shape of an object with the help of lines. What are we looking at? First, the drawing should not be too large or too small. Next, the person should show by shading that this is a cast, there are shadows, chiaroscuro, somewhere darker, somewhere lighter, so that the picture should be beautiful. As a rule, an entrant who wants to depict everything correctly uses all the time. If a person does not know how to draw, he usually manages in 5 minutes. It happens sometimes that the applicant is not prepared, but he has a natural gift, and most importantly - a sense of proportion. They may do wrong shading, layout, but in general, unerringly find proportions. We understand that this child can become a good architect later.

Q: Did you have cases when the work was judged incorrectly? This specialty is creative. Can it be evaluated objectively?

A: For us it is just important that everything must be objective, so we make the exam transparent and do an exhibition of examination papers. Corruption is simply impossible in such conditions. We are may be the only ones in Almaty who hang out every piece of paper in the classroom, and parents and applicants can see their pictures in comparison with others, so they understand that their work has been evaluated correctly. We did not have a single case of appeal. We invite our leadership to the exhibition, and they also see that everything is transparent.

Q: Do you have many talented students?

A: There are 60-70% of children who have talent at each exam. It is an indescribable joy to see their talent. Moreover, as a rule, they study well and become good specialists. But the most important thing is a desire. Some people are so greedily absorb knowledge that by the end of the semester they make a huge step forward. It is even more valuable and joyful to see such progress.

Q: Do you teach architects to draw?

A: Yes, we teach painting for architects at the first two semesters. They will not be professional painters, but I try to teach the drawing professionally. Thus, our diploma gives the widest creative possibilities.

Among the graduates of the architectural, there are artists, and fashion designers, and teachers of drawing. One boy became a fashion designer, and to sew his clothes, you needed to enroll for 2 weeks in advance. Another girl works as a teacher at the International Sketch School. The central office of the school is in Moscow, so my former student conducts online classes and gives lessons in Almaty. It is very popular, there are many people want to study, so the cost of her work grows daily.

Q: How is painting taught at the department?

A: First, we go through the basics, and then we start to learn different techniques. I have been teaching for 39 years, I love students, I love my profession that is why I constantly expand the program, study foreign websites, try to find new techniques and teach them students.

Last year I taught students the technique of an English artist. I tried it myself first. I found out that this is a very good technique, simple and gives an amazing effect. Even the weakest students was interested, and they made a chic work. I found another technique for this academic year. We will paint flowers on large canvases.

Q: Are you an artist?

A: I am an artist, but I study a lot of drawing for architects. I passed an internship in the famous Stroganovka and in the Moscow Institute of Architecture. My teacher was S.V. Tikhonov who published a textbook on drawing for architects. I give master classes, I carry out orders, and I am exhibiting. Students feel that I am burning with creativity, and take this attitude, ask if they can put their work in the picture gallery.

Q: And expose?

A: O, sure. But we made an exhibition right at the institute too. We repainted, mounted, decorated and made a full-scale exhibition wall. Then we made the present opening of the exhibition with homemade pastries and a buffet table. This exhibition had a big resonance, some of the works have already been sold. We work with the schoolchildren also. This year we held the second Olympiad for them. The prize was a grant for education in our institute. The grant must be confirmed by good school grades. We dream about to extend this initiative to the whole of Kazakhstan.

Q: You do a lot to become the best educational institution for architects. What has changed in your department over the past few years?

A: Yes, this is our goal; we are doing everything possible to achieve that. Therefore, quality of education has grown very much in the last two years. The new director removed all those who did not do well at the classes, and collected all the best. Recently, we do not need advertising, we are known by many schoolchildren, and even the teachers of KazGASA give their children to us. We try to match this level. After all, architecture is a discipline, where you need a creative approach and you must completely give yourself up to what you are doing. Only then a good result will be!