In my first year at architecture school, my tutor would always get the class to repeat 3 words. These are the same 3 words that completely changed the way I work on my projects in architecture school and have given me the ability to consistently improve in the work I hand in.

The 3 words are a guide and can be used as a checklist when working on your projects. I keep these words alongside me when studying to just remind me what I need to do to create great projects.

I guess you want to know what these words are?

They all start with the letter C. Let’s go through them one at a time to really break them down.

The first word is Clarity.

To have clarity is the quality of being coherent and intelligible. To have

clear and concise information and representations of your knowledge.

If your work has clarity it should be short and easy to understand in

a single sentence or less. There should be no confusion in the work

you have done. The audience should be able to look at your work and

understand it. Don’t get this mixed up with simplicity. You can have a complex project, but as long as you can clearly explain it and have clarity in representing it, that’s step 1 to have a great project.

The next word is Comprehension.

To have comprehension is the ability to have complete

understanding of your own project. For your work to be comprehensive,

you should completely understand what is being asked of you. To read the brief one

hundred times until you fully understand what it means. To completely

understand the course requirements and project brief and showcase

that you know it so. This goes back to the idea of preparing what

you are presenting verbally and on paper from the last video. This allows you to have

comprehension in the work you are presenting as you understand the

project, therefore the audience can understand it.

The final word is Completeness.

To have completeness is the quality of being whole and having

nothing missing. For your work to be complete, it does not necessarily

mean it must be perfect. However, nothing should be missing. It

should be finished work that ticks all the boxes of its requirements. It

should have completeness in the sense that it has not been rushed

and certain elements left out. You have spent the time to finalise your

project, review it for anything missing, and to touch it up to a degree

of wholeness. You have used a guide, or created a “shopping list”, to

determine the work you need to do. You have completely ticked off all

the required items on that list so that your work is complete.

Having clarity in your project is all about making your work

understandable to the audience.

Having comprehension in your project is all about making your work

understandable to yourself.

Having completeness in your project is all about bringing your

preparation together to have a finalised and polished project that has

been thoroughly considered.

And I’m going to chuck in another c word, a fourth word. Complementary.

All 3 of these words should complement one another. It’s like a triangle, if you work to master all 3 words in your project in a complimentary way, that’s when you know you’ve got a bloody good project.