I went on a placement at KSS Architects in their Sevenoaks office. I was an Architectural Assistant, so I shadowed the Lead Architect on different projects, as well as working on producing technical and strategy drawings. I also worked on some early stage projects, where I took control of the design and produced presentation drawings for competitions.
For me, the biggest benefit to a placement year was understanding what architecture is like in the working world. This means learning about budgeting, project management, communication with clients and contractors, which are all aspects that you can only learn from working on a real life project. However, it was through learning how to approach different design scenarios at Loughborough that I was able to bring in a fresh way of thinking to the design team, which helped me get more involved in the early stages of a project.
Typical daily tasks on my placement included talking to contractors and building suppliers over the phone or through email and then applying the information to the technical or strategy drawings I was working on.