Typewriters

In today's episode of your favorite show, "The Sad Life Of", we will take a glimpse into the life of a PhD student at ETH.

I love the time when a semester at ETH ends. This is the time when the architects have their critique sessions. Every student presents his project. The designs then get praised or verbally destroyed by professors, while the students stand around helplessly.

Of course, this is fun. Especially when you're not one of those students.

Still, there appears to be a form of critique session which is less fun for many: The diploma students get to exhibit their projects in ETH's main building. The professors then come around with their assistants. Together, in a state of deep meditation, they determine with a grade and dream up a text explaining that grade.

Today, I watched one of these professors. He was having great fun, saying things like: "The structure of the building is mediocre colon the programme has been disobeyed period." "Wait!", I thought, "why does he say things like 'colon' and 'period'?". It wasn't architectspeak. He was dictating his text to the poor PhD student sitting next to him. Is this the job you get for 5 years of quality ETH education?