So close, yet so far.

I can't quite believe that tomorrow is my final crit.

It seems like only a few weeks since we started the project; in fact it has been four months.

The time has gone so quickly. It is almost surreal to even contemplate that three weeks hence my work shall be complete for the year; that three weeks hence my fate shall be decided as to whether I graduate, or whether I suffer the ignominy of having to resit the year.

I suppose that tomorrow shall be a barometer of what is to come. There is absolutely no reason to suppose it shall go badly; I have just as much work to show as any other, and my response to the brief is just as valid as any other.

At the end of the day, a crit boils down to two things. Firstly how pretty your drawings look (despite my belief that content should take precedence over appearance), secondly the ability of your 'gift of the gab' to sell your proposal to the tutors. If you go in and say 'um, errr, well, I did this...' , they won't be impressed. If, on the other hand, you walk in and say 'I did this because I feel very strongly that...' they start to feel confident that you know what you are talking about.

Which in my case will be an assertion that a music school should not be too institutional (hence my accommodation layout), that a music school should have flow and rhythm (hence the layout of rooms, rooflights and windows) and that a concert hall should have character (hence my re-use of the electricity works).

This time tomorrow we shall know if all this hard work has been in vain.