People who didn’t attend architectural school don’t understand juries. They don’t realize how difficult it is to stand up in front of a room full of your classmates and professors and “explain” why you designed your project the way you did. “Explain” isn’t really the right word … “defend” might be better.
Depending on the style of the professors, these juries could be brutal and emotionally damaging. I recall one jury in particular from my sophomore year watching one of my classmates walk up to her drawings that were pinned on the wall and prepare to present her work. Before she could open her mouth and utter a single word, one of the jurors – a professor at the university – stood up, walked over to her design and said:
“Let me show you where you f*cked this up”
People sometimes wonder where architects develop their egos, I think it happens as a result of emotional self-preservation.