Is having a wildly different and innovative idea practical in the architecture world? It may seem like an easy question, but are most architectural projects designed to have a "wow factor" or are they just whatever is trending?

Hi Nikki!

I will tell you this now, and once you start studio, you probably will think of me as a crazy person, BUT you will need to trust me on this; School days are the best days of the designer's life.

I think it's extremely important to emphasize that during your time in school you will get to be creative, innovative, adventurous, and wacky as you want without the constraints of codes, regulations, civil, and even gravity (as long as your model can support itself - you have yourself a project) - Try not to over occupy yourself with these rules yet. Your professors will guide YOUR design without hurting your creativity towards a logical design decision making that are bound with those codes and regulations.
Just an example from my experience, in school we were taught (not directly, but through a series of red-lines and conversations) what is the appropriate minimum width of corridors, or how to design appropriate stairs, how to set up a structural grid, or even making sure that the bathrooms have at least one stall measuring 5'x5' for ADA regulations, etc.
Once you understand an architectural rule of thumb you will use it again in your next project. So What happens in the end is that these regulations, rules, codes all become part of your artistic tool box. it's another pencil for you to utilize in your work. So to answer your question, no it does not limit you - it actually makes you a better designer.
In the field, for the most part you will be given a project that someone else had already conceived and designed (your boss) and you will need to scale back his design based on codes and regulations and whatever the engineers will tell you that you can't do.
Your job as an architect in the field is to solve problems - the code is like a cheat sheet someone put together to save you time and effort trying to solve that problem. Your performance in the field will be measured on how creative and elegant the solution you came up with to the problem.

Hi Nikki,
Good question, At the beginning of your career you might not be able to design what you like and be creative as much you want. especially when you start working for companies at the beginning they want you to work on construction drawings and get familiar with codes and regulations.

Depend on each city and estate all the codes and regulations are different but believe it or not I find them fascinating how I can be smart about the codes and used them in my design.
If you really love design and creativity go for it, Trust me there is nothing better than seeing your design in an actual building.

In addition to the previous answers, there are a couple of things to keep into consideration:
- information architecture: the way we use modern technology to collect data in order to study overall people movements, needs and flows, and how architects can respond to these elements creating architecture that is beautiful and efficient, more customized around the final user
- placemaking: experiential architecture, tailored to guide the final user into a sequence of well developed components, both enjoyable and functional