TABLE OF CONTENTS
4. Presenting myself
6. Things I enjoy
8. Two exhibitions I visited
10. Two talks I have attended
12. A contemporary architect I like
14. A late architect whom I admire
16. Historical building that I have visited
18. Book that I have read this year
20. Presenting 2 of my architectural projects
22. Presenting a passion of mine
23. An event that I have attended recently
24. An image that inspires me
26. One of my drawings
28. A contemporary artist that I like
Please use the links on each spread to view the tasks as LinkedIn posts too!
https://bit.ly/Calin_task1 ACADEMIC YEAR 21/22
I’m Calin, an aspiring architect from Romania.
I’ve studied in the UK, graduating from the Manchester School of Architecture in 2022 and I’m continuing my education in Spain, to become an architect here.
I love helping people out and I think digital platforms like LinkedIn are great for sharing your thoughts and experience while helping those one or two steps behind you.
I think studying architecture is difficult. For that, I’d love to share my experience from the past 4 years to help architecture students thrive and get the most out of their education.
I love almost all aspects of architecture, but especially structure calculation, visualization, digital fabrication and modelling.
I enjoy helping students out and trying to give something back to the community.
I like digital fabrication, because use the power of the computer
https://bit.ly/Calin_task2
because through it am I able to computer and real-life modelling.
I enjoy architectural visualization, as it allows me to bring my ideas to life and create a narrative for design.
The Van Gogh experience in Amsterdam was mesmerizing, as I was able to see how he was able to transition and change his style so drastically in such a short period of time.
An amazing castle in Romania that used to be the home of the heirs to the throne. It incorporated Art Nouveau and Neo-Romanian elements to create a truly unique building.
https://bit.ly/Calin_task3
“Wealth creation needs to be balanced and include the end-users from the early stage of design to create a more inclusive and better future”one of my main takeaways from an amazing lecture we had in Manchester on how to properly build cities.
https://bit.ly/Calin_task4 ACADEMIC YEAR 21/22
Diébédo Francis Kéré is a Burkinabé-German architect that I deeply admire for his simple, that is one of the values that I would like to design by when I will be an architect. Moreover, how relevant that is in imagining how the community can participate in its designs’ creation.
yet amazing designs. He always puts the community at the core of its design process and Moreover, he continuously amazes me with his innate knowledge of vernacular architecture and creation.
Louis Kahn is an Estonian-born American architect that I admire for celebrating the monumentality of designed spaces and Kahn truly puts his fate in the hands of materials and their qualities. through the exposed design creates wonderful stories for those who are careful enough to
monumentality and materiality of architecture. I like everything related to the haptic qualities qualities. Moreover, his knowledge of construction and his desire to show the whole process spot them.
One of the first buildings that has a soft spot in my hear is the John Rylands Library in Manchester. It is a great Victorian Gothic Hogwarts-esque building in the city centre.
Despite being refurbished several times, its original look prevails both inside and outside. This great jewel of British architecture holds over 40.000 books and 6.000 manuscripts.
Massive stone corridors and halls unveil as you walk inside and statues watch over visitors as they discover the building’s beauty.
“Range” by David Epstein - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World is a great book on why broadening your knowledge is key in a forever changing world.
The book makes a compelling case for actively cultivating your knowledge. It supports the argument that having a broader knowledge of various fields can help tremendously. That is especially true in today’s world. We work in complex and unpredictable environments, which are quite a challenge to manage. For that, the author proposes that people who think broadly can overcome the challenges of today’s world.
As we are pushed to hyper-specialize, we tend to miss out key information from other fields that can be used in ours.
I’ve always thought that architecture is done by generalists and this book only confirmed that being a generalist has tonnes of benefits.
Haptic columns in Year 3:
I’ve learned the basics of digital fabrication. Together with the modelmaking workshop technicians I understood how to work with moulds and materials for casts, their limitations and opportunities that arose. As my column was designed using a parametric algorithm, I had the chance to translate it into the real world by means of 3D printing. This was an amazing journey as a curious architecture student.
As future architects, we should learn both to understand the possibilities of our future designs.
Urban design project in Year 4:
I understood the importance of having a broader view of the built space, as a catalyst to change the urban fabric of our site. For that, I played with vastly different scales to understand the space better. Because of that, I understood that different scales help you focus on what is truly relevant.
Thoughtful urban planning is key for creating accessible and sustainable urban fabrics
One of my passions outside of architecture is writing, especially creating content on LinkedIn. There is something unique in sharing your experience and connecting with like-minded people through one small app on your phone.
For the past 5 months I have been writing on the platform, sharing some of my strategies to help other architecture students.
I love that, it’s an amazing feeling and I would argue that it is a very interesting way to grow as an individual.
Writing on LinkedIn might be hard at first, but the benefits outweigh the challenges.
You get to:
- Learn to communicate better
- Grow your network
- Learn from awesome people from all around the world
- Define your voice online
- Meet people with the same mindset
- Meet people with different mindsets
As an architecture student who wishes others to grow, it’s been an amazing journey so far.
An amazing moment of my architecture education was during the “Meet the Practice” fair in Manchester. It is a fair where almost 30 practices from the UK came to present their office, their work ethic and their offers for graduates from our university.
As an architecture student, networking started to become a big deal in my final year. Because of that, I had to put on my best game forward.
As I continuously helped my peers throughout university life, I was elected to help the fair go as smoothly as possible. This meant that I was helping the practitioners set up and I got to know them hours before the event started.
It has truly been a fun experience, as I was running around, networking, guiding students and practitioners around. It was hectic. It was energetic. And it was a great way to encounter the power of networking.
That’s when I started using LinkedIn.
For all architecture students, I think going to a fair like this is always a good idea, even if it’s not your year’s fair.
One of my favourites artists is James Turrell’s. I first got introduced to his work in my final year of studying architecture in the UK, as I was curious about the importance of framing our view and how light plays a significant role in capturing the essence of space.
Specifically, I first saw this image inside the Roden Crater, in Northern Arizona. It is a monumental installation that frames how we understand the sky. I specifically enjoy the thoughtful process of fading the lines as your eyes look towards the framed sky.
His way of framing light and understanding it as an element to be discover is mesmerizing. For that reason, I was able to draw some conclusions that guided me along the design process of my university projects: Light in architecture is extremely important.
For that reason, I think that drawing inspiration from Turrell’s mindset can be useful for any aspiring architect
A great skill that I’ve learned is to represent my ideas visually. For that, I had to draw thoughts. In the beginning, everything was on paper. When I started preparing for means, such as drawing, painting and colouring. That humble beginning did not stop
So was this drawing, which I created as I had got inspired by the movie “I, robot”. important aspect about architecture: You are the only one capable of materialising
draw and understand how to use different mediums and tools to represent my for my academic journey, I had to learn how to visualise my ideas through typical stop me from dreaming about monumental and futuristic building.
It was my first time drawing something like this, but it made me realise an materialising your vision into the real world!
On the same topic of light and its power to frame and give depth to space, I studied the works of Olarfu Eliasson. I first got introduced to his work in my year 2 of studying architecture and I found it eye-opening.
It’s amazing how he can capture the essence of light and colour through his art. For an aspiring architect like me, light and visual experience is utterly important, as they play a key role in how we design and how our design is perceived by the world.
We play with perspectives. We enjoy the dance of light across spaces. We use light as a material. For these resons, Olafur’s art inspires me to think about the user’s experience differently.
How is the user perceiving light?
Why is light so important to us?
His art moves the experience of the viewer to another deeper dimension and that is what I would love to achieve in architecture too.
