Kategorie: ‘Belgium’
My Internship at an Architecture Office in Brussels
- Architecture M.Sc.
- Belgium, Brussels
- Mamout Architects
- 06/2025 – 01/2026
Application/Finding an internship
I chose the city before looking for architecture offices because the place itself was very important to me. After finishing my Bachelor’s, Brussels felt like the perfect next step – it’s close to my hometown, yet offers a completely different language, culture, and atmosphere. I was especially drawn to its multilingual and diverse character, with French and Flemish spoken and many international residents because of the EU institutions. This creates a very inspiring environment with active, creative communities and people working in fields that interest me most. The city is dynamic and always full of life, offering new experiences every day. I discovered most of the architecture offices I applied to through conversations with students who had already gone through the process, which was extremely helpful when I felt unsure and a bit overwhelmed at first. Since Brussels was the only city I seriously considered, I applied to several studios I liked and after a few weeks received an acceptance, which confirmed that choosing Brussels was the right decision for me.
Accomodation & Living expenses
Before I moved to Brussels for my internship, I had a bit of free time and decided to volunteer at a music and cultural festival to help with the setup. Working together on the festival was a great way to meet people quickly and start creating my first memories in the city. It really helped me to make initial contacts, and in the end I even found my first shared apartment in Brussels through these connections. In terms of housing, I would describe Brussels as fairly average for a European capital when it comes to rent prices. Groceries, however, are relatively expensive, which I didn’t fully realize before moving here. Over time, you get to know the city better and discover alternatives, like the local markets, which have a great atmosphere and where you can buy fruit and vegetables for much less than in the supermarket.
Everyday life/ the internship
My everyday life during the week was mainly shaped by my full-time internship. From Monday to Friday, I worked in the office from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., building models, drawing plans, creating 3D models, visiting construction sites, preparing presentations for clients, and enjoying lunch breaks with my colleagues. The office was quite small, with only four employees and one other intern, which was ideal for my first long internship because I quickly understood how everything worked and gained insight into all parts of the projects. The main working language was French, which was challenging for me at first. I often felt unsure in conversations and meetings, but week by week I noticed clear progress. Using a new language every day took a lot of courage, but it also strengthened my self-confidence and made me more open and independent.
Free time/tips
After work and on the weekends, I spent my time exploring the city and meeting new people. From the beginning, living in a shared flat was important to me because it’s the easiest way to make contacts. At the same time, I also enjoyed discovering Brussels on my own, walking through different neighborhoods and getting to know the city at my own pace. Brussels never disappointed me – there is always something going on. It offers a lot of culture, impressive architecture, many young people, and in my opinion a very diverse nightlife scene, which made my time there both exciting and inspiring.
Conclusion
Going to Brussels for my internship was a great decision, and I can honestly say that I learned a lot and also grew personally during my time there. It was very enriching to step out of my comfort zone and experience completely new things. Already during the internship, I realized that eight months in the city would not be enough, because Brussels has so much to offer. I also made some wonderful new friendships that I want to continue developing, and I feel so comfortable here that I would like to do another internship and even my Master’s in the city. After eight months, the city finally feels familiar – I have a routine, a great social environment, and yet I have still barely scratched the surface of everything Brussels has to offer.
©International Office
My Internship at Axelera AI in Leuven
- Electrical Engineering, Information Technology and Computer Engineering M.Sc.
- Belgium, Leuven
- Axelera AI N.V.
- 11/2024 – 04/2025
1 Application
I discovered the internship posting on LinkedIn and applied via the official Axelera careers page in late July 2024. A few days later, I had a first screening call with the hiring manager who would be supervising my internship. Next there were two longer technical interviews to assess my abilities in software and hardware development. Finally, an executive interview with the team manager and an HR interview about cultural fit and compensation, respectively, concluded the process by late August. As soon as I had received the signed work contract, I applied for Erasmus internship support from RWTH, which required some more forms and signatures.
2 Accommodation
Leuven is a student town, owing to the presence of KU Leuven. This is Belgium’s largest university by number of enrolled students. For this reason, both studios and shared flats are widespread throughout the city, but nevertheless highly sought after.
A surprising number of accommodations is advertised and rented through Facebook, which was also how I eventually found the place I stayed at. It was a room in a shared house, within walking distance of the train station and my workplace. Like most rental contracts, mine had a fixed duration of one year, with a fee for early termination that I had to pay since I left earlier. The room also came furnished, so I could move to Leuven comfortably by train from Aachen, bringing just clothing, my bike and other personal items.
3 Costs
The rent was €520 with all amenities included, which was a fairly average market rate based on my impression. Overall, housing seemed to be slightly more expensive than in Aachen, especially for studio apartments where rent could reach €1000+.
In general, most items and services seemed to cost approximately 20% more than one might be used to from Germany. This becomes apparent at restaurants, but also for groceries and other everyday purchases.
One notable exception to the higher prices is train travel. A youth ticket for any route inside Belgium with any SNCB train costs about €8 regardless of time or distance, and can become even cheaper if bought in bulk or when traveling during the weekend. Furthermore, Belgian trains are very rarely delayed.
4 Work
The project I would complete during my internship was already outlined in the job description. Its main goal was to develop a compressor block in hardware that would reduce the amount of intermediate data to be transferred inside the Axelera AI processing unit during inference. Ultimately, this would enable higher energy efficiency and performance at the cost of slightly increased chip area and complexity.
My project was structured in the phases of algorithm research in the scientific literature, prototyping of promising algorithms in Python, and finally implementation of one or more algorithms in Verilog for integration within the DMA unit.
Even though Axelera generally allows remote work, the internship contract required 100% time in the office. This facilitated deeper connection and better knowledge exchange with my colleagues, and was easily doable for me with a 10-minute walking commute.
While several employees in the System Architecture team were located in Leuven, my direct manager was based in Zurich. To enable better collaboration, we strived to meet physically once per month. Sometimes, she came to Leuven, but I also traveled to Zurich on several occasions for one week at a time. All travel expenses were covered by Axelera.
5 Everyday Life
Leuven is located in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. To blend in better with everyday life, I decided to learn Dutch and reached B1 level. Reading and writing is relatively easy as German native speaker, while speaking and listening may be slightly more difficult. I attended courses at CLT, a language school affiliated with KU Leuven. These courses took place twice a week in the evening, and the classroom was easily reachable on foot. On other days, I went to a nearby gym and joined the local running club.
Supermarkets close earlier in Leuven compared to Germany, which meant that I mostly had to do groceries on Saturdays. This also applied to other time-intensive activities, such as travel.
Taking advantage of the aforementioned very affordable train tickets, I visited most larger Belgian cities during weekends. Brussels is just 20 minutes away, but also Li`ege, Mechelen, Antwerp, Ghent or Bruges can be reached with direct connections. Even going to the seaside in Ostend takes less than 2 hours.
Some other attractions I visited include TrainWorld in Schaerbeek and the Atomium in Brussels. Many museums offer discounted entry for students.
6 Conclusion
Overall, I am very grateful for the opportunity of conducting my internship at Axelera AI in Leuven. The experience has been invaluable, allowing me to develop both technical skills in algorithm and hardware design, as well as soft skills through international collaboration. Living in Belgium broadened my cultural horizons, while learning Dutch facilitated daily interactions.
The Erasmus funding was welcome in making this experience possible, covering relocation costs and a portion of the living expenses. This support allowed me to focus fully on my professional development and cultural immersion.
Internship in Brussels
- Architecture B.Sc.
- Belgium, Brussels
- BC Architects
- 10/23 – 03/24
The past six months I have lived in Brussels to complete an internship at an architectural office. My decision to temporarily move here had nothing to do with the city or the country though but the specific office I would like to work at: an office focusing on sustainable architecture and earth construction. In July I had a job interview after which I was accepted quite quickly. However, there was not enough time to apply for a full Erasmus scholarship in time. Therefore, I strongly recommend everyone to get all the documents ready as soon as possible.
The hunt for an apartment or flat share went quite easily. I checked on the website „appartager“, finding lots of offers, but I was trying to look for a room in the areas of
Ixelles, St Gilles and Schaerbeek (a friend of mine recommended). I ended up in Schaerbeek, in a flat share of four people with a very friendly land lady. The location was perfect, just ten minutes from work on the bike. Since all the rooms were free, I did not know who the other flat mates will be… in the end we were all Germans.. At first we were a bit disappointed, since we would have loved a more multicultural experience but soon we discovered that we were super happy to have a little „German home“ far from home. Whether we discussed the pros and cons of German or Belgium beer or the joint hunt for the best bakery in the city (the truth: nothing can replace German bread) we had a really good time together. We spent lots of nights sitting in the kitchen, chatting, cooking or strolling through the city. In the end we became really good friends, I hope to see again at some point. Our favourite activities contained: visiting Schleiper (the place to go as a creative person, 4 stories full of paint, brushes, paper, materials, clay…) visiting (flea) markets in the Marolles and at Gare du Midi and reading books in cafes or bars. Since it feels like its always raining in Brussels, it is important to know nice places you can hide in when it starts pouring.
The city itself is not too big but feels very confusing at times. Brussels undergoes lots of changes at the moment, many architectural and urban developments are happening. Therefore, construction sites everywhere. Plus there really is a thing called „Belgian solutions“, creative ways of finding solutions to problems (sometimes not making sense) and very much in contrast to German solutions.
So, unexpected things to happen everywhere and endless opportunities to explore. Although the tram system is super modern, it takes ages to move within the city if you rely on this type of transportation. Having or renting a bike is definitely the easiest way to travel around and most of the times I felt quite safe cycling in the streets.
But be aware, Brussels has some hills, so a workout is included. The neighbourhood I lived in, Schaerbeek, is a very multicultural and multinational area. The Moroccan and Turkish communities are quite large and it was reflected in the streets: lots of mini markets with stacks of fresh vegetables and fruits outside and bakeries with delicious baklava run by some of the friendliest people I have met in the city. Though I did feel like the neighbourhood is also changing, the process of gentrification has definitely started..
My internship started on the 11th of September. When I arrived I was welcomed by my supervisor and a colleague and they gave me a short tour of the office and introduced me to everyone. In the beginning I was quite overwhelmed, thinking I would never be able to remember all the names and finding my way around (although it was not too big, around 30 people working there). The first days I spent reading lots of documents and plans to get an idea of the project I was working on but quite quickly I started working on it. Three weeks later another architect joined the team for it and I very much enjoyed working with them. I was able to work on different things, designing,
drawing plans, making models and repairing the roof of a prototype pavilion on the site. The atmosphere in the office was incredible, I never wished to be anywhere else. Everyone was super friendly, open and funny. I was also impressed that everybody got along with each other (not always like that with 30 people) and what also contributes this, I think, is the way they create lunch breaks at the office. Since the office is located near the canal of Brussels, a rather industrial area, with not many food places around (plus it it super expensive to eat out in Brussels), they created a system in which every day one person of the office cooks a meals for everybody and at lunch we sat together in the kitchen sharing the food. This way we got a nice, healthy and freshly cooked meal every day plus the opportunity to chat with everyone. Additionally, I can now claim I am able to cook a nice meal for around 25 people within two hours, a skill I never thought I would ever need nor gain!
Unfortunately, my language skills did not improve as much as I had hoped. Although I had four years of French lessons at school I did not remember a thing when I arrived. Since the people working at the office came from different countries, English was the main language to communicate within the office. Most meetings with clients were held in (Dutch or) French. I would say I am now able to understand conversations and read texts but I do not feel very comfortable talking and expressing myself in French. In the beginning I thought about joining a French class in the evening but working full time and more was already tiring and exciting enough. For the future I hope to be able to expand my knowledge since it is an beautiful language and spoken in many countries I am interested in visiting.
The overall experience at the office, at home and the city was very nice. Brussels is an open and divers city and offers activities, adventures and culture for everyone. I can only recommend!
