Schlagwort: ‘Architecture’
A great experience in Madrid
- Architecture M.A.
- Spain, Madrid
- b720 Fermín Vázquez Arquitectos
- May – October 2022
Living and working six months in the vibrant city of Madrid was a lot of fun for me. I did my obligatory internship in a rather small architecture studio in the northern central part of the city – close to the Bernabeu stadium. I shared a flat with two people in Hortaleza, which is in the north-east between the inner and outer ring, therefore a little bit far from the lively city centre. But it was within a good distance for the everyday commute and for an affordable price. One very important thing to know about living in Madrid is that the public transport system is working really well and if you live close to a metro or cercania station you can move very quickly within the city. If you are under 26 the monthly ticket is more than affordable.
My colleagues at the architecture studio were nice and welcoming. They offered me to speak in English but I asked them to only talk in Spanish with me as I wished to learn as much Spanish as possible during my stay. Even though I did not understand everything on my first days, it did not take long to get used to listening and speaking Spanish all day long. This way I learned a lot and could integrate well in the team. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend a good level of Spanish if you would like to do your internship in Spain.
I have spent the summer term in Madrid to enjoy the nice and hot climate. If I could choose again, I would probably prefer to do an internship of six month in the winter term for two reasons. First, in July and August, it got very hot. Maybe this year has been extreme, but we had a couple of weeks with temperatures above 35 degrees – up to 41 degrees on peak days. Even though every office is supposed to have air conditioning, mine did not because it was broken. As it took until the end of August until someone could fix it, we had to sweat quite a bit. Second, if your office does not make an obligated summer break you are probably to stay while everyone else is leaving Madrid for three or four weeks of vacation. And as people are taking turns, you can find yourself with only very few other co-workers in the office. When everyone came back from vacation, the social life outside the office started to pic up. Not only among the colleagues but also in the whole city. A lot of events happen in autumn in Madrid. So, when the time came that I had to leave, I really did not want to.
Madrid’s social life is inexhaustible. There are always things to do and always events happening. It is almost impossible to find a moment when the streets are empty. Concerning parties, it is probably impossible not to find a bar or club where you can listen to the music you like. You can find all kinds of parties in town. (Even though there is a lot of reggaeton, which was in my favour.) I enjoyed most going out in Cuenca and Malasaña – day and night. Also, even though the river of the city is rather small, Madrid has a lot of parks. I loved spending time at the Retiro Parque and Casa de Campo. But because I lived rather far away from these central parks I often went for a run to Parque Felipe VI. Probably no location where you would go to if you do not live close by, but I liked running there a lot because I had a view of Madrid’s Skyline as well as the mountains in the north of the city. If you search for a nice sunset location, I would not recommend Templo de Debot because it is always too crowded, but rather go to the Lookout at Tío Pío’s Hill.
Madrid is Europe’s highest capital city with about 600m above sea level. I noticed this the most due to the high temperature ranges between day and night. Therefore, it is always recommended to bring at least a light jacket. If you do not need it in the morning, maybe you will need it inside if the air conditioning is too cold.
The last thing that I would like to mention about Madrid is that I appreciated its geographic location within Spain a lot. It is very comfortable to travel from and to Madrid. The distances to all points of interest in all directions are more or less equal. If you book your AVE (the fastest trains in Spain) in advance, it is affordable and allows you to go – sometimes even non-stop – to either Sevilla or Barcelona within two hours. The bus takes about five to six hours depending on traffic conditions.
To put it in a nutshell, I can highly recommend Madrid (and for architects also my studio b720) as Erasmus+ location. I enjoyed the six month there a lot and I hope that I can go back soon. The people I met were wonderful and the food I ate delicious. I have learned a lot in language, professional and intercultural terms.
Copenhagen – A city full of life
- Architecture M.Sc.
- Copenhagen, Denmark
- Sweco Architects
- 28.03.2022 – 30.09.2022
While studying architecture, we have to do an internship before writing our master thesis. I chose to complete mine in Copenhagen. I totally fell in love with the city. Especially during the summer month, its just amazing. The weather was mostly good, not too warm and when the sun shines, the people and the city unfold so much life, lightness and openness. You can see how precious the sun and the light is, as soon as it´s sunny, life happens outside, by the water, in parks, cafés… The city has the perfect size, it´s big enough to fill 6 months with new experience, and I still haven’t seen everything, but you also cannot get lost. There are always familiar corners and sometimes it´s like a little village.
© Amelie Weber
The Danes are sometimes a bit closed, and you have to warm their heart before they let you in, but in general they are always friendly and up to help you. They will be confused if you smile at them without a reason, but it’s a challenge to win them as your friend, and you will succeed. I met so many amazing people, I don’t want to miss in my life anymore. The city is also filled up with internationals from all over the world, you will for sure find a big community from your home country, if you feel like surrounding yourself with people from home. But I recommend mixing it up, Danes, people from your home country, other internationals. That´s what made it very interesting and also informative for me. That’s also a good way for your English to improve enormously. Danes speak English very well, no matter how old they are. It´s very easy to survive with only speaking English and no one will expect you to change that or look at you in a weird way, if you don’t speak Danish.
Denmark, especially Copenhagen, is super expensive. You cannot survive with the Erasmus money only, it needs to be combined with a salary, and in my case my parents also send me money, since the company didn’t pay me that well. In those 6 month I´ve spend around 11.000 euros while having a normal amount of free time activities. Going to a bar and paying 55 DKK (7,40 euros) is normal.
© Amelie Weber
I rented a Swapfiets during my stay and that was perfect. Public transportation works very well in Denmark, but is also expensive. Everything that can be reached by bike in 30 min, is done by bike. The bike lanes are a dream and on your way to work you will probably meet your boss on a cargo bike with some kids in it.
I would recommend to start the search for an apartment in time. The market is super fast. I didn’t have any success with Facebook groups, but can recommend “findroommate” or “BoligPortal”. You will have to pay a fee to use those portals, but for me, it was worth the money because I found the most amazing room and roommate.
If you stay longer the 3 month and earn money, you will have to register for EU registration and CPR number. Do it as fast as possible, the waiting time is pretty long. You will need it, to open a bank account and to get access to the Danish health system. As a bank I recommend Lunar, the waiting time was 2 weeks and everything is online and English. The waiting time for one of the big Danish banks is usually around 6-7 weeks.
For me, those 6 month were the most amazing month of my life and fell in love with the city. I hope everyone else, who is choosing Copenhagen, has the same experience. I can recommend the city very much and the Erasmus money will help a lot. I am very grateful I got the chance to have that money. Last but not least: Enjoy the time!
© Amelie Weber
© Amelie Weber
My experience in Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Architecture M.Sc.
- Rotterdam, Netherlands
- Barcode Architects
- March 2022 -August 2022
From March to August 2022, I was doing a six-month Internship at Barcode Architects, an international architecture office in Rotterdam (Netherlands). It has been an amazing experience, where I was able to work with many interesting and talented people from all over the world on a variety of different projects. I recommend doing an internship at this office and in general in Rotterdam. Rotterdam is a great city especially for architecture students (but of course also for everybody else) because it is an “architecture city”. What I mean by that is that you can find there various buildings, architecture related events and international offices. It is a young, dynamic city that offers different activities and events every week for everyone who is interested.
Preparation / Apartment search / General tips:
After I got the confirmation of my internship position, I started looking for an accommodation. In the Netherlands, most people I know found their accommodation through Facebook or the housing website Kamernet. It wasn’t easy to find a room, but finally I was lucky to find a nice one in a shared apartment before my arrival. I recommend you to start as early as possible to search for an accommodation and respond quickly to possible advertisements because the housing market in the Netherlands in general and in larger cities in particular is tight. I was living in beautiful Rotterdam North, which is a family-friendly district with lots of old Dutch houses and a calm atmosphere. It’s right above the central station, so very centrally located. I just needed approximately 10 to 13 min. by bike to get to the office. Everything you need in Rotterdam (and the Netherlands in general) to get around, is a bike because there are separate bike lanes next to the streets, almost everywhere in the city. And although Rotterdam is large, you get everywhere fast by bike and if you want to go further, it has a well-developed public transport system.
Leisure / Going out:
You will always find something to do in your spare time in Rotterdam, whether you want to dance on a festival, get some drinks at a bar, visit another city nearby as Delft or The Hague, do some sports or visit an art exhibition or event. Every week something else is happening in Rotterdam. One of these exciting events were the Rotterdam Architecture month. The whole of June was dedicated to architecture and you could visit lectures and rooftops in Rotterdam. There were also special rooftop installations designed by the architecture office MVRDV, to show how we could use existing rooftops to create more sustainable cities. There also some beaches nearby Rotterdam as for example Hoek van Holland or Scheveningen which you can easily reach by public transport to go swimming, sunbathe or rent a surfboard. Overall, it was a great time, during which I was able to learn a lot and broaden my horizons. I’m grateful for this experience and also for the support of the Erasmus Internship organization.
© Laetitia Augustyniak
Living in Sevilla
- Architecture M.Sc.
- Spain, Sevilla
- Vázquez Consuegra
- April 2022 – July 2022
My internship in Spain was very spontaneous. I applied right before the six weeks deadline and when the Erasmus confirmation came I had only three weeks left to find a flat, book a flight and insurances. I thought that would be an impossible task and almost didn’t try at all. Looking back, I am so happy that I did try! Because everything worked out just fine just as it usually does and after the slightly exhausting organization I had some of the best months so far.
© Smilla Schäfer
Before going to Sevilla, I had this expectation of the Spanish people to be as openhearted and extroverted as I knew it from the South Americans. I was a little shocked to find this to be not very true, at least in my experience. It definitely took some time to figure the people out and make genuine connections and I am very grateful that I had this time!
Where I found this expectation to be true was in my Mexican flatmate. She made the first weeks so much easier for me and I found a great friend in her. During the weekends we would go for trips around Sevilla, for example to Granada, Cadiz Lagos, and during the week for Tapas and Tinto de Verano in the evenings. I am very happy to have met her and cannot wait to visit her in Mexico next year! So, I recommend to not get a flat alone but with flatmates because that is a great way to meet other people that don’t work in the same office.
In the architecture office, in which I did my internship, I met some great people too. The other interns were mainly from Italy and especially with one of them I became good friends. Once a week we would go to our favourite bar, Galeria Taberna Anima, together with my flatmate where they played Flamenco Music every Wednesday. Highly recommend that. Another intern was from Croatia and one week a few friends of hers came with one of her professors from Slovenia to visit her and our office.
© Smilla Schäfer
This was a very happy coincidence because I connected well with them and now will start my next internship in their office in a few weeks.
So, the thing I am most grateful for are definitely the people I met and the connections I made during this internship!
© Smilla Schäfer
But besides that, I also fell in love with Andalucia and Sevilla itself. The landscape with its mountains and beaches is stunning and the culture so rich that there seems to be a different fiesta or feria every other week. I loved to live by this new rhythm – work in the morning, siesta in the evening and going out at night -, I loved the food and how they put olive oil on everything and I even loved the climate, although I am not going to lie, the late July with 46 degrees every day was hard. If you go to Sevilla, make sure your apartment has airconditioning!
Because of the heat the office had a special summer schedule. We would start at 8am and leave the office at 3pm. An exception was the time right before a submission deadline, when everybody had to stay longer but in general everybody left really punctual. Non-negotiable was the coffee break at 11am. The office had no coffee machine, so we left the office to go to the next bar in small groups every day. Very quickly the Coffee and Tostada con Aceite y Tomate became a daily ritual for me and I already miss that.
In conclusion I can say that this internship abroad contributed highly to my professional growth as an architect and allowed me to network with a lot of interesting people but also helped a lot to my personal growth and gave me many great experiences! I recommend taking this chance and just doing it to everyone who might be thinking about it.