I graduated my Master’s degree in architecture engineering last July and I wanted to start my own firm, Kogkalidis and Associates. I am 25 years old and architecture is my passion and I wanted to find someone help me learn the secrets of architecture marketing and directing. My idea was a 3 year plan (for start) which focused on finding clients and stabilizing my finance in order to stadily grow and work. My hosts (Jesus and Helena) were very friendly and immidiately wanted to help me as soos as I reached out. I found the program via the erasmus site and the host told me that they work with that program so the whole procedure was very easy quick since everyone was on the same page. Generally I expected to gain some experience in managing projects, people and clients and learn how to win projects by marketing my products.
Generally my activities during my EYE stay considered of the same activities a junior architect would have. I was part of the design team and got to work in every project that was running in the office that time. That means I produces drawings, 3d models, physical models, renders etc. One unexpected activity is that sometimes I got to help some interns with any problems they had which wasn’t planned I think but it gave me experience on how to deal with people on daily basis.
I believe I gained a lot from this experience. We said that we may work together again in the near future, which has given me high hopes for how my conctacts and experiences will increase. All the skills I gained, like communicating my ideas, working directly with the founders of the office, working simultanuously on multiple projects, will help a lot on my future decisions about how I want my office to be and how I will work on different projects with different people and communicate with different clients.
Wonderful experience. Learn a lot and had much fun. The hosts were really friendly and made the experience pass really smoothly and without any problems. It can help a young professional grow and gain so many important skills regarding managing a firm.