personal statement

 

I’m seeking a career path where I can utilise both my analytical and creative skills, although I always excelled in maths and sciences, it felt too linear for my creativity.  I love to participate in art however felt a lack of fulfilment when there was an absence of practicality, architecture seems to be a perfect marriage of both. I want to be able to invent concepts that create interesting and sustainable structures and I trust this course will help me achieve this goal. Furthermore, Manchester school of architecture will nurture my creative development and enable me to achieve my full potential as a future architect. I know I’ll thrive in a university that encourages individual creative development, free thinking and innovation. I also look forward to collaborating in projects with my peers and share conceptual visions and ideas.  The university offers a vast range of equipment and great studio space which I certainly plan to make full use of.  

A recent exhibition that inspired me was “parables for happiness” by Yinka Ilori at the design museum in London. The designer worked with a team of architects to use abstract structures combined with vibrant colours to convert “unwelcoming public spaces” such as a road underpass or a London hospital into spaces of happiness and wellbeing.  He makes art accessible to a passing pedestrian or to those who don’t have the time or money to go to a museum and is a great example of how design and architecture can benefit society. I admire a broad range of architectural styles, so it Is difficult to pick a favourite. However, Louis khan stands out for many reasons; he truly mastered the use of simple form, symmetry and geometry in his works and his proficient use of light in his works is an essay of how light makes space. He illustrates how  good architecture should achieve an effortless coherence among concept, function, use, experience and material.  My favourite Khan’s work is the national assembly in Dhaka in Bangladesh. The structure carries elements of traditional architecture whilst creating forms of our own time.

I would like to visit the Bonhôte Zapata residential community in Switzerland, this project aims to create an exemplary social environment to develop harmonious co-living whilst leaning towards energy self-sufficiency, some residents share kitchens and laundry rooms and I would love to see how successful the project is In terms of encouraging social interaction and a sense of community that we have lost in big urban cities. Can the structure and use of a building influence social behaviour?  An interesting philosophy and concept that I’d like to pursue in some of my future work.