Architecture Society: The Latest Architecture and News

I believe one of the biggest problems recently graduated architects are encountering is their lack of professional experience. That’s totally normal. Without knowing what to do, finding employment in architecture can be very costly, both financially and time wise.  

Personally, I started my professional career with some internships where I saw how an architecture project in the street worked: the paperwork that’s involved, the invoices, the budgets, the smell of the ink from the plans in the office, how the models feel under your fingers.

Honestly, you have no idea how open other architects are to sharing their knowledge and making room for the new generations that come after. It makes sense because in a way they see themselves in the new generation, as they were a few years ago. 

In this article, originally published as "¿Qué es un portafolio de proyectos y cómo se hace?" (What is a portfolio and how do you make one?) from blog Enlace Arquitectura, the author shares a series of suggestions and steps on making a suitable and convenient portfolio for when you’re job hunting. The basis of these recommendations is to correctly understand what a portfolio is and what it should contain. It also details how to maximize creativity in the representation and execution of architectural projects when included in a portfolio.

Architect Anna Puigjaner imagines a future in which housing is suited to the needs of its inhabitants. Sometimes that happens to mean not having a kitchen. Her project “Kitchenless” has received the Wheelwright Prize from Harvard University, along with an endowment of $100,000 for research on existing models of communal residences worldwide.

Puigjaner and the other members of the Maio firm work alongside professionals from other disciplines in a beautiful spot in the Gracia district in Barcelona, which functions more as a co-working space than a conventional architectural office. The Maio team opted for this place in 2011, during the crisis, so in order to hold on to it they decided to open the space to other workers. In 2016 they could afford to be alone, but there isn’t any compelling reason for them to do it. This could be a summary of their philosophy and is surely one of the reasons why Puigjaner received the Wheelwright Prize, a unique prize among architecture awards as it doesn’t focus on a specific work or research but the relationship between the two, in direction and ideas.

She does the interview from her office and talks about the changes that lie ahead for the future of housing: