How collaborations help you to do a better job

The decision to move to Denmark started in 2012, when I applied for a 3 months internship. Long story short, we found ourselves in the little beautiful Copenhagen, working for a small office in Vesterbro. We were totally involved in a competition, we had a lot of Friday bar and we were so fascinated by the Architecture environment here in Denmark.

It was July, perfect sunny days.So you know, it was super easy to fall in love with Danish summer :).

After that amazing experience, we were back to reality. We finally graduated so, now WHAT? I was craving for new adventures and I really wanted to come back to Copenhagen.

In my last year of University I felt that I didn’t learn anything new and be ready for the profession. The REAL one.

I wasn’t motivated.

I needed something different.

I won a new scholarship, and I came back with the idea of working in an office as a team, seeing how other architects work, collaborating with the young team, and being part of a cool project…but it didn’t happen. I was not ready, professionally and personally speaking.

I wasn’t alone on this journey. My closest friends moved abroad to London, Zurich, Shanghai. We all started with jobs not related to architecture for different reasons: language, money, life, you name it!

But we were hungry… A LOT.

We couldn’t accept not being able to work as real architects and not doing what keeps us active, to build a professional portfolio, to show more than student projects.

So we built a virtual office. We delivered 4 competitions and worked remotely online with Dropbox, Skype, and once, we took a plane to London to finish a project with the England´s team. Our work schedule? From 5 PM to 11 PM.

3 things you have to consider before to join ANY competition:

• In line with your skills, but with a good dose of challenge to push your creative limits. You learn the most when you are outside of your design´s comfort zone.

• The project´s theme has to be in line with projects you would like to work with in a future office. So projects to be proud to be in your portfolio.

• Reasonable timeline and deadlines (not less than 6 weeks of work before to send it out). A good project needs time! But give yourself a deadline, since as creative, we tend to perfect the craft endlessly.

So, find your crew, create collaborations, talk to people and be proactive. Don’t stop your imagination and energy just because you don´t have the dream job!

Push your creativity and you will find delight in the process.

Danila –

This post was originally sent to my personal newsletter subscribers. 

The Author

Danila Lampis is an italian architect based in Copenhagen.

Find her hanging also on Instagram and say hello!