Architecture Competition MICROHOME / Edition #5 3rd and Student prize winner – Warsaw University of Technology

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to the 3rd and Student prize winners of our "MICROHOME / Edition #5" competition – Aleksandra Musiał and Alicja Adela Jarochowska from Poland!

Aleksandra Musiał and Alicja Adela Jarochowska from Poland

We are students from Warsaw University of Technology, currently on our third year of six years integrated Master studies.

Brief information about the projects that you/your company have been involved with. For instance, what scale have you focused on/preferred, any significant projects where the company/individuals have been involved?

We have designed mostly academic projects, which varied between 30 to 300 square meters and one project for 10 000 square meters. Other than that, we both like to take part in different workshops and competitions in very different scales. We are still trying to gain as much experience as we can and learn what we like along the way.

What does architecture mean to you and what is the role of an architect in your society?

Architecture and being an architect to us means serving the society, taking care of the planet, reacting to current social, economic and environmental needs in the most sufficient and creative way. It also means understanding the beauty and the order of the world in all its complexity and trying to create something new in the language of it. It is an incredibly hard task, but even more so fascinating.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

We like to challenge ourselves, work on something together and learn new skills and architecture competitions are a great way to do that. We also want to do more projects than we have on our studies and we have the freedom to do whatever project we want. Through team work we learn how to communicate and discover what we need in order to work our best. We also like to add our voices to a discussion and show solutions that bring something new to the table.

What advice would you give to individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions?

Architecture competitions are the best way to test your team work skills and overall designing skills. You learn what you like and dislike in the creative process, you learn how to communicate and give feedback, not to mention that you can find the people who are a great team for you and do more projects together. It is also a great way to gain new interests, experiment more and research things that you wouldn’t normally study. Worst case scenario – you will lose your registration fee (but note that there are some free competitions out there, too) or not finish the project, but it will still give you very valuable experience.