Architecture Competition Virtual Home Honorable mention – Lisa Giolitto Cereser

We’d like to take the opportunity to introduce you to one of our Honorable mention winner for our "Virtual Home" competition – Lisa Giolitto Cereser from Italy!

Lisa Giolitto Cereser from Italy

I graduated in 2018 from a Business High School because “art high school is full of junkies and by studying economics you have a more stable future” although I’ve always had a strong interest in creative subjects. I then enrolled in business college to maintain consistency with my previous studies, but it didn’t take long before I realised that it was not what I wanted to do in life. I then started researching what would be the right university for me and for what I wanted to do in life, and that’s when I found IAAD.

To be honest, I never imagined myself attending a private university, but the Interior Design course was so perfectly targeted to my future intentions that after learning about it, I could not imagine myself at any other university. So I started to accept any job offer that came my way to show my parents that I was motivated and that I was also willing to help them financially. And here I am three years later, proud of myself, of the progress I have made,of the goals I have achieved and of the stubbornness of the me from three years ago.

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?

Next week I will officially hold my degree in interior design, so, as you can imagine, I have not yet been involved in many real projects, except for the internship I did during my studies. In general, however, I work on small-scale projects both residential (such as villas or flat renovations) and public (e.g. restaurants and shops).

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

Architecture is a very undervalued discipline in comparison to the importance of the role it plays. In fact, behind everything we see every day there is a project, the whole world past, present and future has been and will be designed by architects. In the figure of the architect, technical, social, cultural, aesthetic and ethical issues and problems are intertwined as in no other profession. As a creator of the future of cities, it is important for the architect to focus on today's issues, especially environmental issues, imagining ethical and sustainable architecture in the whole building process.

Why do you participate in architecture competitions?

As a lover of competition, participating in architecture contests seems like a great opportunity to train creativity and detach from everyday routine. A very important factor is also the visibility and the possibility of sharing projects with a much wider community, which especially in my case, as I am just out of university, is very important to start a professional career.

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

To individuals who struggle to decide whether it would be beneficial for them to participate in architecture competitions, I would say that it is absolutely worth it, not only for the visibility issue, but also to put yourself out there and come out of your shell, out of your comfort zone and share your ideas to the world in order to actually understand their value.