BE AN ARCHITECT IN CHINA · 13. JOSE MARIA FERNANDEZ JORGE-Spain-Architecture 14. YARON NURI-Isreal-Architecture 15. Li Zhengshu-USA-Architecture 16. JOSE MISO ANTON-Spain-Architecture

BE AN ARCHITECT IN CHINA

ARCHIBUCKS ANNUAL REPORT 2015

Huangshan Tour Photoed by José Maria Romero Rubio in 2015

Review of 2015 Incoming work— Archibucks-Fanfan Studio

IntroductionDear readers,

I am Allen Zhu, recruitment consultant of Archibucks - Fanfan Studio. In 2015, we have finished placing 25 foreign architects in China with internship and formal jobs. 2015 became a disaster for Chinese real estate design industry. Many foreign design firm, especially USA architecture design firm close their offices in China due to lack of projects. Government control policy of the real estate market affected developer's confidence of future market. Commercial mixed-use projects needs decreased, limited land release all made a winter for 2015 design firms. Half of the foreign designers in China move to Hong Kong, Europe and South Asia to seek for new jobs. Landscape and urban design business behaved even worse than architecture design business. Let us hope 2016 will be better.

Foreign Architects in 2015 1. GAVIN LOHRY-USA-Architecture

2. THEODORU-ADRIAN NICULAE-Romania-Architecture

3. JOAN RUFIAN PUJOL-Spain-Architecture

4. JOHN OLIVER HICK GIMENO-UK-Landscape Architecture

5. TAM KHAI XIONG-Malaysia-Architecture

6. LAURA GONZALEZ CABRERA-Spain- Architecture

7. HOH HOCK YEAN MACUS-Malaysia-Architecture

8. JOAO PAULO TEODORO DE SOUSA GUIMARAES- Portugal-Architecture

9. MARIO KLAUS HERRMANN-Germany-Architecture

10. BIANCA-IULIANA ANASTASIU-Romania-Architecture

11. MARCO DIGRANDI-Italy-Architecture

12. SARAH ELIZABETH JESTER-USA- Architecture

13. JOSE MARIA FERNANDEZ JORGE-Spain-Architecture

14. YARON NURI-Isreal-Architecture

15. Li Zhengshu-USA-Architecture

16. JOSE MISO ANTON-Spain-Architecture

17. PIETRO PECICCIA-Italy-Architecture

18. JAN-HENDRIK RIEGER-TRAUTMANN-Germany-Architecture


19. FERNANDO DE LOS SANTOS CEREZO-Spain-Architecture

20. HERVE FRANCOIS GUIRAND-France-Architecture

21. JOSE ANDRES MONIS RODRIGUEZ-Spain- Architecture

22. DIEGO HERNÁNDEZ LOMERO-Spain-Architecture

23. MALGORZATA DOROTA BAJAK-Poland-Architecture

24. LEO GIADA-Italy-Architecture

25. LUKE THEODORIUS SANTOSO-Indonesia-Architecture


Testimonials

Fernando de los Santos Cerezo-Spain-Architecture My first impression of my work in Shanghai is totally positive. I would recommend every architect to have this experience in their lives. First month in China was very tired because you don´t know places to go, new life, new city to know but second month you begin to have a routine and you are used to live here. In my office at this moment I am involve in a big project where I am working in the coordination with architectural design, structure, installations and interior design. Since the beginning my team was very kind with me. They try to help monotony at the office also helping me with my way of life in Shanghai. Next month I will be designing a building office with my team. In Shanghai you can find lots of entertainments, different kind of restaurants and you can live in a day the traditional Chinese culture in Jing ´an Temple or Yuyuan Garden and the opposite modern architectural skyscrapers wit htheir amazing lights at night. Living in China I could realize that I didn´t know so much about this culture. Now I can understand better other ways of life. So good place for a great experience.


Design made by Fernando in China


Cesar Diego Herbosa-Spain-Architecture It´s been my fourth month here in Shanghai. Too many things has happened since then. I remember my plans of going abroad before knowing exactly where to go. I still think that this kind of experiences that push you a little bit out of your comfort zone can really teach you much more things that if you just stay doing something more easy. With these ideas on my mind I decided to pack my things and try my best. But that was just the beginning. Maybe many people who had come to China with the same conditions would agree me when I say that this is a little bit different of what you expect before. Everything is bigger in China! Cities, buildings, markets, but also experiences (good and bad ones ;) ). So I will just say that this is a country of contrast. You can meet somebody that can try to get more money from a simple apple you want to buy but also find somebody who is accompany yourself when you are lost in the middle of nowhere. It´s an adventure. Something different from any other experience that you can ever imagine.

My working conditions are ok. First days are always harder and more when the language and also cultural barrier is there. Anyway I was lucky under this point of view. My colleagues are

very nice to me and the working environment is very good with really young spirit mind. The problem comes with the clients. But it´s also another opportunity to learn how to deal with people. This kind of tools are useful for anything in life. China is also a huge country to discover and this is one of the best things to

consider before coming as a good point. There are too many different places to visit. Giant cities with huge skyscrapers but also has a deep ancient culture almost unknown for all of us. For us this is a limitless source of inspiration where we can take ideas and adapt them to what we want. Until now I´ve been in different places like Nanjing, Suzhou and Changsa and small beautiful villages in the middle of nowhere. China is a country with almost everything you can imagine, but that´s only a small part of China because the rest is everything that we still don´t know. So yes, at this moment I decided to stay and keep on learning and discovering as many things as I can. Hope to see you!


Design made by Cesar in China


Leo Giada-Italy-ArchitectureNi hao! It’s been 4 months that I’m living and working in Beijing. I can say that the beginning was quite shocking because of different culture between China and Italy, but I’m a positive person, and I took the opportunity to discover a new country like this. I’m very surprised about the amount of work that I have here, in this short period I got involved in 6 projects. Everything in China is going excellent, I think it’s a country that offers a lot of job opportunities for young people. I have too much work that I didn’t yet have the time to travel around the other regions, but on the other hand, it’s a chance to explore this cosmopolitan city, which is growing and full of beautiful places to visit, various cultures and curious habits. By the way, Itraveled several times with my company because of business trips. Regarding my company, I can say that I fell in love with my job. In China I have the opportunity to design with fantasy and freedom, in a bigger scale that I’m used to it.

And everyone knows that in China, dimension is different from Europe! Everything is big, everything is fast and I learned to face all this. I feel this life in China is changing me,I feel more grow up, stronger and skilled. Fortunately my work-colleagues are very nice, almost all of them speak a basic English, and because now we are three foreigners, it’s a pleasant to spend the time, and overtime, in the office. At the beginning, it was quite difficult to communicate with the people, then I took some Chinese language classes, and everyday I have the opportunity to learn new words from them, and I can say that this language fascinates me a lot! I like the company because it is very well organized: they have a lot of specific regulations, but if you follow the rules, they reward you. Also they organize a lot of “company outing”, like bbq, spa, dinners, walking, little trips, according to enhance the relations between each other. Since the beginning, I started with little things, like analysis and concepts, then little by little, they give me more and more responsibilities, like bringing me in business trips, or let me present a design proposal with my team leader. Time is passing by, and I feel the confidence


between us, sometimes we don’t need to talk to understand each other, I think I started to get the Chinese point of view about the project design, the way they think, act, work. Aside from this, I really want to spend more time here in this company, in China, and also travel around the country to discover every corner of it, talk with people, learn the local habits and try the typical food of each region, and six months are not enough! What else to say? This choice is the best one after working in Europe, so this jumping in Asia totally amazed my life. I still have a lot to learn here, and I truly recommended this experience to everyone, to build your own bones (as we say in Italy)! So, actually I don’t have the ticket back to my country yet, and I hope to buy it just for vacations for at least the next 3/4 years!

Design made by Giada in China


José Andres Monis Rodriguez -Spain-Architecture I have already been for three months in Shanghai and I can say that it has been one of the best decisions I ever made in my whole life. I always wanted to have a professional experience abroad and China was one of the first choices because of its rapid economic growth and the large number of projects being carried out there. Thanks to Archibucks, the process of job search and entry into China is much easier

It is true that the beginning was hard because of cultural and language difference and being so far from your family and friends. However, it has been easier than I expected and everything is going great.

I firmly believe that Shanghai is one of the most amazing cities in the world. It is a city of contrasts and unexpected situations where every district or street gives a different feeling. Furthermore, my life is more interesting and enriching at the same time because I am meeting people from all over the world in a different environment.

Currently, I am working for a French firm based in China and It will always be an unforgettable experience for me. I can develop my skills and knowledge in a wide range of large-scale projects. Undoubtedly, designing all kinds of multi functional buildings is assuming a very fast evolution in every way for me. Moreover, the rate at which projects occur, help me to learn and manage the projects, their details and take control new design software quickly.

I think I have enough reasons to say that I would like to stay longer here. If I get a chance to continue my career as an architect here, I won´t hesitate.


Design made by Jose in China


Laura Gonzalez Cabrera-Spain-Architecture

My name is Laura, Master Architect graduate from the University of Seville, Spain.

I came to Shanghai for the Junior Architect programwhen I finished my Master Degree project, and after having done a three months internship last summer in a Chinese studio, also in Shanghai.

Enrolling on the Archibucks program definitely helped me to come here. They arranged me interviews with the top rated offices in Shanghai, advised me about the integration process and prepare all my Visa and registration documentation upon my arrival.Since I already knew about Shanghai life before, and about working in a Chinese environment experience; I did have an idea of what my internship experience would be here, but my new company exceed my better expectations by far.

Company'sbikeridetrip

Within this office, it was easy to adapt myself to everyday life here even if Chinese culture is so different and you have to change your working methods. It was the first time for me being part of a 25 people team and getting adapt to the way it is organized, but I have been granted with a very welcoming atmosphere not only in the working environment, but with integrative extra activities and trips to strengthen teamwork and office relationships. However, and to be honest, working in such a different schemed studio is not always easy, and sometimes communication is such a big obstacle to organize work and to split projects development processes.

Very often, participating is no easy task when you could not understand what bosses are demanding from you, or the tasks are so much in the early stage that it is just impossible for you as a foreigner that does cannot understand Chinese language to collaborate in the research. But anyway,finding the way to overcome this issues with nice people who ae trying to help is also part of the amazing experience!

About Shanghai life, it’s just amazing. It never stops surprising you. This city is the hobe where


western and Asian cultures are joining together, giving you the opportunity to get in contact with so much diverse people you would have never imagined, getting professional opportunities and always discovering new things.

I am really fascinated about Chinese culture, and for now, I am not planning to go back to Europe for a while. Here it is the place, where you never stop challenging yourself and I would definitely recommend it to everyone!

Design made by Lura in China


José Miso Anton-Spain-Architecture After a long time studying and preparing my professional career, one year ago several reason made me jump into the international career.

After my first stop in Japan for several months, I discovered China probably as the best opportunity-giving country, especially in the field of architecture and interior design. The volume of the work is huge and frenetic, as well as it is living here. In all the means, I’d say that China has another timing if we compare with Europe, here everything goes so fast, for the good and the bad, it means an extra effort but on the other hand, I can’t think on a better professional training exercise.

Right now I'm working in an international design firm in Shanghai that covers many kind of projects but it's specialized on the field of hospital and dental clinic projects. My position in the company is Project Designer and I take the projects from the concept to the making off with the invaluable coordination of the other colleges in the company. In my opinion there are two important points that makes my job interesting; on the one hand the dimensions of the projects are coverable by only one designer, what makes the project more personal, by the other hand, there is a diverse and numerous group of coworkers waiting to help you on the renders, facilities design and building details and layouts, allowing you to focus mainly on the creative aspects.

In short, the work here as an architect or interior designer is interesting, although it’s also hard. The life here, although it’s also difficult sometimes mainly due to the time needed to move from one place to another, also has really good aspects, as it is mainly the social. I could say I found the city really easy-going for foreigners.

I'd really recommend to everyone that has a chance to come, to live it.


Design made by Anton in China


José Maria Romero Rubio-Spain-Architecture

My name is José Maria Romero Rubio, I’m from Madrid in Spain and I graduated in Architecture at the end of 2012. From that moment I started working first in some offices in Europe and later as a freelance in my hometown but both types of employment were not satisfying at all, even less stable. So I started looking for a job abroad. Europe was so full of people searching for a job that was quite difficult to find a proper office, in America the visa was almost impossible to get, and in China the language was a great barrier. It was then when I contacted Archibucks. Through them I did a couple of interviews through skype, one of the office liked me and not so much time after it I was flying to Shanghai. I will not lie, arriving here is not an easy experience, every little step involves a big effort. But also after managing to handle it, you feel satisfied and can find yourself amazingly happy just after buying a SIM card for your phone. So getting used to the life here can be a difficult experience at the beginning, but the personal rewards totally compensate it. After one week I started working in the company that I had done the interview with, DC Alliance. From the point of view of Europe, it was a huge company, with more than one hundred architects, but for the Chinese market can be considered as a medium company. I recognize that I was surprised when I saw that from the more than one hundred people, we were only three foreigners working there, and all as an intern. I have no complain about my colleagues, they tried to welcome me to the office and liked to hang out with me and we get to know each other. But as the main language of the office was Chinese, and some of the people working there barely spoke English, including my team leader, it was quite difficult to fully participate and collaborate in the projects. Of course that was my problem, I was the one not talking the local language, but I think that for the company


it was a pity to invest money in hiring foreign architect and not get any benefit from them. Anyway, I was not totally stopped while working with them and I participated in projects as the Mudanyuan Commercial Center in Ningbo, where I could learn a different way of thinking the architecture, more focus on the selling aspect. And a collaboration with Snohetta for the Haier Global Innovation Center. But the truth is that I didn´t continue working with them for long and after some months I changed to a more international company. About other aspect of living in Shanghai, it has been always a great experience. It’s a city full of opportunities where if you want you will never be bored as there are plenty of things to do. Even can be exhausting the feeling that you never stop, but you get to enjoy it. Not proud about it but I haven´t travelled too much around China yet, the only trip I’ve done was to Huangshan, the Yellow Mountains. And apart from going out of the city to a more natural place, it was nice to visit smaller cities and know another parts, as Shanghai can be considered as a totally different world, not too Chinese after all. In general I would say that, even if I didn’t enjoy completely my first job in China, the personal experience of working and living in Shanghai has changed me and it will continue changing me as after one year and a half I’m still living here without a clear date to come back.

Design made by Rubio in China


Luke Theodorius Santoso -Indonesia-ArchitectureLiving a life like a Beijinger” was never crossed my mindat the first timeI arrived in China.

My name is Luke T. Dwi,to live and work in Beijing for me,an Indonesian (soon to be) architect, does give me a clear projection for being a future worldwidearchitect. When I read about Archibucks from an architecture discussion forum, I was just came back from traveling to Shanghai. I have no problem contacting them; Veronica, from Archibucks team, replied and quickly provided me with a lot of information about working and living in China. Kudos is given for Archibucks team for being not only informative but also being helpfulto me through all the process, involving visa process, to an interview appointment with the company I’m working for. The company I have been workingfor is a local design company located in Beijing, with various big scale projects, mostly mixed use developments, offices, andalso resorts. It is wonderful and beyond belief when you have just arrived in China 2 months ago, but you have been given opportunity to design such amazing projects. I feel that my design skill is also being adapted and transverse into an efficient and effective way. In a numerous case, my director teaches me how to design in a various approaches, it is something that we, young architects, need to pay attention to. Being Asian decent among local Chinese people, is another experience for me, since local people are often mistaken me as Chinese, my workmates taught me some phrases and made me repeat to pronounce it several times until I made it right. They are also so eager to know about the country I’m from, culture, language, and of course, cuisine. But that somehow triggers me to learn more Chinese, its culture and language. And thankfully, Beijing is the right place for it! Working and living in Beijing, in nutshell can offer an amazing, endearing,

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Marco DIgrandi-Italy-Architecture

Ni hao! My name is Marco and I come from Italy. Sadly I am about to finish my internship in Shanghai and I still cannot fully realize that. Why China? - was the most common question I have been asked - Why not!?- was my answer . I applied for a 3 months internship before graduating because I really wanted to be part - even for a short-time - of this extraordinary fast-growing process that takes place in China and especially in Shanghai. Even Chinese real estate development is slowing down recently, you can still perceive how fast design processes go by and how fast they juggle many projects at the same time. I have to admit it was very hard at the beginning: I was so scared to move to a such far place without knowing the language and the culture and I was about to renounce to this chance, but in the end I decided to take this step forward and after three months I can say it was the best choice I could take. I had the chance and the honor to work with such an amazing French architecture firm where I have been well-received since the first day. Even most of the stuff was Chinese-speaker, I found most of the time a way to communicate with them and to express my ideas. I had the chance to design lots of different design typologies - from urban architecture to interior design - where I could have been completely free to express my creativity: shooting place, hotels, apartment buildings, industrial park, tea house, retirement home. I could learn new interesting software and new ways to use them and I had the opportunity to be followed by very open-minded team leaders. I met a lot of nice people, I


grew up a lot professionally and personally and I must say it is becoming very hard to say goodbye to this amazing job, this vibrant city and this so stimulating environment. I also had the chance to learn very basic Chinese thanks to a language course offered by the company. Anyway I must say that language barrier is very strong and sometimes it gets frustrating, especially during meetings with the clients: you have to understand the language in order to understand ideas and concepts. So my suggestion to future perspective interns is to be prepared to that and take some Chinese courses previously: you won't regret that. There are so many things to tell and so many tips to give but the only way to really understand it is to do it and so my advice is just carpe diem if you have the same awesome chance I had, do not be scared and always try. Architecture is made of experiences and travelling is one of them. "You cannot change China, China changes you."

Design made by Marco in China


Malgorzata Bajak–Poland–Architecture I came to China few months ago. It was definitely a good choice. The offer I’ve got, turned out to be exactly what I wanted. A job with responsibilities, interesting big scale projects, in the Chinese-English speaking office with many foreigners.

Usually I am going to work by metro / bus. But when the weather is nice, I take my bike and feel free. It’s also much faster way, because mornings and afternoons are full of traffic jams. In the evening the city looks very pretty, enlighted, many people on the street, shopping, eating, talking, dancing, playing basketball. The city is alive.

My conclusion: foreigners are coming to China to

work because the architecture market is already quite big and still fast developing. Here you can find more job opportunities. You can experience lots of travelling and get to know new culture.

Shanghai is attracting new employees. I guess here there are more foreigners than in any other city in China. Local people are smiling and lots of them are able to communicate in English as well. The city changes all the time. Everyday many buildings are being removed, many buildings are being raised. Residential area is being increased, as well as office area.

What I noticed is: a lot of people from other cities are coming to Shanghai to live. Also, new companies open up. So, this city is getting bigger, is getting more beautiful. There are many entertainments and attractions, many things to do, especially in the center. No wonder that visitors are impressed.

I am not planning to go back to my country. First, because I know that here the market is much better. Second, I got to know many foreign friends, as well as Chinese friends. Besides, I like Chinese cuisine very much, although I already miss Polish food a little. If it is about a language – I can speak Chinese at a communicate level and I am still learning it hard. But the progress is much much better than back in Poland, because I can hear Chinese (and


Shanghainese) everyday. Of course the culture is totally different than back at home, but it is acceptable, it is something new, mostly very interesting. And with a time you can get used to it.

In Shanghai there are so many places to be discovered. Also, there are people to be discovered. The life here is totally unexpectable, that’s what I like the most. I am working here as an architect and I am happy, that I’ve made that big step to come here.

Design made by Malgorzata in China

Documents

BE AN ARCHITECT IN CHINA · 13. JOSE MARIA FERNANDEZ JORGE-Spain-Architecture 14. YARON NURI-Isreal-Architecture 15. Li Zhengshu-USA-Architecture 16. JOSE MISO ANTON-Spain-Architecture