chickens waiting to be cooked in the cafeteria at work...how appetizing!
WORK or something like it…
So what exactly is it that I’ve been doing for an, “ahem”, extremely minimal salary which shall remain unnamed?! (to give you a ballpark figure, lets just say that if I saved everything I made each month, didn’t pay rent and didn’t eat (although they do give us a sum of allowance for food of 200 RMB!), then I could just almost maybe buy a pair of miss sixty jeans!) haha.
My first few days here were rather uneventful, and I began to wonder if I had been hired to sift through architectural magazines all day. And to develop a severe case of idle brain. But finally, after day 3 I finally got in on some ACTION at the office…
I was to design a water purification factory.
Don’t let that throw you off---it did turn out to be interesting!---
(Being a governemnt operated company, they are anything but short of commissions.)
It seems like I’ll be doing a lot of design work, which I am really happy about, having initially feared the dreaded “fresh graduate” position as a cad-monkey! I think that you can get a lot of great experience in China, regardless of your previous design experience.
At first, I wasn’t really sure how to go about the project…you know how some firms basically expect you to adopt their building language. I was a little worried about how to design in this “contemporary Chinese style”, which dictates many office and apartment buildings here these days. In the end, I figured I would take a risk and offer a less generic direction---
At the end of the week, we had a surprise crit in the office! (for those not familiar with the term, critiques are basically review sessions where you present your work and ideas, followed by a discussion)
And it actually went really well, despite the language barrier (though I had a "translator" and lots of process diagrams and sketches!). They really liked the ideas and appreciated its “creative” and clear expression and acknowledgement of context.
It seems like they are fairly open to new ideas. The principal from a German firm that they are partnered with was completely shocked to discover an office full of people copying buildings straight out of architecture magazines! “This plan here, that elevation there…” Hmm.
The group that I’m working with are all young, many of which just graduated and had been working there a year already---I think there are about 10 guys and 6 girls---
Everyone has been very nice---they call me “Mei-mei” (double meaning: little sister or...beautiful girl-haha) because “Patricia” is too hard. They also thought that my Chinese given name was a little “old-school”! And I might agree.
So in general, the office environment is pretty “chill-axed” and the project pace appears relatively slow, that is, compared to studio-PRODUCE PRODUCE PRODUCE!
So for the moment, I’m liking the stress-free styles this side of the world.
posted by trish @ 7:45 AM
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