Architecture personal statement example (4)

Reading time: 3 minutes
Price: Free download
Published: 24th March 2021
Word count: 689 words
File format: Text

Architecture needs to incorporate the past, present and future, balancing aesthetics and healthy lifestyle. My vision is for architecture with sustainable quality living environments, where green businesses and technology companies will come together sharing ideas in harmony. I want to be a part of, and at the forefront of the sustainable solutions.

Motivated by architecture creativity, I built a digital graphics ‘Wix’ website to showcase my IGCSE Photography, DT Graphic Products and A-level Art projects, capturing my innovative time-line, the journey of my work. Different structural designs with different forms of materials in Design Technology, used software like 2D CAD and Adobe Programs for modelling products and packaging. My EPQ on waste management solutions, is being developed into a portfolio and model for experimenting with ingenious materials and structure. Demands for multi-faceted designs and creativity, indicates the need to adapt to innovation and paradigm shifts in sustainable architecture. Resilience, problem solving and motivation were required in the project goals and deadlines of Duke of Edinburgh course and the F24 Electric Car Club. As Deputy Head Girl, I liaise between students and staff, with responsibility, dedication, passion and commitment. The transferable skills of listening, critical analysis, brainstorming, facilitating, also developed my perseverance and patience. I have further enrolled in the Royal Opera House Set Design Competition for Le Bohème. Experience, self-motivation and self-expression is what will differentiate me as an individual.

I recently attended the Bartlett School of Architecture Summer Program to learn imaginative, conceptual and innovative, and presenting skills. It widened my horizons and realization that there is a narrative at the core of every design. Long hours were spent drawing with speed and imagination. Public speaking was a challenge but a success, and I learnt that architecture designs are about pushing boundaries, driven by reasons and beliefs. My internship at Veritas Design Group taught me the importance of details and checking for defects for the NCR, Non-Conformance Report. Materials, project time lines, communication with clients are equally important. At Steven Leach Group, it was an enjoyable diversified approach, learning from multi-disciplinary team of architects to interior designers, with participation in their spatial planning and ergonomics integration of new ideas in designing for banks and offices.

“Sustainable Design: A Critical Guide” by David A. Bergman, gave me new insights into different materials used cost-efficiently, whilst addressing social-economic impact of architecture. Following on, I became involved in the seed-idea and building of a new project, LUXED International School. Motivated by sustainable possibilities, I contributed with ideas of minimizing energy consumption with inverter air-conditioners and solar panels in view of renewable energy from the sun as a natural source. With social and environmental benefits in mind, I suggested recycling and composting programs for waste management solution, and applying green roofs to bring students closer to nature as well as to protect the building from direct heat. Comfortable, safe and useful interior spaces are equally important, and all these considerations to be in balance with the budget. This is an on-going project in which I have the honour to be part of.

Blending a harmony of “nature with architecture”, Singapore’s successful iconic sustainable tropical architecture within a city, with “Garden by The Bay” was impressive. Tropical plants grow under a huge dome of glass and steel in a temperature-controlled atmosphere with captured rainwater and sustainable energy systems. This award-winning design by Grant Associates incorporated cutting-edge environmental sustainable principles. The latest “The Jewel”, by Architect Moshe Safdie enhances Singapore’s reputation further as “the City in the Garden”, combining two environments – a travellers’ hub and a paradise garden. It opens a new realm of creativity blending nature with leisure.

The book “Ikigai” by Liebermann & Garcia, about achievements in life with focus and joy, has inspired me to find my passion, mission, vocation and profession – in architecture as my chosen career path. My Ikigai is to become a motivational solution architect leading towards improving quality of life for our earth, through ethical business principles.

Every architectural landmark encapsulates different stories and symbols. Every architect has their own personal story. The green evolution in architecture will be my story one day.

Why this example works — strengths and ways to improve

You present a clear sustainability theme and a genuinely wide base of evidence: design coursework, an EPQ, a Bartlett summer programme, two placements and a school-building project. The draft's weakness is that much of it lists activities and skills rather than reflecting on them. Several sentences are grammatically unclear, so precision about what you did and learned would strengthen it considerably.

Subject motivation

My vision is for architecture with sustainable quality living environments

Your interest in sustainable architecture is consistent throughout, which gives the statement direction. However, the opening vision stays abstract and slightly business-focused. Readers learn what you hope architecture will do but less about what first drew you to designing buildings and spaces personally.

Academic preparation

My EPQ on waste management solutions, is being developed into a portfolio and model

The EPQ, DT, Art and CAD work are relevant preparation. You never explain the EPQ's question, findings or design decisions. Describing one concrete material or structural experiment would show architectural thinking far better than calling materials 'ingenious'.

Evidence and reflection

I learnt that architecture designs are about pushing boundaries, driven by reasons and beliefs

This Bartlett insight, like the point about narrative in design, is a start at reflection, but it is generic. Naming the brief you worked on, or a drawing whose concept changed, would turn this claim into demonstrated learning about how architects develop ideas.

Relevant experience

I suggested recycling and composting programs for waste management solution, and applying green roofs

The LUXED school project is your most distinctive material, because it links reading to action. Your suggestions are sensible but common, so explain the trade-offs you weighed, such as cost against heat protection. The placements also need a specific task each rather than a list of what was 'important'.

Credibility and voice

with responsibility, dedication, passion and commitment

Strings of adjectives like this, together with 'innovative', 'ingenious' and 'imaginative', assert qualities instead of showing them. The Singapore paragraph mostly describes the buildings rather than giving your own analysis. Fewer claims and more of your own observations would make your voice more convincing.

Structure and format

Different structural designs with different forms of materials in Design Technology, used software

Some sentences, like this one, lack a clear subject or verb. The second paragraph also mixes coursework, leadership and competitions without links between them. Grouping material by theme and fixing grammar errors such as 'Demands... indicates' would improve clarity and flow.

What you’ve done well

A coherent sustainability focus connects your reading, the EPQ, the LUXED project and the Singapore case studies.
Your range of practical exposure, including two professional placements and a real school-building project, gives you strong raw material.

How this draft could improve

Choose two or three experiences, such as LUXED and Bartlett, and explain a specific decision, problem or drawing and what it taught you.
Cut skill lists and adjective strings like 'responsibility, dedication, passion and commitment', and use the space for analysis.
Proofread for incomplete sentences and subject-verb agreement, and make the Singapore paragraph evaluate the designs rather than describe them.

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