Patrick van Houte: Architecture, Building and Planning, TU Eindhoven

'From a 150,000-m2 hospital to a 1,500-m2 primary school: I experienced it all in five months'

As a first-year master student of Architecture, Building and Planning at TU Eindhoven, I did an internship at EGM from September 2019 to January 2020. Essentially to gain some practical experience, but also to orientate myself within the profession.

At EGM I was given a tremendous amount of freedom and responsibility, much more than I could have hoped for. The pleasant working atmosphere made me feel at home straight away and I had the courage to try new things and make mistakes. As I began to show more of what I was capable of, I was also given more responsibility and was able to take on increasingly challenging tasks. As a result, I was able to develop tremendously over five months, gradually becoming more and more part of the team. 

 

Right at the start of my internship I was allowed to work on two tender projects, and since we won both of them, I was able to follow their further development. As a result, mistakes made in the sketch design surfaced again in the next phase, where we could still solve them. I also experienced various phases of other projects, allowing me to learn a huge amount about design problems and subjects that never surface during my studies. 

 

During my internship I had a lot of contact with clients, users and colleagues, which was invaluable. For example, I attended user consultation meetings and design presentations, visited reference projects and even made presentations myself within EGM. That taught me to view my designs from other perspectives and not to think just from the ‘architect’s perspective’. 

 

As far as I’m concerned, my internship at EGM was a really good choice, partly on account of the diversity of projects I encountered. From a 150,000-m2 hospital to a 1,500-m2 primary school: I experienced it all in five months. Thanks to that, I was able to orientate myself properly within the architecture profession before my graduation project and, at the same time, gain truly invaluable experience that will stand to me during my further studies. Moreover, I simply loved my time at EGM, so I’d definitely recommend it!