Meet… #15 | Sophie Dogterom

In the series ‘Meet…’, GROUP A employees respond to a number of questions about their work. This time it is Sophie Dogterom’s turn. Sophie is a designer with a fascination for art and nature. She studies as a designer at the Rotterdam Academy of Architecture and started as a trainee at GROUP A in September 2018.

Before I wanted to become an architect
I was in art school. Actually, it was only after this course that I really found out where I wanted to go. The art academy offered me a kind of playing field to try and test all kinds of things. I’m very grateful for that.

The journey that I would like to make
I really want to go to Japan. Both for nature and the cities. But at the same time there are very few places I wouldn’t want to go, haha.

With this architect – dead or alive – I would like to have a good conversation
This is Peter Zumthor. He’s one of my favourite architects. A bit mysterious and his designs are close to nature. In his projects a lot of attention is paid to the concept and the atmosphere.

This music I play the most
A mix of everything, but mostly electronic disco. That makes me really happy.

My perfect Sunday consists of
First a nice breakfast and then to the sea. There I calm down and I can fully recover.

A building that has impressed me a lot
I am not choosing a building but an art object by Anish Kapoor, placed in the Grand Palais in Paris in 2011. That created a whole new spatial atmosphere. This work of art made me look differently at the building it was in. From that moment on, I really started to look at my surroundings in a different way.

My best quality
In fact, I am always enthusiastic and can handle criticism quite well.

I hope to touch people with my designs by
By looking for the connection between people and the landscape. With architecture I also want to be close to nature and never lose sight of this.