Meet…#7 | Nour Fellah
In this series, we get a look behind the scenes of GROUP A. This time, meet Nour Fellah! Nour started working in our office May this year. She is an architect and an experienced Revit specialist. She studied at the National school of architecture and urban planning in Tunis and got her Master degree there. Before deciding to settle down in The Netherlands, Nour was travelling around looking for wider inspiration for the future by living and working in different cultural backgrounds. She practiced architecture in Germany (Berlin), the UK (Belfast-NI), Turkey (Istanbul), France (Marseilles) and in her hometown Tunis in Tunisia. We asked her some ‘choose between two’ – questions.
The biggest challenge for me as an architect is
– To hold on to my design
– To keep up my (Revit) skills
I think the biggest challenge for every architect is to hold on to his design when coping with all the “real life” constrains like budget, technical issues… It is important for me to defend my ideas, this is why I always try to work with strongly set up concepts coming from a good analysis of the project so it gives me strong arguments to defend my design. For the Revit skills I consider it as an important tool of expression and communication that has become for me almost like an intuitive reflex as much as talking or drawing. Revit is a software that is constantly evolving with new features. And I always try to be up to date with these fascinating new possibilities this software nowadays offers, like real-time rendering while moving into the project thanks to virtual reality technology and some very interesting plugins.
When I start a new project
– I take my time to think how to start up the process
– I throw myself in the deep, go go go!
Depending from the project of course! Some require a good planning and organisation time but when it is about designing, then I dive deep into it. I have even experienced dreaming about some projects while sleeping at night, haha, and even got some great ideas in those dreams that I hurried to sketch or write down in the middle of the night as I was afraid to forget about them by the morning :p
The biggest challenge in my work is
– Complexity in the assignment
– The process to realisation
It is a difficult question as both can be challenging but the good thing about working in The Netherlands is that you have wide possibilities of how a project can be realized. Thanks to a wide technical knowledge and products so you can always reach a solution for your design. This is why I would rather choose the complexity of the assignment in this case but the more challenging it gets and often the better it is as I believe that the more you push your own limits and the more you learn from it. Complex assignments get me more interested on how I could solve them.
What do you prefer?
– Working on a huge office building in a big team
– Working on a small assignment, for example a luxury apartment, in a small team
Can be both interesting. Of course, in a small team and in a small project you would get more voice for your ideas and probably be more involved on the design of the project itself and you will also get more responsibility which is really nice I think. But working on a big project teaches a lot as you will learn new tasks other than designing and you will meet much more details usually than in a small project so it gets more technically enriching.
When finishing a project I am
– Happy with the end result and I don’t look back
– Often preoccupied with thoughts on how I could have improved the project even further
I think a project is never really finished, it could have always been better and the most important thing is the self-evaluation afterwards from which you learn to improve things for next projects.
In 10 years
– I’ll have my own architectural office
– I’m still at GROUP A
Can be both, I would like very much to build a career with GROUP A, I am very motivated and I would like to have in the future more responsibilities and to be a long term member of this great design family, having the possibility to evolve within the firm. Of this I am sure for at least the next 10 years. But who knows, maybe I would like to start my own firm in 10 years, I don’t know how my ambitions will evolve in 10 years from now depending from the situation.
During weekends, my mind is on
– Work, new projects and designs
– Friends, family, and relaxation
I try to disconnect during weekends so that I can start fresh, with fresh ideas for the next week. But of course sometimes it is easier to say than to do as a project is also a responsibility and I keep thinking about it sometimes during weekends whatever I do. I usually like to cook nice food during weekends that I like to share with family and friends: Some Tunisian dishes, high in flavours and in colours, to bring some sun to the week!
