Hey there!
I am Andrés, a Spanish architect from Galicia. Here, I have studied a Master’s degree in Architecture and in 2013 I co-founded the studio Mawa Arquitectura (https://www.instagram.com/mawaarq/). Since then, I have combined my position in the studio with diverse international experiences. The longest one has been my two years living in Sydney where I had the opportunity of have trained as a project manager. Besides, I have been living several months in different West African countries. There, I could perform other ways of doing architecture based on sustainability and bioconstruction.
During this pandemic time the restrictions have been keeping our existence quite frozen. Because of that, my partner and I were looking for a bit of action in our lives. One day, my partner told me about Architect-US Job+J1 Visa Program. I saw it as a fenomenal chance to keep developing my career as an architect by gaining more international work experience.
The process has been longer than I thought to be honest (about six months). Throughout these months I have had several interviews. Most of the times I received a positive feedback but unfortunately they never ended in an official offer. In fact, my partner and I were starting to move into other options when the proposal came.
We received an offer from AT Architects, and yes! you have read well, I said WE! Everything started a couple of months ago when both of us had an interview with the same studio. Although we had a small hope of being both chosen, we never thought that we would join together with the AT Architects team. That was a big coincidence!! wasn’t it?! To sum up briefly, AT Architects is a small studio in Manhattan. It is led by Ana Torres who always try to integrate the fields of architecture, landscape, and sculpture.
At this time, I am just waiting for my passport after having my interview in the US embassy last week. I also have to admit that I am a bit nervous, especially about how I am going to adapt to the US system of measurement. For this reason, I confess that I have been dreaming about inches and feet last night.
On the other hand, I am really looking forward to starting this new chapter of my life in NEW YORK. Even though I still cannot believe that I’ll be living in THE CITY of the cities, the truth is that just in a few days I’LL BE THERE!
