Mikołaj Chmiel

Ever since I can remember, in fact since my parents can remember, I had a pencil in my hand. At first it was childish scribbles, but pretty soon I began to be interested in architecture and cars. During my schooling, I often attended drawing classes, either at the Youth Palace in Katowice, or privately at Archikurs - a supplementary drawing course strictly for the entrance exam. There I had the opportunity to meet people with similar interests and try working in a group completely different from the one at school. Archikurs also gave me the opportunity to take part in a design workshop with Pininfarina's senior designer Maurizio Corbi.

Considering studying in Poland, however, I decided to go abroad where I got into Architecture in Sheffield, UK. About halfway through my studies, together with friends from my major, we took part in our first competition - the Lunawood Urban Challenge 2021 - which was a remarkable success. Our project "meet me at the river" won first place in the Landscape category. Since then, I began to see competitions as an extremely interesting opportunity to create an interesting and unusual project in a relatively short period of time.

The constantly manifested passion for cars prompted me to learn computer programs in terms of modeling to create my first renders. As I later realized, this is also an extremely useful ability in architecture, which I cultivate in my spare time, teaching new techniques and ways to make visualizations better and better. However, I'm not limited to the computer and occasionally reach for watercolor or pencil to work or relax more manually.

Last August I had the opportunity to spend a month interning at Chris Dyson Architects, and I am currently in my third year and finishing my bachelor's degree in May.