Hello everyone, my name is Marina.
From now on, feel free to approach me with total confidence if you have any questions about the adpprentice program, I´ll be here for you.
I am proudly part of this beautiful profession that is architecture, and although I always considered myself a rebel regarding the paths that traditional architecture tried to drag me into, much closer to a fervently consumerist world and market´s speed, I tried to throughout my career involving all the areas that interested me as a person.
Because if you allow me to give you one advice, as long as you follow your heart with passion and strive to seek your personal happiness and the social well-being of your context, the results will be a thousand times more enriching and you will be surprised at what the world has prepared for you.
Where am I going with all this? Architecture is art, it is useful, it is massive, it is explicitly social and it has the ability to change people´s lives, cities, and society in general.
From that perspective, considering that we live in a world marked by revolution, conflict and constant advances, transformations are always part of our life. We are global beings, and within that globality, we have the unique opportunity to see the entire world as our possible home.
My great passion has always been traveling. Traveling opens your head and eyes to different realities that contribute to personal enrichment. You can always learn something new, wherever you are. You just have to be available to a world full of details, textures, experiences, senses and feelings. The secret? Be adaptable. Be adaptable at your own pace, but try to be open.
The inability to grow as professionals is linked to the lack of adaptability.
I could also tell you that the key is to learn to know yourself, and and knowing it will lead you to where to aim, where to go, where to start.
Personally, I am quite a hyperactive person, as long as there is something I do not know, that is what is going to catch my attention. I have done countless things in my life, and always tried to reject imposition. Because there is nothing more motivating and beautiful than doing things we like, they make us feel good, complete, it gives us energy.
I am from Argentina, an architect, 31 years old. They are just data, I prefer to tell you that I am passionate about urbanism, sustainability, social struggles, activism in pursuit of equality. That I have developed social, diversity and recycling projects. I have been part of very intense small teams, of national projects that led me to know my country in depth, from the complex political system, to the most heartbreaking realities of people affected by world´s problems.
If I have to introduce myself briefly, I think I can sum it up with “loving art in all its forms, having a strong will and active mind, trying to seek how to obtain personal well-being and change the world in a single dance”
I have lived, worked, known and experienced so many cities that I no longer distinguish borders.
A few years ago, I lived comfortably in Buenos Aires. I had a government position, one of those jobs that are forever, I taught at 2 universities (another great passion, teaching), I was starting my second career (art degree) and when I saw my hands, everything fit perfectly in a well formulated box labeled “this is how the rest of your life will be like”
I was not happy, I felt that I was not giving the world (and vice versa) much of what it had to offer. I gave up everything, and went traveling. Latin America is amazing, every place will intoxicate you with its smells, flavors, with its laughs and dances.
I was living in Colombia when, thinking about my next destination, I got the ticket to Mexico. With such bad luck that, on one of those excursions where it’s just you and nature, in a national park far from civilization, I fell into a river, destroying my knee in the process.
The anecdote of my rescue, how I learned to ride a horse without a leg on a rainy night, crossing rivers and seeing a lunar rainbow in the process, is for another day.
I had to learn how to walk again, I had to start again, to return to the place that I had left aside, to my family, to rethink myself. I´m in Mexico now, picking up from where I had to press pause.
The secret to keep going? Never settle down. Your destiny awaits for you and it is worth it.
Maybe today you think that you can’t, or that your big dreams are just that, dreams. It’s not like that.
As long as you breathe, you can achieve everything you set your mind to. You just need to never give up, and look for contexts and people that help you to be the best version of yourself. The version that makes you smile constantly, that has nothing to do with the expectations that other people have of you.
Even if you do not see the results today, you will be able in the long run to know that no effort, no risky step to achieve your life goals, are in vain. And in the process, people you meet are crucial.
It was my turn to introduce myself, and I could have talked about all my academic and work achievements. From my publications, my years of teaching, projects and creations, research work, travels or savings.
But I think this message is more important.
To succeed, you only need to be you, and to be you you only need to be happy. Try looking for that.