ABOUT ME
My name is Meike, 23 years old and a third year student at Curio in Breda, The Netherlands. Right now, I am studying Urban Green Development to become a consultant. The course I'm following focuses on sustainability in a metropolitan area and teaches us how to achieve that.
Climate change creates a lot of challenges in urban areas such as flooding, heat stress, over population and greenhouse gasses. I, as a future consultant and designer, want to help cities adapt to these changes and make cities more habitable and climate adaptive.
At the moment I am being trained as a consultant, but my real passion is urban design and architecture. In the future, I want to combine my skills as consultant with a job in urban development. This way, I hope to use a large set of skills and knowledge to create the best possible plans for future-proof cities.
As much as I love architecture, I prefer urban design. It is a little less technical and a little more creative. I love to work on large, open spaces and create something new and beautiful from scratch. I also love the challenge of building on something existing and having to work with certain demands or wishes. As a perfectionist, I can sometimes make things a little difficult for myself, but this has taught me to perform well under pressure and deadlines. I can really lose myself in a project, and I always challenge myself to make it better than the last project. I am a fast learner and I love to learn new things and expand my knowledge.
My passion for nature started very young, as a child I'd watch hours of Animal Planet, Discovery Channel and National Geographic. I would spend most of my time in the forest near my house just playing in the dirt, collecting leaves and looking for forest animals. As I grew older, my love for nature developed, and I grew an interest in botany. I have been studying plants a lot, trying to expand my knowledge as much as possible. This knowledge of trees, shrubs, and flowers will be a great asset in a position as consultant and/or designer.
Architecture is a passion that developed from my love for history and travel. My favorite topics in school have always been history and geography, and I love visiting historic buildings all over the world. The old-fashioned architecture always fascinated me and I later developed an interest in modern and green architecture as well. My grandfather used to have his own architectural/construction company, so he would always share his knowledge with me and loved to tell stories about all kinds of buildings and projects he had worked on. This made my love for architecture even bigger and made me choose the direction of my career path.
