A misunderstanding led to TU Delft architecture graduate Yang Yang having breakfast with the world-famous Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. She now works as a junior architect at his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
Living in the Netherlands has significantly changed Yang’s view of life and her homeland China.
“When I was doing my bachelor’s program in China at Xi’an Jiaotong University, I spent a summer as an intern at a Shanghai based architecture office called MADA s.p.a.m. My boss at the time was Ma Qingyun, who happens to be a friend of OMA’s Rem Koolhaas. In April 2006, just three months before I got my TU Delft Master’s degree, Ma gave a lecture at Rotterdam’s Berlage Institute and I did him a small favour by helping him out with a presentation he was going to give in the US shortly after.
To thank me for this, Ma invited me for breakfast. As I waited for him in the lobby of his hotel, I saw Koolhaas arrive. It turned out that he had invited Ma for breakfast first, but somehow Ma had not realised that when he invited me. So the three of us ended up having breakfast together. We had interesting conversations and in the end Koolhaas invited me to come work for him after graduation. I told him I would think about it and he wrote down his name, mobile number and email address on a piece of paper, saying: ‘When you decide, contact me.’ By the time I graduated in July, I had made up my mind, contacted him and got a job. I started on the 1st of August.
I am currently working on the facade design for a Chinese project called the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Square. During the entire month of August I was in Shenzhen for work, and I will eventually move there for half a year to work on this project. Shenzhen is a booming city in southern China, but while there I noticed that I actually missed the Netherlands. In particular, I was missing the quietness and fresh air and the fact that Dutch people, unlike Chinese, don’t talk about money all the time.
When I hang out with my friends in the Netherlands, we simply talk about architecture, exhibitions, music, movies, etc, and I am happy just to be having a beer in a bar with good music. In Shenzhen, you see people carrying Louis Vuitton bags everywhere and everybody is trying to outdo each other when it comes to having the best and latest luxuries. In addition, everybody, including young architects, complain about the high prices of apartments. To my surprise, I found myself being bored and unhappy there, even after spending 150 euro within half an hour in a shopping mall.”
Europe’s MIT
“After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in China, I decided to do my MSc in Delft, because in China it is said that TU Delft is the MIT of Europe and it’s Faculty of Architecture is well known. Compared to the US, studying in Delft is relatively cheap, and to prove your English language skills are up to scratch, you only need the IELTS, whereas for the US you need both TOEFL and GRE. Besides that, Europe has a long history and a lot of cultural diversity, which makes it an interesting area for travelling. Oh, and of course Dutch architecture is world famous and Dutch people speak better English than for instance the French or Germans do.
Life in Delft has proven quite different from life in China. The academic climate, for instance, is more critical here. In China, everyone seems to be fully occupied by production and making money, whereas here, it is common practice to first think critically about what you are going to do and why before you actually do it.
There is also a difference in what the Dutch and Chinese do for socialising. Going to bars and parties is a main part of my social life in Holland, but in China food is the main theme of everyone’s social life instead of alcohol and music. Mind you, I unfortunately didn’t really get to see much of Delft student life, as I started a half year part-time internship at MVRDV in my second year and got a job as curator assistant at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) after that.
At NAi, I worked on the China Contemporary exhibition. With studying and working, I barely had any spare time left, and I moved to Rotterdam to be closer to work as well. As a result, I spent most of my spare time with colleagues from Rotterdam, instead of my fellow students in Delft. It’s a real pity, but it’s like an old Chinese saying: ‘If you want to gain something, you must lose something’, which I guess is true.
Living in the Netherlands has certainly changed the way I view life. Before I came here, like the majority of Chinese, Chinese values were embedded in me and I thought them to be the only true ones. For example, I strongly believed that a successful life meant a decent job, a big apartment and a car. But now that I’ve seen more of the world, I don’t value luxuries that much anymore. You will never see me run into a Louis Vuitton store in order to catch up with the latest trend, that’s for sure!”
Yang Yang (Photo: no credit)
“When I was doing my bachelor’s program in China at Xi’an Jiaotong University, I spent a summer as an intern at a Shanghai based architecture office called MADA s.p.a.m. My boss at the time was Ma Qingyun, who happens to be a friend of OMA’s Rem Koolhaas. In April 2006, just three months before I got my TU Delft Master’s degree, Ma gave a lecture at Rotterdam’s Berlage Institute and I did him a small favour by helping him out with a presentation he was going to give in the US shortly after.
To thank me for this, Ma invited me for breakfast. As I waited for him in the lobby of his hotel, I saw Koolhaas arrive. It turned out that he had invited Ma for breakfast first, but somehow Ma had not realised that when he invited me. So the three of us ended up having breakfast together. We had interesting conversations and in the end Koolhaas invited me to come work for him after graduation. I told him I would think about it and he wrote down his name, mobile number and email address on a piece of paper, saying: ‘When you decide, contact me.’ By the time I graduated in July, I had made up my mind, contacted him and got a job. I started on the 1st of August.
I am currently working on the facade design for a Chinese project called the Shenzhen Stock Exchange Square. During the entire month of August I was in Shenzhen for work, and I will eventually move there for half a year to work on this project. Shenzhen is a booming city in southern China, but while there I noticed that I actually missed the Netherlands. In particular, I was missing the quietness and fresh air and the fact that Dutch people, unlike Chinese, don’t talk about money all the time.
When I hang out with my friends in the Netherlands, we simply talk about architecture, exhibitions, music, movies, etc, and I am happy just to be having a beer in a bar with good music. In Shenzhen, you see people carrying Louis Vuitton bags everywhere and everybody is trying to outdo each other when it comes to having the best and latest luxuries. In addition, everybody, including young architects, complain about the high prices of apartments. To my surprise, I found myself being bored and unhappy there, even after spending 150 euro within half an hour in a shopping mall.”
Europe’s MIT
“After receiving my Bachelor’s degree in China, I decided to do my MSc in Delft, because in China it is said that TU Delft is the MIT of Europe and it’s Faculty of Architecture is well known. Compared to the US, studying in Delft is relatively cheap, and to prove your English language skills are up to scratch, you only need the IELTS, whereas for the US you need both TOEFL and GRE. Besides that, Europe has a long history and a lot of cultural diversity, which makes it an interesting area for travelling. Oh, and of course Dutch architecture is world famous and Dutch people speak better English than for instance the French or Germans do.
Life in Delft has proven quite different from life in China. The academic climate, for instance, is more critical here. In China, everyone seems to be fully occupied by production and making money, whereas here, it is common practice to first think critically about what you are going to do and why before you actually do it.
There is also a difference in what the Dutch and Chinese do for socialising. Going to bars and parties is a main part of my social life in Holland, but in China food is the main theme of everyone’s social life instead of alcohol and music. Mind you, I unfortunately didn’t really get to see much of Delft student life, as I started a half year part-time internship at MVRDV in my second year and got a job as curator assistant at the Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAi) after that.
At NAi, I worked on the China Contemporary exhibition. With studying and working, I barely had any spare time left, and I moved to Rotterdam to be closer to work as well. As a result, I spent most of my spare time with colleagues from Rotterdam, instead of my fellow students in Delft. It’s a real pity, but it’s like an old Chinese saying: ‘If you want to gain something, you must lose something’, which I guess is true.
Living in the Netherlands has certainly changed the way I view life. Before I came here, like the majority of Chinese, Chinese values were embedded in me and I thought them to be the only true ones. For example, I strongly believed that a successful life meant a decent job, a big apartment and a car. But now that I’ve seen more of the world, I don’t value luxuries that much anymore. You will never see me run into a Louis Vuitton store in order to catch up with the latest trend, that’s for sure!”
Yang Yang (Photo: no credit)
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