Future Magazine - Constance
Constance Desenfant
Constance is passionate about transport infrastructure and urban planning. Originally from France where she graduated with a Masters, she moved first to Spain for two years and then to London, to challenge and widen her architectural experience.
24 Feb 2017
I grew up in Brittany (France) with the firm will to become a journalist. I wanted to be a reporter or a travel editor covering important events as well as making people discover hidden treasures or stories. When I was in secondary school, I started a monthly paper for my school with a few friends.
But when I had to choose which University I would apply to, my mother told me that if I really wanted to be a journalist, and a good one, I would have to study political sciences and literature first and although I really liked to write already, I was also really young and didn’t want to spend 3 or 4 more years sitting at a desk listening to a teacher and submitting assignments every other week. I wanted to do something practical and ‘less boring’. I also had a keen interest in STEM subjects and arts so I applied to a few Architecture schools, thinking that it would be a good balance between art and sciences, between creative subjects and technical ones. That was ten years ago and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
Over the years, I realised I was much more interested in big scale projects and transport infrastructure rather than individual buildings and started to specialise in urbanism. I also travelled a lot and lived in Spain for two years in these 10 years and that really opened my mind a lot. I learnt how to take on new challenges, to adapt to different situations and really enjoyed living abroad. I moved to London two years ago, mainly because it was very difficult to find a job in Spain for architects at that time but also to challenge myself again and widen my architectural expertise. I met the founder of a magazine a few months after I arrived at a work event and started to write for him very quickly. It was a huge challenge for me as I had dreamt to do this since I was a teenager back in High school but it was dreadful at the same time as I had to write in English and wasn’t really confident in this language yet.
Today I am involved in exciting projects within Weston Williamson, designing public spaces and thinking strategically about connexions and potential development around major transport interchanges including Crossrail 2 and HS2 stations. I love to be part of multidisciplinary design teams where we can learn from each other. My writing work helps me, in parallel, to keep my mind open to new ideas and to stimulate my inspiration and creativity.
In the next years, if I am able to stay in London after Brexit, I would like to explore a bit more the relationship between the theory and practice of architecture, in other words, I want to go back to university maybe part-time to drive my own research work and to teach architecture and urban design. I am really excited about this and it is something I really like about architecture: there is no royal path for architects but a million possible ways to practice architecture, and one is free to shape his own path. Many people think architects are meant to design houses or buildings only but architecture is such a wide and rich industry full of interrelationships and multidisciplinary teams that there is basically a role for everyone!
Constance Desenfant
Constance is passionate about transport infrastructure and urban planning. Originally from France where she graduated with a Masters, she moved first to Spain for two years and then to London, to challenge and widen her architectural experience.