I would like to study at the Manchester School of Architecture because of the prestigious courses that it offers, along with the considerable academic and technological resources. Additionally, I strongly contend that one can broaden one’s horizons by interacting with academic peers, and indeed, at MSA, I would not only be able to explore and develop my own ideas, but also learn from the perspectives of others around me in a highly creative and innovative environment. The renowned cultural diversity of the university as well as of the city of Manchester in general, would further provide me with an inspirational working atmosphere in which I would feel that I belong.

One of my favourite buildings is the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, my home city. This is a modernist building designed and built in the late sixties, on a prominent position on the central hill Kale, overlooking the entire city. As such, the building is carefully positioned with the main volume resting on a series of round columns (pilotis), allowing the glazed ground floor exhibition space to benefit from the open view and establish a strong relationship with the surrounding environment. Its purist form is in sharp contrast with the natural environment of its setting, yet somehow, the boldness of its form achieves a symbiosis between the museum’s cubist form and its natural setting. Designed by the polish architectural group ‘Tigris’ and financed by the polish government as a symbolic gesture of support and international solidarity in the aftermath of the city devastating earthquake of 1963, the building has acquired a special significance for the city, becoming a symbol of modernist culture, and embedding itself within the collective memory of its citizens.

One of my favourite architects is Sir Norman Foster, one of Manchester University’s best known alumni. What I most admire and value about him, apart from the particular style of his designs, is his passion for technology and his desire to advance it, as evidenced through his latest idea of a 3D printer that creates entire buildings from concrete. Additionally, I appreciate how Foster focuses on aesthetics as well as functionality, and the implementation of specific technology - maintaining that edifices need to be visually appealing, but also usable, since if an architectural structure is not functional, it is practically reduced to a mere sculpture.

One of the buildings I would love to visit is the Reichstag in Berlin (renovated by Fosters in the 1990’s). For me, the dome, through its abundant mirrors and open spaces, symbolically expresses the openness and transparency of the current German democratic system. In addition, the dome is designed to capture the maximum amount of daylight, with the mirrors on the dome’s cone reflecting sunlight into the chamber below, each individual mirror on the cone’s surface pivoted in such a way as to absorb as much sunlight as possible. The dome also ensures natural ventilation, through its permeable glass shell. I appreciate the attitude of Foster’s intervention in the context of this historically significant building, where he manages to both restore the original building’s original qualities, while at the same time transforming and modernising it so that it becomes a transformative project with a new, forward-looking identity.