Have you ever wondered what it’s like to work at Rottet Studio as an intern? In our first ever blog feature, we give you a glimpse into the lives of our Houston, LA, and New York interns! Hailing from all across the globe, our interns are as diverse as the projects they’ve worked on this summer. We discussed with them their expectations, career goals, and their favorite part of their internships.Jayati is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Interior Design from Parsons, The New School and will graduate in May 2018. She completed her undergraduate studies in Interior Architecture & Design in New Delhi, India.When Jayati is not working, she enjoys photography and travelling. She also loves puns and word play, although, in her words, she "tends to lose always while playing Scrabble."What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?After completing my Master’s [in Interior Design from Parsons], I plan to learn more about Retail, Hospitality and Installation Design. My internship at Rottet has helped me gain real-world experience outside of the typical boundaries in a classroom. It has also helped me network and has given me specific insight into Hospitality Design projects.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I worked on several projects - a private residence and a few hospitality projects.For the residential project, I assisted with the Media Room, worked on construction drawings for the bathroom spaces and made design concept presentations for client meetings. This allowed me to get hands on experience, as I was dealing directly with furniture companies in the city and incorporating their products into my design. Additionally, I learned about the different material palettes used in residences.For a hotel project in the Caribbean, I worked on planning a space for the restaurant, which was very exciting as it ties directly into my career interests. I also helped others by procuring their materials for the design concept board and the material board, which helped me understand how an integrated story is put together piece by piece. Creating a material board really helps in visualizing a space, which was particularly helpful for this themed resort that faces the sea.Eric has a liberal arts background as a graduate of Brandeis University with a double major in psychology and architectural history. Currently, he is pursuing his Master’s in Architecture at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).Merging an interest in travel with his pursuit of higher education, Eric drove from Boston to Los Angeles to attend UCLA. "The trip took me 14 days, and across 14 states,” he says. “I stayed in Chicago for 4 days, and enjoyed visiting Farnsworth House by Mies. Starting from Chicago and ending at Santa Monica, I followed and completed the full length of the historical Route 66. This adventure marked my total visit of 26 states in America."How did you approach architecture and design prior to your internship at Rottet Studio?My multi-disciplinary background has instilled in me the belief that architecture should be grounded in human experience. This perspective of architecture draws on my additional interests in psychology and the social sciences as essential instruments of a building’s composition. While psychology and social studies examine the human experience from micro- and macro- perspectives that give insight into the human mind, emotions, and behavior, architecture serves as an effective means to implement these understandings through space.As part of my thesis on social media and its impact on architecture, I was able to conduct case studies, field visits and interviews in the headquarter offices of Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest. My research examines social media’s influence on interpersonal behavior and our notions of space. Through an analysis of social media companies’ headquarters, the project investigates how architecture responds to pervasive social networking systems, exploring issues of transparency, decentralization, and fluidity.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?Although I only started four weeks ago, I have assisted with many projects in the LA office, including the design and modeling of the Viking Cruise Shanghai Experience Center, construction documents for office renovations and reconfigurations, rendering a showroom in Hawaii, and drawing company standards for door hinges. I would say that I enjoyed all of the projects equally, because each one deals with a different aspect of the design process. The mix of experience from schematic design, visual presentation, and finish selections, to the detail and construction drawings is really exciting and fulfilling for an internship.What were your expectations at the beginning of the summer? Did your internship meet your expectations?I have really enjoyed my experience working at Rottet, which has provided quite a different learning environment from the architectural training at UCLA. The interior design projects focused heavily on creating not only spatial character, but atmosphere, as well. How to make a space “feel” comfortable, welcoming, and elegant is a design problem that I had not previously encountered in my architectural education. Setting the atmosphere entails furniture and material selection, pattern selection, and setting up scenes and focal views. I believe these experiences, which I do not often have the chance to practice in architecture school, will advance my understanding of human-experience-focused architecture.Isabelle went to Texas A&M University where she studied Environmental Design. She is returning to Texas A&M this fall for her Master’s in Architecture. Though Isabelle remains unsure of what her plans are after graduate school, she is excited to continue her education in Architecture.How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed your goals?So far, my internship at Rottet has helped confirm that I would like to work with hospitality projects. This internship has also established a personal appreciation of and fascination with the area where architecture and interiors meet.What have you worked on this summer so far? This summer I have been helping Amber [Lewis, Associate in RS Houston] with 555 Howard, a residential project in San Francisco, and working on choosing furniture and pricing for the River Oaks Condos in Houston. I have also helped Zina [Sharif, Librarian] organize and clean up in the library and done some walk-throughs of Hotel Alessandra with Anja [Majkic, Associate Principal].What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I have a few favorite parts of this summer. I have loved working with Amber and Zina, I enjoy the happy hours when the office gets to socialize a little, and it’s always fun when Bernardo and Anja make jokes.Quina attended Stanford University and graduated with the Class of 2017. She has a B.S. in Engineering, with a concentration in Architectural Design and a minor in Human Biology. Her path to architecture was unconventional, to say the least: "When I went to college I was planning to get a PhD in Plasma Physics and work as a physicist developing nuclear fusion as a source of sustainable, safe, and efficient energy."However, her interest in design and the arts hails back to her days in high school, when "...I made countless fashions (dresses, tops, pants, accessories) out of 100% recycled and found objects to promote environmental awareness and action." Quina is also an artist and plans to study classical painting techniques at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy in the future. From painting to physics, Quina plans to channel her diverse talents into a career in architecture and design.What are your long term career goals?In the future I hope to be an architect, artist, and designer! I am still conflicted on exactly what I enjoy and do not enjoy. Currently, I can picture myself working in a combined field of architecture, furniture design, jewelry design, and fashion design. Moving to LA and exploring the fashion district has definitely gotten me fired up about fashion design, which is something I sort of abandoned a few years ago.What have you worked on this summer so far?So far I’ve worked on a number of projects, mostly in hospitality. I’ve worked predominantly in AutoCAD. My favorite aspect of working at Rottet has been being surrounded by individuals who are so passionate about what they do. It is amazing and an inspiration to see people working so hard to ensure their visions turn into a beautiful space for others to inhabit and enjoy.Loren is currently completing her undergraduate studies at Syracuse University. She was born in Israel and moved to America at the age of 4 -- she still goes back to visit every year. She loves animals and her favorite animal is, in fact, a penguin. Loren plans to apply her Psychology major to pursue a career in Real Estate, specifically the marketing and/or design side of it. She also aspires to utilize her bilingual skills in the future to form relationships between the New York and Israeli Real Estate markets.Loren considers Psychology to be a key determinant in her career path:"I believe pursuing a major in Psychology was extremely beneficial, as I was able to attain knowledge on the human brain and truly comprehend exactly how we as individuals function. This has assisted me in forming interpersonal skills and understanding exactly how to market to the consumer."What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I worked on assisting the Marketing team with numerous tasks such as award submissions, social media outlets, and updating the press database. Additionally, I worked on blog posts for rottetTALK. My favorite part of my internship was working on the blog, as I was able to gain insight on the employees and the projects of Rottet Studio. I was able to go in-depth with the Project Evolution series and understand exactly how a project went from an idea on paper to a finished development. Furthermore, I was able to converse with the designers behind the project and learn about what inspires them.What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?Prior to working at Rottet Studio, I was aware of my fascination with interior design, but I was unsure exactly how I wanted to incorporate it into my career. This internship has provided me with great insight and knowledge of the industry and has validated my aspiration of working in Real Estate, particularly on the marketing side. Furthermore, working at Rottet Studio allowed me to advance my business development and interpersonal skills, which I hope to utilize in my future career.Jessica Wang is currently obtaining a Master’s in Architecture at UCLA. She previously completed her undergraduate studies in Tongji University in civil engineering. Her extensive portfolio truly exemplifies how she applies her passions in art, music, and mechanics to architecture and design. In addition to writing screenplays, Jessica’s notable schoolwork includes devising a habitable space for people to live underwater in response to the threat that rising sea levels pose to coastal communities, as well as manufacturing the VULCAN Pavilion, a temporary structure inspired by the spatial forms of silkworm cocoons, which exhibited during Beijing Design Week and was awarded the Guinness World Record for the Largest 3D Printed Structure in 2015. Through the VULCAN project, which Jessica took part in through the Laboratory for Creative Design (LCD), she learned digital design and fabrication methodologies.What are your long-term career goals? How has your internship at Rottet Studio shaped or informed these goals?Architecture school emphasizes training students about value judgment, which enables us to tell “big stories” from a “big perspective." However, Rottet Studio has taught me how to express these humanistic ideals on a form and tectonics level.I hope, with experience, to be a main designer with the knowledge to discuss and execute my ideas in detail.What did you work on this summer? What was your favorite part of your internship/the summer?I've worked on presentations, such as the Viking Branding Book, material selection for the 8th and Figueroa project, and construction documentation for Dual Max and the UTA London project.I love the presentation part most. Doing construction documentation makes me feel like I live in a world of black and white. When preparing presentations, I have the chance to participate in schematic design, meet and communicate with people, familiarize myself with different materials and brands, and make watercolor plans and rendering elevations. Here, I have the opportunity to draw a colorful world for myself.