Home is where the heart is, especially for Lilia Koleva. The second-year architecture student has designs on changing the lives of people in her native Bulgaria through affordable urban housing. A recipient of a McGill Faculty Scholarship, she got a different angle on how to use her math background when a design teacher encouraged her to develop her artistic talents.
“There is a need in Bulgaria for good architecture,” says Koleva. “And I was looking for a way to combine my math and creative skills.”
McGill, Koleva says, is “the best experience I have ever had in life.” She praises the campus, the architecture and the downtown location, where she happily answers questions from tourists who wander onto the campus and inquire about the buildings.
She also gives high marks to Architecture’s undergraduate program. “It’s small, only 50 people, but I have my own studio space and it feels like home! Our professor, David Covo, even brings us treats from conferences because he knows we are too busy studying to eat.” And although the program has an intimate feel, Koleva is quick to point out its global nature. “We have students from all over the world – Japan, China, Korea – and it is great sharing ideas with them.”
She says that without the student award, though, she would not have been able to attend McGill. “I applied and my parents said it would not be possible if I didn’t get the award. My father is an engineer and he asks me: ‘Do you know how difficult it is to make a big project like a stadium?’” Koleva would like to continue her studies and obtain a master’s degree.
To this new architectural thinker, who admires Frank Lloyd Wright and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, there’s no doubt that buildings should be more than engineered structures. “I think buildings should be efficient for living and have a use and nice design – or what’s the point?”