Elnara Eynalova

I’m going to start this text the same way I started it six months ago.

It all began when I was walking through the streets of Baku with my urban planner friend. We came across a dirty, abandoned corner, and she started complaining that such places make the city look unkempt. That day I thought: every city has one of those forgotten spots.

Architects are meant to make changes, to bring solutions to problems, to shape the environments where people live.
My blessing, and at the same time my curse, is my emotionality. Yet I’ve learned to channel it into my work. I have never done a project just for the sake of finishing it; I always felt the need to give it a deeper meaning.

Then I came to the UK, and this thought has never left me.
What if I dedicated my work to something like this: the combination of urban architecture and my personal field of interest?

The first time I went to London to search for a site for my project, my friend guided me through Hackney and Shoreditch. “I spent my whole youth in those bars,” he said, laughing. When I saw how abandoned places were transformed into something usable and aesthetically appealing, while still preserving the history behind them, I thought it was beautiful. As we walked through renovated areas, I thought: architects are here to make things better, to solve problems, to create something meaningful.

This MA might be the last time I can truly express myself in a way I want to. So I wanted to give the most of me to it. London is vast, and one day, while walking through it, I realized: I don’t think I am meant to be something big. But I know I am meant to be part of something big.