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My Summer at Heerim Architects & Planners, summer internship program in CEE

• • Hello, I am Seungwon Ok, a senior student at KAIST studying in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. This summer semester, students in CEE got the chance to intern in various companies in Korea. For me, I got to work at Heerim Architects & Planners, one of the biggest architectural firms in Korea. Heerim has more than 1,000 employees and not only in Korea but also has offices all around the globe. Many famous projects were designed by Heerim, such as Baku Olympic Stadium in Azerbaijan and Incheon International Airport in Korea. It has been my long dream to work at an architectural design practice and get a chance to actually see and experience how structures like buildings are designed from the start. When I saw the notification that Heerim is recruiting an undergraduate student for summer internship, I thought that this was a chance that I couldn’t miss and applied for that place, immediately. Thanks to professor Seongju Chang, I submitted my CV and got a place for summer internship at Heerim.
    
    I spent exactly four weeks at Heerim. On the first day, all the interns gathered and got an orientation from a person in business division. He explained to us that Heerim consists of many business divisions and this is to make the process of working more effective. Then the interns were assigned to different divisions and I was assigned to a division called Global Architectural Department 1. My department’s main duty was to create master plans requested from all around the world. I didn’t know what master plans are, but soon I learned that it is a dynamic long-term planning document that provides a conceptual layout to guide future growth and development. I wasn’t sure that my knowledge and experience in CEE could actually apply in this field, but as I said before, I came here to experience and learn, so I decided to learn the skills that are needed for the job.
    
    In the first week, I wasn’t ordered to do much. So I spent time learning tools that were installed on my desktop computer such as AutoCAD, Revit and Photoshop. Then, I was ordered to make contour model for a project in Yeosu using foamboard. I haven’t done this before so it was a bit hard and messy at the start, however after I got the hang of it, I successfully finished making the model.
    
    In the second week, I made more models using foamboard. But not only that, I was asked to search for previous cases and put them in a PowerPoint for presentation. People told me that making previous researches before actually starting is very important in an architectural project.
    In the third and the fourth week, I worked with a project manager in my department. Using various tools such as AutoCAD, Photoshop and PowerPoint, I made various design layouts and master plan designs for the project manager. Also, I made study models for the project that he was working on using foamboards. I got to learn a lot while working with him. The main project I worked on was creating master plan for a research facility in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. We had many conversation about how the buildings and structures should be placed, in order to make the facility effective for research. Through this, I really got to experience how architectural plans are made and conducted.
    
    This summer internship was a really valuable experience for me. Working wasn’t easy since everything was very new to me, however once I got used to it, I had lot of fun creating architectural models using various tools from foamboard to computer programs like AutoCAD and Revit. Also, the people at Heerim were very nice. Whenever I needed help, they came to me and kindly taught me how to get the work done. I also became friends with other fellow interns and still keep in touch with them.
    
    I would like to thank the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering for giving me the opportunity to work at Heerim and share my experience through this webzine. Thanks for reading!