Hi there! It’s April Dong here – Kentuckian (Louisville, KY to be exact), beekeeper, prospective architect, rising sophomore – and I am studying Architecture with certificates in Environmental Studies and Architecture and Engineering. On campus you can find me designing magazine spreads for our fashion magazine TigerTrends, beekeeping with the Bee Team, and sitting in meetings with the USG Sustainability Committee. Student during the day but by night you’ll find me practicing piano in the Rocky common room, painting and drawing, reading, and binge watching a random show (currently Selling Sunset).
For the past ten weeks, I have been interning remotely with Thesing Construcciones, a family-owned construction company based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The company has begun to embark on a journey to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly due to the construction sector’s huge negative impact on the environment.
Interested in intersecting architecture with sustainability in the future, I found Thesings to be a great place to explore more about the subject. My job: research and investigate ways the company can reuse construction materials and minimize waste on job sites. I contacted dozens of architects, architecture firms, construction companies, and design studios around the world who specialized in, designed and constructed with reused materials for interviews. In addition to the knowledge I gained from conducting interviews, I conducted independent research on how construction companies could produce less waste, resulting in a handbook of recommendations, case studies, and advice from interviewees for Thesing Construcciones.
I have gained more knowledge about the current state of sustainability in the construction and architecture sector. My virtual internship with Thesing has inspired me to work on a construction site with Habitat for Humanity this upcoming Fall to gain more knowledge about and experience with construction.
Have a great rest of your summer!
April
