Behind the scenes #SDC2020

Dear reader,

in the following lines, I will try to bring you along on an adventure, so make yourself cosy and comfortable. I’ve told you some stories about the Seismic Design Competition before, but how about we delve a little deeper and go back in time together, in order to hear a bit about each team’s respective stories? If you decide to hop along for the ride, I hope you’ll get a new understanding of how much this contest means to us, and maybe you’ll be convinced to join us for the rest of our journey!

I’d like to start with our most recent memories, so today we’re traveling together to SAN DIEGO, and we’ll make the acquaintance of the 2020 SDC TUCN Team led by Andrei MIHUȚ, and comprising of the following 12 superheroes: Abdulaziz ALHUSAIN, Andreea BOIE, Karola-Csilla BARABÁS, Andrei MARCU, Ioana GLIGOR, Ema BENZAR, Paul MORCOTAN, Teodora TĂMAȘ, Petrică POLAC, Raul-Adrian POP, and Gábor BENEDEK HUSZÁR.The way to introduce the SDC competition is as an iterative process of designing, execution, experimental testing, analysis and interpretation of results followed by the necessary calibration. Being aware, ambitious and responsible, by hundreds of hours, days and even nights, involving large quantities of balsa wood and glue, analysis, presentations and feedback, the twelve students, together have reached their goal: Mirage Tower. They have reached a remarkable result which can be structured in five main chapters: architectural concept, structural concept, manufacturing, testing and analysis and by economically evaluating all of the previously mentioned aspects we obtain FABI(Final Annual Building Income). It is important to mention that FABI is being significantly influenced by the quality of the oral presentation, the poster and by the predictions.

The first time I met Andrei, just a little before his participation at SDC, was memorable for me: I saw an almost-shy, timid young man, and he remembers it much the same way: “I used to be a fairly withdrawn person. I wouldn’t have said YES to challenges.” Maybe you feel similarly right now, reader, but time has passed and with it, this experience changed Andrei – “I feel I grew and developed so much, having learned to embrace challenges instead of running away from them.” Andrei is a brave person, for whom SDC represented a launching point for his professional career, as “coincidence or not, one of our then-sponsors became my current employer.” Considering this brief description of the teams activity sufficient for you, the reader, to have a clear thought on how, after six months spent outside of the comfort zone, the team was leaving for Vancouver carrying great expectations, proportional with how much they have invested. We were greatly disappointed to find out, as we arrived there, that our special luggage, the balsa wood model, was lost on the way, somewhere between Budapest and Vancouver. Because our structure was missing we were disqualified. It was a though life lesson, however, looking back we remember the attitude of the other teams and of the organisers which has pleasantly surprised us. We were impressed by their empathy. More than that we were honored by the reputation of The Technical University of Cluj-Napoca in the competition, amongst some of the most prestigious universities. For this we have our colleagues from the previous teams to thank. They have set high standards and are great examples for us.

One of the challenges that comes with participating in this contest is the interaction between students of different faculties: specifically, those of the Architecture and the Construction majors, respectively. This collaboration can represent a decisive factor in the design process if the communication between students is not efficient. In 2020 however, “the members of the team worked together so well, in my opinion,” Andrei says. “Our architects were very involved in the model-making process, and in turn made room for us to get involved in the architectural side of things with ideas and suggestions. They were very open and understanding.”

Even though effective communication greatly helps, these situations come with a lot of stress, which can become a worrying and risky factor. Burn-out can happen, and there come moments when we’re almost ready to throw in the towel: „There were moments when the work volume was crippling. Given that the contest took place in March, we had to make certain everything was in place for the final tests: the model needed to be optimized to the extreme, the presentation needed perfecting. Incidentally, everything coincided with our exam session: tests, exam retakes, project deadlines.” However, this is where the team came in: „The people who are at your side around the clock, working side-by-side with you,” they were always in your corner, fighting along with you, so you came to understand, Andrei says, „even though it was hard, we pulled through together. I couldn’t give up, because they trusted me, and together we made it.” Before SDC, they were colleagues. In time, however, „We became really, really close friends, and I’m certain we’ll still be talking ten, fifteen years from now, even longer.”