Stories of Five TU Delft Education Teams

ART started with a large group of students from different faculties, but also counts among its members teachers, PhDs and practitioners (both architects, civil engineers and urbanists). That is to say, the team brings together people, not only from different educational and cultural backgrounds, but also people who are currently in very different stages of their lives. Working in such a large, diverse team with people who are passionate about achieving the same goal, namely to make a difference for those impacted by natural disasters by combining architectural engineering and expertise from various fields, is what makes ART both unique and effective.  

At the same time, working together in such a large, diverse team is also exactly what can make it really challenging sometimes to work together effectively. This became especially evident as the team organized its first initiative: a workshop week where students, experts and professors would work together to create possible solutions. “In the beginning, it was very chaotic. We were with a group of about 40 people from different faculties and everybody was working on different things. Leyla and I quickly noticed that, in order to make our deadline, we needed to think about how to distribute the roles and organize our efforts more efficiently. After the workshop week, we continued to work on this and now we have a much clearer organizational structure” Meriç said.  

Another challenge that presented itself was how to define the working relationship between ART’s student and non-student members. Looking back on how these relationships evolved, Leyla said: "Right now, in our team, it doesn’t matter what experiences you have and whether or not you have a diploma. Everyone is equal in our team discussions, and this creates a really nice atmosphere”. 

ART counts over 25 team members who each are part of different sub-teams such as the management, operations and coordinators teams. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for Leyla, Meriç and all student team members was and continues to be how to combine ART – being an extracurricular, thus voluntary activity for which no study points or monetary compensation are received – with their studies. This is why some have decided to take half a year off of their studies. At the same time, this shows how high the level of commitment and dedication to the team is of those who stayed. From the initial management team consisting of five members, only Meriç and Leyla remained. “We saw that there were a lot of people who really wanted to help, but who weren’t able to commit to the team. It is one thing to want to contribute, but it is another thing to find the time to actually join the meetings and do the work that needs to be done. Now the team is smaller than it was in the beginning, but the core remained and we all work really hard to get things done” Meriç said.

Despite, or maybe exactly because of, the difficulties that come with doing something that hasn’t been done before, Meriç and Leyla are immensely proud of the team and how far they have come already. Everyone involved in the team wants to make a difference and is willing to dedicate time and effort to make this a reality. Leyla reminisced about the first field trip they took to the impacted area in Turkey: “One afternoon near the end of the fieldtrip, we had a long list of things that we still had to do that day. We had plans to meet with the mayor of the village, we wanted to map the area and take photographs of the houses that had been destroyed. At that moment, we saw some children playing and suddenly it hit us all that we were exhausted from the week and everything that we had been doing. We decided to drop all our plans and we ended up spending the rest of the afternoon together with these children. When we were all back in the car, we realised that we are doing something good and this is what keeps us motivated”.