Andrea Andreotti, architect and designer, talks about the importance of sharing and the civic sense during his experience in the Asian Sub-Continent to il Gazzettino ( Italian Newspaper).
For more than a year now I am in India, I'm working as design director for Ultraconfidentiel, a French company based in New Delhi and operating offices in Mumbai, Bangalore, with forthcoming openings in Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates. Our work mainly consists in creating workspaces, hotels and retail boutiques for multinationals and large companies that decide to invest in emerging countries such as India.
It's the voice of Andrea Andreotti, a 28-year-old architect from Arquà Polesine who a year ago changed his life by grasping a dream. «So far it has been a fascinating and exciting experience, the speed of this country has increased day by day and with it the prospects and the skyline of the city explain with enthusiasm - Suddenly, following the advent of Covid-19 as happened in Europe, Prime Minister Modi declared the national lockdown in a short but intense speech. Almost 1.5 billion people, practically double the European population, have stopped, and with it all commercial activities, even those related to our core business.
What are the difficulties you encounter every day? What important projects were in the pipeline before the Coronavirus? Will you be able to achieve them?
Surprisingly, the Indian population has shown itself to be much more united than it might have seemed and consequently the services and activities have been organized, changing their business model also to guarantee safe deliveries at home through the most modern digital communication technologies. And consequently we have organized ourselves as a working reality. Every day I am in contact with my colleagues from home, about 40 from every corner of the Indian metropolis. The construction sites have stopped, but projects in progress both in India and in the United Arab Emirates are under development, ready to be constructed when everything is over.
Have you tried to return to Italy? Do you miss your family?
«This absurd situation unfortunately stopped the globalized world to which we were accustomed. Commercial flights have been suspended and I don't have the opportunity to be close to my family during this time of isolation. All this makes us reflect on the fragility of our economic systems and on the importance of presence ».
How do you see the future?
All companies, like us, are applying smart working and forced isolation, but I see a different future for our way of living and working. I want to be positive and I am convinced that we will return to sharing soon, obviously with the right precautions.
What did India teach you?
I didn't think I could say this, but India is teaching me at the moment how this difficulty can only be overcome with a civic sense, even in a third world country where everything seems left to chance, but actually, it is not. As an architect and designer, I wholeheartedly hope to return to see our cities, our buildings and spaces as places where we can re-build the future and not places we have to get away from.
What would you like to say to all the guys who work like you abroad and who are far from home to chase their dreams and overcome the emergency?
I have many friends around the world who find themselves like me in this dystopian situation. It is the right opportunity to stop for a moment and take root for our future. We are a new generation that will grow with the awareness of the fragility of the system and our planet. Take care of it.
Read the original article:
https://www.ilgazzettino.it/pay/rovigo_pay/andrea_designer_polesano_in_india_molto_senso_civico_e_organizzazione-5153715.html