With fellow architecture student Amanda in Copenhagen
Gehl Studio Group in Copenhagen
My name is Heli Ojamaa and I am a candidate (2015) in the Master of Architecture in High Performance Building (1 year post professional) and Lighting Design Certificate at the University of Washington (UW), College of Built Environments (CBE), Department of Architecture. Following graduating from Philadelphia University in 2006 with my Bachelor of Architecture I spent the following years working at architecture firms in Tallinn, Estonia and Princeton, New Jersey but always had the desire to go back to school. One of the things that attracted me to UW and Seattle was a connection and long standing exchange with Nordic and Baltic Countries. As a first generation Estonian American this is something I value as part of my cultural identity and also design aesthetic and approach.
The Nordic Heritage Museum and the Seattle Estonian Society are two organizations that sponsor events in Seattle that have helped me connect to my new home in Seattle. At UW, the Department of Scandinavian Studies offers courses in the languages, literatures, history, politics and folklore of Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Norway and Sweden and is the home of the Baltic Studies Program. Within the CBE there are numerous opportunities for Nordic and Baltic exchange, both through opportunities for studies and work abroad and with exchange students and visiting professors coming to the program in Seattle.
My first quarter at UW I participated in the interdisciplinary Gehl-Scan|Design Master Studio where we spent two weeks in Copenhagen and the remainder of the quarter in Seattle. View a copy of our final book documenting the studios investigations and works at Inviting Urban Play .
This summer I participated in the two month Architecture in Scandinavia Program that is based in Stockholm and includes extensive travel throughout the Nordic countries of Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland.
Currently, until the end of the fall quarter I am doing independent study and research based out of Tallinn, Estonia through the Valle Scholarship and Scandinavian Exchange Program. This is an extraordinary program that promotes and funds the exchange of graduate students between UW and programs in Nordic and Baltic Countries in the fields of the Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Built Environments. While in Tallinn my professional contact is Hendrik Voll, Chair of Heating and Ventilation within the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering at Professor at Tallinn University of Technology (TTU). Hendrik attended the UW through the Valle Scholarship in 2005 and also worked at the Integrated Design Lab where I have been working since starting at UW.
Thank you to everyone that has helped make these opportunities possible, especially the Valle Scholarship and Scandinavian Exchange Program and the Estonian Student'f Fund in USA and all those that have supported me along the way.
Further Information
Here are some links to additional information for the programs and organizations mentioned above :
At the University of Washington
Valle Scholarship and Scandinavian Exchange Program
Master of Architecture in High Performance Building (1 year post professional)
International Studies in Scandinavia within the Department of Architecture
Gehl-Scan|Design Masters Studio
Architecture in Scandinavia Summer 2014
Department of Scandinavian Studies
In the USA
Estonian Student’s Fund in USA
American-Scandinavian Foundation
In Estonia
Faculty of Civil Engineering at TUT
At the TUT, the Departments of Architecture and Urban Studies, Building Production, Environmental Engineering, Logistics, Mechanics, Road Engineering and Structural Design are all under the Faculty of Civil Engineering.