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I kept my silence for a while 'cos I was busy with collecting info about the big plan of mine:

I am finishing my university (Istanbul Technical University/Civil Engineering Faculty/Civil Engineering Dept) as a civil engineer in 2 months.

What am I thinking now?: I will spend 2 years or max. 3 years travelling and working and make a research about world's diffirent architectural and structural designs at their home land. I think of collaborate with you to give a new and innovative design or maybe a book about this. I need people to make this with me as a group (who will be enjoying travelling and looking to the things we will see seriously). I am a civil engineer, my girl friend is in this too (She has a bachelor's degree in World History and Arts), our friend Melissa (She has a bachelor's degree in Architectural Design). I believe 1 person is 1 thought, 2 people is 2 thoughts and 3 people is 3 thoughts, 1 person is 1 idea, 2 people is 3, 3 people is (whit the progress of the conversation and thinking sessions) 10 ideas.

We as three of us, are really willing to give a new and strong work to the world. We can discuss everything on the internet and prepare as a team.

What do you think??

Gokce ERKAYA

here is my msn adress : gokcesgokce@hotmail.com

Hi emcee,

I think I have a rough idea of what you're intending but not exactly sure - are you intending that as you travel to different countries collecting information on their traditional building methods, that you pay your way by seeking to do some design work for people with innovative designs developed partly upon the experience of your travels.

If this is so, and your designs will initially not have the exposure of the other places to which you will go later, that could be fine, but where I see difficulty for you just about anywhere, is

1. You would have to become familiar with government building regulations as you move to different areas even within the one country, and not just the regs, but the processing of applications through authorities.

That all takes time and is one of the bigger uses of project time, and thus why design and construction companies have quite a few projects on the go at any one time.

2. Not only will you have to comply with authority requirements, but there will also be the issue in many countries of attaining work permits, not to mention attaining work itself.

3. Language barriers and breaking into and understanding the industry.

Your idea has merit, but you need to do a lot of research as to the feasibility of it, and how funds are attained to keep the program going.

My background is mechanical engineering btw, with experience in mining, power and some building areas.
I am quite happy to help through discussion of any of the above aspects if you desire.

You could PM me in the first instance.

I'm curious, though I am not an architect. What are your more concrete plans? Where do you plan to travel?

I'm curious about what exactly you want to do. If you want to combine traveling with engineering or architecture, there's a group here in the US called Engineers Without Borders (EWB). The organization focuses on sustainable solutions for the developing world.

I'm almost finished with my degree in mechanical engineering. As a student, I've been involved with a few projects in rural Honduras, designing and building water distribution systems. EWB is an American organization with professional chapters as well as student chapters throughout the country. There might be a similar organization in Istanbul. If not, you might be able to found such an organization- your university may be very supportive as it gives their students tremendous experience. Also, EWB-USA might be able to give you some ideas/information to help you as well.

Since we have specific skills and knowledge, I feel that we have an obligation to help those who most urgently need our skills. The fact that we are well traveled, globally minded people, should make this especially apparent.

I know this is not exactly what you have in mind, but if you're interested, feel free to contact me and I can give you some more information.

Yeah, I guess I don't entirely understand what your idea is. Sounds like you may want to write a book? Or produce a website? about different structural and architectural methods and styles in particular regions of the world? As gonorth said your own skills will be practically worthless outside your own design code, but it would be interesting to document regional design.

I think the architectural thing is well covered by 10,000+ coffee table books on the subject of world architecture, but I have seen very little about world/regional structural design, with the exception of the 10,000+ books on bridges. Maybe if you just focus on simple structure design, you may have a new subject that has not been covered much.

As a travelling engineer, I am always drawn to structural styles, but I have found that most others don't have the same appreciation. Let me know what you are looking for more specifically and I would love to participate.

i would love to do stuff abroad with my major, but there does not seem to be much nuclear engineering work abroad. if i get into medical physics specialty work, there might be more opportunities, but nuclear engineering itself doesn't have much.