NEBIA ZEROUAL

Image credits: Laura Peters. Portrait courtesy of Nebia Zeroual.

Designer at CannonDesign

Wentworth Institute of Technology, M.Arch, 2016

Wentworth Institute of Technology, BS, 2015

Nebia is a full-time project designer at CannonDesign and part-time college instructor. She has five years of experience with a focus on higher education work. As a project designer, Nebia is responsible for the generation and developing of design concepts as well as overseeing project plans, budgets and schedules.

During her time at CannonDesign she’s worked on dynamic projects for Boston College, Suffolk University, Tufts University, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and more. She’s also assisted teams on a Brigham and Women’s Health Care Center Medical Office Building. Prior to joining CannonDesign, Nebia worked on various award-winning residential and commercial projects in the Boston area.

Reaching People through Architecture

What inspired you to pursue a career in architecture?

I have always been drawn to aesthetics. Walking into a space and being drawn to it is has always been one of my favorite experiences, and, little by little, I realized it wasn’t only about how appealing a space was, but also about, how it helped people within it in their daily lives, and how it creates an environment conducive to wellbeing.

In this way, I realized architects affect people’s lives directly, and I found that to be incredibly appealing when thinking about what I wanted to be doing with my life. In many ways, I thought I wanted to be an engineer, but designing spaces to create tangible wellbeing for people, was just so much more fulfilling for me personally.

When was the moment you decided you wanted to be an architect? Why?

While in high school, I interned at an engineering firm. It was an awesome experience, and I don’t regret a single moment of it. Nonetheless, I realized then, that I wanted to work with people. In seeking connections with clients, their needs, and their lives, I realized architecture was the path for me.

While studying at Wentworth Institute of Technology, what encouraged you to pursue a Media, Communications, and Culture minor?

It always comes back to my intrigue for people. I think architecture is one way in which you can reach people, but I was also interested in how different people are portrayed in media, the history of culture, representation, and so on.

Media communications and culture not only allowed me to get out of my head and think of things differently than buildings for a while, but it also helped me learn about how we arrived in our current digital age. It helped me understand more deeply the steps that facilitated Netflix, Facebook, and Spotify…not to mention how to walk into a meeting and get people excited about a really cool idea I have for the building they want to build.

I really don’t think of my minor as something that I did to the side of my architecture studies, but rather as something I’ve made part of my day-to-day practice. The way I think about it, the better we know people, the better we can design for them, and that’s what my minor helped me understand.

Kendall Square, Workspace. Images credits to Merge Architects. Images courtesy of Nebia Zeroual.

As an emerging professional, what is the importance of understanding the role of digital technologies in the study of contemporary culture?

I think that today, it’s impossible to think about either of these concepts independently of one another. When we consider digital technologies, we think of all the tools we use in our day-to-day life: computers, cell phones, video games, Google Instagram, TikTok, and so on. But these have all changed culture as we’ve known or knew it.

It wasn’t too long ago that people had to have access to an encyclopedia, be it at home or the public library, to obtain knowledge on topics unknown to them. Now, we can just take our phone or laptop and instantly learn about these.

I think people took a while to realize this, but with the whole Facebook scandal around the 2016 presidential election, it became clear that technology and society are now intrinsically linked. It’d be impossible to study contemporary culture without understanding how each technological advance has changed the way we think, stop, study and relate to others.

Today, as an Architectural Designer at CannonDesign, how do you implement digital technological skills in your project design?

Digital tech drives how we design everything today. It’s critical in how we integrate our consultants’ and engineers’ models into our buildings. Thanks to these digital models, we’re able to anticipate any failures and problems that might arise, and better design to avoid or resolve them, minimizing errors and expanding the possibilities of what we can design and build.

West Broadway. Image credits to Merge Architects. Image courtesy of Nebia Zeroual.

I think back to before I knew how to use all the 3D and visualization programs we have today, I had all these designs I could easily sketch out, but I couldn’t see how I would put them into a real building. I didn’t know how to incorporate them into my plans. Once I learned this technology though, I could actually use them and put them into the buildings I was designing. For example, for my thesis at university, I used Rhino alongside Grasshopper to generate intricate facade patterns I couldn’t have imagined were possible to put into a digital pan months before.

What is the process? Is it through research, materials studies, parametric designs?

The baseline is the research of a project site, understanding what a client wants and needs, and then engaging users to hear feedback from people who will be actually occupying the space. After this, the process then turns to hand sketches. This is where we think about how each space will come to life based on research and the specific needs of the building. This is essential - it is where the design comes alive.

The second step is to generate different form iterations of those hand sketches in 3D, Rhino and SketchUp. Depending on a building’s complexity, we may have to begin the parametric design process for facades with Dynamo or Grasshopper. In tandem to this effort, design teams need to do material studies to clarify a building and add more detail to it. At CannonDesign, we focus deeply on using environmentally friendly materials, which makes the process an integral part throughout the entirety of design development.

UIUC Residence Halls. Image credits to Laura Peters. Image courtesy of Nebia Zeroual.

What is your favorite project, so far, that you’ve participated in at CannonDesign? Why?

My favorite project to work on to date is the Boston College Margot Connell Recreation Center. It was one of the largest projects I’ve ever helped shape and its development proved fascinating on so many levels. I joined the project during construction, so I wasn’t really part of the design team, but I learned so much by visiting the site each week and watching how the building came together. It was incredible to see how true to the client the building came to be, and that was just the cherry on top of an incredible process.

Boston College Margot Connell Recreation Center. Images credits to Anton Grassi. Images courtesy of Nebia Zeroual.

I’m also currently working on a new project for St. John’s University where I’m part of the design team for a new Health and Science campus center. I’m really excited about it because it’s such a beautiful building that’s energy-efficient. I think it will be a wonderful addition to the institution’s historic campus - making their signature quad all that more special for students and staff.

For architectural students who would like to dig into digital technologies, where should they begin?

I always tell my students (it’s something my professors always told me, too … even though I might have shrugged back then) that the most important thing is to just keep practicing. Start off with what you’ve learned in class but keep watching videos online. Take courses on Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, or any other platform you can access. Even YouTube has awesome people teaching skills that your professors won’t have a team to teach you.

Don’t ever become discouraged if you’re not perfect at a certain skill, or if you see others learning something more rapidly. The more you practice, the better you’ll be. Even if you’ve got natural talent, it’s that hunger for knowledge that makes great architects in the long run. This may sound like common advice, but that’s because it’s so important. 

The other piece of advice I’d share is one I learned the hard way: always keep a backup and a backup of the backup. Use hard drives and the cloud in every instance. Keep your design files in several places because it’s inevitable a laptop will crash with the intense software we use.

 What advice do you have for the future generations of aspiring architects?

I think being an architect is super easy to romanticize. But the reality is, you’re going to have days in your career when you spend hours just making sure a bathroom will work and meets code. I’m sure this isn’t something those going into architecture want to do…but it’s an important part of the job. I encourage aspiring architects to fall in love with those moments just as much as the big design ideas and complex buildings.

No matter how mundane a specific task may be, never lose sight of the fact that our job - and how well we do it - shapes people’s lives. If that bathroom isn’t up to code, no one will be able to use it. A child might have an accident, a mother might have to take the child home rather than stay for the appointment. This is an extreme example, and a joke, but it shows that every detail can and does matter on a human level. Don’t forget that.