Success stories

Silvana De Bari is a young architect specialising in architecture and urbanism. Her activity is focused both on residential and industrial architecture, in international markets based in Europe. She decided to participate in the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs program to reinforce her entrepreneurial attitude, thanks to the skills, knowledge, and experience offered by the Host Entrepreneur, Johnny Leya. Silvana wanted to learn how to manage a small architectural firm, as well as to improve her design competencies. For these reasons, she decided to participate in EYE, to work alongside an expert entrepreneur. Jonny Leya is an entrepreneur based in Belgium and co-founder of the architecture and design studio Traumnovelle. He decided to participate with the aim of helping young entrepreneurs who share common interests on contemporary issues with him. 

During this collaborative experience, Silvana had the opportunity to understand and practice the architecture profession and observe how to run an architectural firm. Specifically, she learnt how to manage the different stages of development of a project and to understand its evolution over time. She gained experience in conducting meetings and establishing good relations with clients. Johnny was pleased to welcome Silvana and greatly appreciated the contribution. Her fresh experience improved the development of new project ideas and research.

The EYE programme gave Silvana more consciousness of the processes and dynamics of the architecture field and provided her with enough experience to create a more concrete plan for her future business. She has also established important contacts that could lead to valuable collaborations later on. Johnny has also benefited from the EYE programme and discovered new tools and opportunities he had never heard of. Thanks to this collaboration, Johnny has also expanded his own network of contacts and will be happy to collaborate with Silvana on new projects abroad.