Currently in a corner of a coffee shop in Tirana, summer is ending, and I reminisce about Italian architecture. Maybe because its influence in my hometown is predominantly noticed. In Milan I’ll be walking and automatically find the resemblance between certain buildings such as to link my past to my present. I try to put together a novel experience and a familiar one.

It has been only three months since I've started living in Rotterdam and the place's a metropolitan area with a pinch of awe-inspiring medieval masterpieces. The Covid-19 restrictions have made it a bit difficult for me to explore all the city, but I've managed to check out most of the inspirational buildings.

Omnium Rerum Principia Parva Sunt means The beginnings of all things are small. Rome started small too. A little village along the Tiber River before it became the largest and most powerful city in the world. Many people have written about the magnificence of this city and I am about to join this group, even though in a more amateurish, but expressive way.

What sparked my interest in architecture for the first time, at the age of 12 years old, was a calendar that had a picture of the Sydney Opera House on it. I started to think, visualize and wonder about the shape of that bizarre-looking building. How was it possible to achieve, what for me was unfeasible, that kind of perfection. Through many times of searching and looking at pictures of every possible angle of that building I fell more and more in love with it.

The dilapidated condition of the old villas of the capital. Built in the first half of the twentieth century, they were the first signs of the modernization of the new Albanian state. Their elegant architecture gave another look to the capital. Together with the traditional Tirana houses with adobe, they gave shape to the new Albanian capital.

Its absence of harmony, continuity, or symmetry is a perfect example of deconstructivist architecture. The unusual "dancing" shape is supported by 99 concrete panels, each a different shape and dimension. A twisted structure of metal on top of the building affirms the quirkiness that this building has to offer. The two main parts of Ginger and Fred are like two dancers with very distinct appearances.

Persian architecture has contributed for a long time as a distinct element of world culture.Their influence from Egypt,Greece and Mesopotamia,created a natural style but also conventionalised, with decorated surfaces and ornamental flattened spaces.

These are some projects that I have worked on these past few months. I enjoyed learning how to express my creativity. Playing with symmetry, shapes and different materials made me discover where I stand on architectural styles.

Architects don't invent,they transform - Alvaro Siza

To learn about the history of a new destination,it is crucial to look for its iconic buildings.There are other ways to discover the local culture, which can be reflected in the culinary, the history, and the dialects,