A Day in the Life of... Cristian Tudose

Cristian qualified as an Architect at the end of last year (Nov 2022) but he already had many more strings to his bow. So, what does a typical day look like for Cristian at Lees Associates?

A Day in the Life of Cristian Tudose

Cristian always begins his day with a large cup of coffee; he needs it to match the energy of his two-year-old dog, Loki, a male cockapoo. “He is amazing, but cockapoos have way too much energy,” laughs Cristian. “I play with him and then take him for a walk and that’s all I have time for before I jump on the train to get to work.”

There are only a few stops on his train journey into London Bridge from his home in New Eltham, southeast London. But Cristian uses the time to check his emails, the latest news and the stock market because he likes to keep up to date with everything. He buys some M&S pretzels on the five-minute walk into the office. “They are crisps but the fresh steamy pretzels you can buy in Romania have no match” he assures me, and, after 10 years in the UK studying initially in Huddersfield to gain his Part 1 in Architecture, then in Cardiff to complete his Masters, before working for a practice in Newport, it seems that he must be believed!

Cristian and Loki take a breather before another busy day

However, today he isn’t stopping at London Bridge to head into the office; he is going to a site meeting for one of his projects, a five-storey residence in Old Brompton Road, South Kensington. The property isn’t listed but lies within a conservation area. The meeting is with the mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) engineers to run through the designs and identify any possible clashes at an early stage. “We are working in 3D for all of our projects,” explains Cristian, “Building a 3D model allows us to identify any potential clashes and direct the MEP engineers to any issues.” In under an hour, Cristian is able to show the MEP engineers all the potential clashes discovered in the 3D model and discuss potential solutions.

With the site meeting coming to a successful conclusion, Cristian is then off to meet a colleague just around the corner from the property in Kensington. Lees Associates’ surveying arm, LA Surveys has been briefed to carry out a 3D point cloud survey of a small apartment. Cristian is meeting a colleague at the apartment to continue to train them in using state-of-the-art 3D scanners to carry out the survey. The survey takes two hours with two scanners and Cristian uses the opportunity to take some photos and videos for Lees Associates’ social media pages including LinkedIn and Instagram, and for its website.

Cristian setting up a 3d scan

Cristian used to work as a photographer, taking after his dad who was also a professional lens man. Cristian’s passion is street photography combined with architectural photography. “I like to capture subjects on the street from a unique perspective people often don’t see it from, basically showing the world through my lens” he explains. “I have taken photos and people ask me where the photo was taken, and I show them that it was right there, and they are surprised and can’t believe that they haven’t noticed it before. I just like to keep my eyes open and find those small details. It is also an important skill for a photographer to be able to enhance the photo they have taken. Once you have edited a photo most people are just amazed,” he notes proudly.

Cristian is now taking his photography to the next level - literally - having received a drone for Christmas. “I am learning to fly it so that I can get into videography,” he explains.

With the scan complete it’s time to develop the survey drawings

After a busy morning, Cristian heads back to the office and grabs something to eat from a neighbouring Italian sandwich shop, a favourite of the LA team. Back in the office, Cristian downloads the photos he has taken during the survey and writes up the minutes from the site meeting he had first thing. “I write the minutes of the site meeting including everything that has been agreed so that everyone is aware and we have a clear record. They have seven days to comment on those minutes otherwise everything is deemed to be agreed according to those minutes,” explains Cristian. Then he registers the scans from the survey and prepares the point cloud so a colleague can begin working on building the 3D model and produce the survey drawings for him to check. He also takes time to plan out tasks for the following week and has a couple of internal meetings to discuss progress on his projects.

Internal meetings are always an important element of the day

Cristian is also a perfectionist when it comes to his work as an Architect, but he knows to always keep in mind that there are time limits, deadlines and budgets to stick to. But one, three-year project he worked on required every ounce of his perfectionism, which was very much the client’s brief for the project. “Everything had to be just perfect, to the millimetre, zero tolerance, and I really enjoyed working on that,” he recalls.

Maintaining a level of professionalism that matches the goal of perfection

But if he does have any free time, Cristian loves to barbecue. “I’m a big fan of barbecues,” Cristian enthuses. “As long as it isn’t raining,” he notes. “I like smoking chicken, steaks, sausages, vegetables and a Romanian speciality, mici.” It will come as no surprise to discover, therefore, that when he qualified as an Architect last year, he decided to celebrate with a barbecue!