Sharing your work with others, even your tutors, can feel daunting. We know so many students struggle to submit work for feedback because they worry that it’s not good enough.
BEng (Hons) Architecture and Environmental Engineering alumni Romane Sanchez shares her story of how she has learnt to appreciate and value opportunities to get feedback on her work from others.
I used to cry after architecture reviews.
Looking back now, after finishing my Architecture and Environmental Engineering degree at UWE, working at Ryder Architecture, doing a Master’s in the Netherlands, and now working at Ryder again as a sustainability consultant, I can see how dramatically my relationship with feedback has changed. But getting here wasn’t straightforward.
The problem started in my undergrad. Half my courses were engineering—objective, right or wrong, comforting in their certainty. The other half were architecture studio projects where tutors would pick apart my designs with subjective comments that made no sense to me. If the plan worked and the building functioned, surely it was good? I’d walk into reviews convinced my work was finished, only to have it questioned from every angle – it felt unfair.
Changing my approach
But as the years passed, I started to understand that design is iteration. It’s not about arriving at the “correct” answer—it’s about asking better questions. So I changed how I approached reviews. Instead of defending final proposals, I brought works-in-progress and actual questions. I left space for things to evolve. My final year project went through 16 iterations, and you can literally see where the review sessions happened because that’s when the biggest leaps forward occurred. My tutor Sonja was brilliant at pushing me just far enough without letting me fall apart.
Then I joined Ryder and realized university reviews were just the warm-up. At work, we have company-wide design exchanges where anyone—and I mean anyone from across the entire practice—can tune in and comment on your project. What I’d seen as a dreaded hurdle at uni was actually a sought-after moment for knowledge-sharing in the real world. Architects actively want this kind of input.
Clear communication is key for successful collaboration
There were still difficult moments – I remember receiving contradicting feedback from colleagues: I’d take someone’s suggestion, develop it, then have someone else question why I’d gone that direction. This inability to defend iterations that weren’t even fully mine made me realise that the problem wasn’t receiving constructive criticism, I enjoy bouncing ideas, but I am frustrated when I feel misunderstood. It’s on us – the people seeking feedback – to clearly communicate the intention behind decisions and allow reviewers to come with a full picture, thus providing informed and relevant comments.
My master’s at TU Delft and Wageningen pushed this even further. The programme emphasized co-creation, which implies getting input not just from other designers but from residents, clients, end users—basically anyone with a stake in the project. If you want to create built environments that actually matter to people, you need to invite other voices in and be open to what they say. I followed this collaborative approach throughout my thesis and my supervisors, Birgit and Maryam, along with the professionals I interviewed throughout the process, influenced and ultimately improved the quality of my final outputs.
Keep an open mind to allow your work to evolve
Overall, this is the essential bit to understand: design is iterative by nature. To make it better and give it real meaning, you have to let it evolve with an open mindset and ear. Your professional life will be full of feedback moments and that is simply a fact. How you handle them is up to you—but remember, everything starts as a first draft.
- Romane Sanchez graduated with a BEng Architecture and Environmental Engineering from UWE Bristol, before moving on to an MSc Metropolitan Analysis, Design and Engineering at TU Delft and Wageningen.
- She now works as a Sustainability Consultant in Okana (part of Ryder Architecture).