It’s been often said that travel broadens one’s horizons and gives him a new perspective. As an architect, it did a lot more.

One of the most notable things about travel is that distances allow you to know yourself better, and to come face to face with all what matters to you. It teaches you to shed off layers of all what is unnecessary, keeping nothing but your real skin.

While studying architecture, I was always very overwhelmed with all the information and opinions I was exposed to, making it hard to hear my thoughts or decide and what I believed in. When I traveled, being exposed to a new context allowed me to comparatively examine that large amount of data, and selectively keep what proved to be reasonable.

Cities felt like open air exhibitions to me, with every corner having so much to offer. I got to experience the beautiful museums, skyscrapers, and train stations, which up until then, were nothing but flat images inside old chunky books. Coming from a city like Amman which sadly lacks that variety of public buildings and facilities, every new building was a new learning experience for me, compensating for what might’ve taken months to comprehend.

Life on the streets was always extraordinary, with every city representing itself through its public spaces, street corners, and skylines. I also realized that cities, like people, have different personalities and moods that would be introduced to you differently, depending on what angle you’re looking from, or in what context.

For an architect, his eyes are his camera, snapping images of everything beautiful, ugly, and sublime he encounters. Visiting new cities therefor enriches his gallery and feeds into his database of forms, materials, user experiences, and spaces.

Meeting people from different countries also allows you to have a more comprehensive outlook, realizing that no matter how different cultures could be, there will always be a common ground everyone can meet at. Cities shape people and people shape cities. It’s always been very interesting to understand cities through their buildings, and understand buildings through their users, or vice versa, and for an architect there is so much to be learnt from their interrelation, and the way one influences the other.

Beyond the physical spaces, and beyond their borders, architecture is about people and their needs, about cultures and lifestyles, about shelter, safety, and comfort, and everything that falls in between.

Travel, is the best educator, because it teaches you so much, without saying a word. Flying back home, I am never always aware of the extra luggage I have packed along, which soon starts to unfold after, revealing itself in my drawing pads, between my lines, and at the shadow of my concepts.

Travel, helps you understand yourself better, therefor allowing you to understand the needs of your clients and their aspirations. It allows you to open new windows in what used to be solid walls, and to see opportunity in the darkest of corners. It doesn’t only help you become a better architect, but a better human, because it helps you realize that the world is so much bigger than all of us, yet how it beautifully holds a designated space for every single one.