Letter of Motivation

Bachelor’s in Architecture
BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg (Cottbus)

I, Deepak Thakur Barhi, belong to Khutta Piparadhi -04, a small village in Mahottari district of
province number 2 in Nepal. Belonging from a financially mediocre family, the educational quality of
our family has been on a similar scale of mediocracy. In a family of 5 members, my father has been
engaged as a government officer in the health department for over a decade and my mother is a
teacher of English subject in high school along with a housewife like most of the Nepali women in
our community are. Apart from my parents, I have three siblings – an elder brother and a younger
sister and a brother, all still studying. Having born and brought up in a middle-class family, I have
experienced and learn to see things from a slightly different perspective. But above all, I have found
one thing in Nepali villages and nearby cities that has always been bugging me is that people often
see houses and buildings as blocks placed together. And by the blocks I mean to say, people here,
often while building homes, they tend to build it as such that they could rent it and turn it into a
constant form of income. Not that there’s anything wrong in it, but only because of this reason,
people often losses the life-long comfort of turning houses into homes.

Due to the same problem, I have always been attracted towards the fine details and designs
in architecture that designers and architects tend to put out there after hours, days and months of
thinking and experimenting. In pursuit of doing something similar, I too decided to choose the field
of Architecture. But, my intention is more stirred towards learning to design an iconic and
monumental structures that a mediocre family like mine can only dream of, it is rather intentioned
towards adding a sprinkle of design and decorative elements to the homes which can not only be
comfortable but also be economically feasible for my client who wishes to spend their hard earned
money for something they can feel personally tailored for their need when they own them.

I have spent ample time with my senior who are mostly from Civil Engineering background.
Being near to them, I have often got to learn about the same domain. However, I have found them
often working on the projects finalized by the architects and the power of changing the design
elements that a civil engineer holds are quite limited. Moreover, I have found myself lingering
around creating things and thinking to add my own signature styles that not only stands out but also
adds value to structural functionality.

Quickly talking about my academics, I cleared my school leaving certificate exam in first
division during 2015 and next to it, I secured second division in +2 Science stream. At +2 level, I had
taken Mathematics and Computer as my subjects of choice over Biology and other common subjects
to the physical and biology groups included English, Nepali, Chemistry, and Physics. Later on, I spent
time training myself with ‘Computer operator and Hardware and Networking’ for around one year. I
found it necessary as well as best use of my time for two good reasons -first of course to brush up
my computer skills as I felt it was complimentary to my career goals and secondly because in Nepal,
the results to get published for +2 exams takes slightly longer (around 6-8 months sometimes) and
sitting ideal for such a long time could easily kill my creativity, so I motivated myself towards learning
something that can be useful and directs me towards my career goal.

One another reason behind seeking a career in Architecture domain is that it requires a good
blend of arts, creativity, science, math, business and many more. Taking a course in architecture will
enable learn more in areas like math (including geometry, algebra, trigonometry, calculus, etc.),
science (mostly mechanics and other parts of physics), statistics, computer and arts and drawings.
And this to me is a great source of motivation than a challenge. This will enable me to remain a
learner forever in my career. Being a part of this course, I have strong faith in me that working with a
wide range of projects and with multi-cultural students from different parts of the world will help me
improve upon my inter-personal and intra-personal skills. Later on, that learnings will definitely help
me become an inspiring entrepreneur in my country and positively affect the lives of many.

Having researched enough upon what I will learn in the course I’m seeking I have taken
some time also upon questioning myself about how much do I fit into this course? And I have found
that I have always found myself looking for a major that is interdisciplinary rather than a major that
focuses on one particular subject. In doing so, I have failed several times and needless to say, I have
always given it one last shot and never turned my back upon criticisms be it from professors or
peers. In order to turn my failure stories into a success story, I have often found working my ways
out late nights, skipping outings with friends and so on. Often in doing so, I have found good support
from my peers as wells and collaborated for group projects, which indeed have turned out the most
memorable and successful ones. Having experienced such study environment, I totally understand,
majoring in architecture is a big challenge in itself at any college and it requires a huge amount of
dedication at studies and being multitasker to be able to work on several projects at once, and I’m
filled with positive energy and totally ready for it.

Nepal is a developing country and I see an ample amount of vacancies for architects every
week for wide varieties of developmental and running projects. A major in Architecture will broaden
career paths with wider varieties of opportunities all the way from construction to engineering to
design and development. If given a chance, while doing a major in architecture at BTU Cottbus-
Senftenberg, I expect to develop a particular set of skills combining both sides of the brain; creative
and logical. And by that, I mean, to be able to learn the elements of mathematics and engineering,
alongside creativity and an understanding of modern technologies and cultural trends happening
around the globe.

The major task of an architect is to create a comfortable, sustainable and economical human
environment. It is achieved by expressing human values by complementing human activity. I seek to
design infrastructures that address the interrelated environmental, behavioural, and cultural issues.
I’m looking towards strengthening my intellectual growth and the capacity to develop creative and
responsible solutions to unique and changing problems that arise with changing time.

Moving with the modern trend, I too have become slightly addicted to this modern
technology. However, I believe my addiction is only subtle enough that I find myself falling into the
technophile category. That’s how my interest in computer networks grew over time. Being
connected to the internet most of the time, I also got highly benefited in looking for the right college
to pursue my Bachelor degree. That’s how I came across the Brandenburg University of Cottbus-
Senftenberg in Germany. After a quick little research, I got to know that -during the mid-1900s the
university used to be a school of construction engineering which soon after German reunification
turned into a Technical University in the name of Brandenburg Technical University. Ever since it
became a technical university, the institution has undergone multiple major construction efforts and
has multiplied in itself. The Lausitz University of Applied Sciences which was founded in 1991, and
was running as an independent state university with over 3500 students, on 1st July 2013 merged
with Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus and both universities started running as a single
university with name -Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus-Senftenberg. Currently, BTU is
running with a huge number of over 7000 students, approximately 30% of which, students have
reached from over 110 countries. At this university students have been able to pursue their career
under 6 different faculties group. The university gets its major portion of funding from third-party
funding revenues which is approximately 35%.
 Cottbus, situated between Dresden and Berlin, is also fairly near to the border of Polis. This
city is also known as a university city and is second largest in Brandenburg. The major railway
junction also named after the Cottbus city executes extensive depots. The city houses a small
Sorbian minority however, it holds a centre for political and cultural activities of the Sorbs in Lower
Lusatia.

Alongside Cottbus, Berlin, the capital of Germany, is the largest city of the nation by both
area and population. The nation in itself houses a good distribution of the population of various
religions, culture and traditions. However, over half of the total population is dominated by Christian
and therefore the diversity in culture is quite vivid. With highly skilled labour manpower, a large
capital stock, fairly low level of corruption and higher innovation levels, the nation had been able to
become world’s third largest exporter of goods and holds the title of the largest national economy in
Europe. Overall, Germany is both secular and religious place.

Belonging from a middle-class family, I have studied closely the needs of normal people’s
expectation about their shelter and having spent most of my time with the like-minded people, I
have always found myself directed towards my career in my ever action. With the aim of bringing in
creative and economically feasible housing designs, I am looking forward to joining this course with
huge positive motivation and dedication. Studying in BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg is a dream that keeps
me awake and gets me going every day with the thoughts about reaching about my aim. If given
chance, I assure you sir/madam, I will prove to be a right fit and will direct my energy into the
learning for a cause. A cause that can one day positively affect the lives of many.

Thank you.