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Raluca Racasan
Raluca is an Account Manager at NLA, and her portfolio includes the public sector, construction, product and tech memberships. She joined NLA after having run her own interior design consultancy focused on how our immediate environment affects our wellbeing. Previously, Raluca worked in project management and client liaison in residential, commercial and heritage refurbishment, and public relations within the consumer and luxury sectors.
What I love most about London is that it never ceases to surprise me, entertain me, and give me reasons to get out of the house and explore. Maybe it’s because the sun has been shining recently that I’m feeling tempted by so many of the walking tours happening in the next few weeks.
I’ve always enjoyed a stroll along the river from Vauxhall into Battersea, and I’m looking forward to learning more about what’s deemed to be ‘Europe’s largest urban regeneration project’ during Nine Elms and Battersea: Big, Bold and Brand New walk. Then I’ll be all ears listening to the Battersea Power Station Inside Story and find out how such an ambitious project actually got done, and done so successfully! Now that I’ve got my walking shoes on (sunnies on and coffee in hand, of course), I’ll carry on and discover the bold and modernist vision of the Golden Lane and Barbican Architecture. I can’t go out exploring London without visiting Soho, and I’m looking forward to the Soho Queer History walking tour, to hear how stories of community, activism, and gender representation over the last few centuries can be told through Soho’s unique built environment. The next on my list will be Regent’s Park, for a bit of novel-worthy history and drama, walking along streets lined with stately villas and terraces. I’m promised artfully spun fictions and showstoppers, and I can’t wait!
If you scroll through my phone’s camera roll, you’ll be in no doubt about my love of buildings. I’m interested in the Photographing Old Buildings workshop, and it will come in handy once I embark on these tours to have some knowledge of technique, light and composition, to try and really capture the beauty of some of London’s most interesting works of architecture. After all that walking, I deserve to sit down a bit, but my last stop won’t be on the sofa, but in Wyndham’s Theatre, watching My Master Builder, which promises to be startling, true, and meaningful.
Although this would be my itinerary of dreams, I admit it might be a tad too ambitious to do it all in one day… instead, it will keep my weekends busy for the next few weeks, and I’m already looking forward to it all. And because I’m such a big believer in the built environment’s power to shape a better world through places that bring people together and generate wellbeing, I’ll also be tuning into RIBA and VitrA’s Building on Empathy panel discussion talking about how community and empathy can shape lasting and emotionally resonant places, and Asking, Looking, Playing, Making, exploring the need to create beautiful buildings rooted in a sense of place, through a nature-focused design process.
Having planned all these activities for myself, I now stand corrected. My actual favourite thing about London is that it keeps you company. To all my friends asking, London’s got me booked for the next four weekends at least! Further to an exciting May, the London Festival of Architecture have also just shared their programme, so I’ll be kept busy across an exciting June too!
