In Poland her main interest in school was in art and art history, but Barbara proved to have a talent for science and maths as well. That made the choice for a study in architecture quite obvious, particularly because in Poland the curriculum is broad and varied. Next to studying architecture she wrote articles about art and made a short documentary film about the architecture and urban culture of Shanghai.

In her view architecture is a very cosmopolitan and global affair. As an exchange student with an Erasmus grant, she stayed in Portugal and Italy and after her studies she started a job at an architectural firm in Shanghai. The emphasis there was on the conceptual and aesthetic design of hotels and other leisure buildings. Often the interior design was included from the start.

Love brought her into contact with the Netherlands and through her husband, an Italian who studied architecture at the TU Eindhoven, with Dutch architecture too.

‘What I appreciate about it is also one of the strong points of ZJA: not just thinking in concepts but diving deep into the technical and practical dimension of things and coming up with ingenious and unconventional solutions and inventions. The role of beauty and concept is the result of an inventive approach to technology. That is inspiring, that combination of playfulness and being down to earth.’