Let’s travel to Venice and Arzignano to meet Marcello Galiotto and Alessandra Rampasso, founding partners of AMAA, a “Collaborative Architecture Office For Research and Development” as they call it.
They have recently stated working form New York, as they thought that would be a good pretext to be closer to Donald Judd’s aura.
“Instagram fully fills our mind, so it’s not easy to select”. Therefore, they’ve developed their own toolbox, the "AMAA box” - which they progressively disclosure on throughout the episode. “To have a proper selection is important, so we do our selection of a lot of things”.
At the end, “all these influences create a language.”
There are 3 main pieces: a site, an architect and a client.
“All these 3 things need to work together”.
“To be trustable with a client you need to be a storyteller, thats the first thing. But you also need to be humble and practical. (…) The client needs to be with us for the research, for the process, for the after”. The process is good, but the after is the best part, they claim.
Let’s not for get about the site, as that is the place where they best express their way of thinking. “We really love to dirty up the situation”.
On one hand, “we need to be thinkers but at the same time we need to be builders”.
On the other hand, “from a functional problem you can find a way to be also aesthetic”.
What goes around comes back around.
“The reference is giving to you the power of detail, the power of keeping up your way of thinking and your intuition.”
Guest: Marcello Galiotto + Alessandra Rampazzo (Venice + Arzignano, Italy)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Santiago, Chile, to meet Iván Bravo whom back in 2002 has founded Iván Bravo Arquitectos, now alongside his associate architect Martin Rojas.
Once upon a time Iván noticed he was really interested in the process of the work…even more than its outcome. Polemic.
Isn’t it curious that “in art, ”obra” is the final work” (obra de arte /masterpiece) meanwhile, “in architecture, “obra” is the process” (construction site).
“It was really interesting to understand that one final work, which we call “obra”, is all the process, including the end”, he says.
But can an “obra” (as a construction site) even become an “obra” (masterpiece)?
After all, their clients “are not clients that want architecture, they just want a house.”
Maybe this is all about getting “lebre por gato”.
In other words, “to get something better than you expect to”.
Maybe its about cousins who spot Toblerone’s in architecture projects.
“We are constantly mixing rationality with intuition, of course.”
“The publication of an architecture, the final photos, are a fetichism of the whole process.”
Guest: Iván Bravo (Santiago, Chile)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Dublin, Ireland, where Ryan W Kennihan - originally from Chicago - has established his practice in 2007.
Ryan is much more interested in an architecture of resonance then in one that is completely self-involved. “Whatever “non-referencial architecture” means, it is the complete opposite of this”. An architecture of resonance is a certain sense that arises from using forms that exist all over the world.
Their practice is about a constant meaning giving. “We want as many as possible, a proliferation of references”.
At a certain point we might find ourselves questioning if we are taking part in the evolution or just continuously extending a mistake. One cannot be sorry, “its very much about looking forward and looking back, trying to be old and be new; to be refined and be awkward.”
“What’s interesting to me is not the framework itself but actually the variations within the framework.
Guest: Ryan W Kennihan, Ryan W. Kennihan Architects (IE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to London, United Kingdom, to meet Adam Khan, founder of Adam Khan Architects since 2006.
Adam aims to take architecture where it doesn’t normally go. “We have a lot to toggle, as architects, without having to leave our discipline”.
But how can architecture extend elsewhere solely through architectural means? It's about doing it through the discipline of architecture, “not using architecture as a way to illustrate some other thing.”
But then… how do you incorporate the program, context, and situation without compromising its autonomy as a discipline? “There is much not under your control, you are kind of riding a runaway horse.” Architecture is such an imaginary guess, sometimes.
The most amazing thing is noticing that “someone actually bothered doing that.”
Guest: Adam Khan, Adam Khan Architects (UK)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to germany to meet the architectural practice Heide von Beckerath, today represented by Verena von Beckerath.
Housing has been a never-ending topic in their practice. “When we started working with collective housing projects it was something new. (…) lately,I found out, collective housing is something that everyone is talking about”.
They are not claiming to be the pioneers of the attention now being given to the housing issue. However, they have long been aware that certain aspects have either never been applied to housing or have been forgotten in the discussion. Using their words: “Its not something that we have invented, its something that is there but maybe has never been applied to housing in that way.”
Sometimes “a single word can change the acceptance of an architecture approach.”
Sometimes, its not very clear who has to water the plants.
Every time, “as architects, we always have to be a little ahead of things.”
“Housing…I mean…this is probably what we have to do in the next years.
But this does not mean that there is change in what we see that is built.
That is the next step.”
Guest: Verena von Beckerath + Tim Heide, Heide von Beckerath (DE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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CREDITS
Two Houses
2019, 38 min
Director: Verena von Beckerath
Assistant directors: Niklas Fanelsa, Momoko Yasaka, Maximilian von Zepelin
Camera, Sound, Editing: Jens Franke
Produced by: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Verena von Beckerath (ed.), A Room with a View, Monroe Books, Berlin 2023
with contributions by Andrew Alberts, Ludovico Centis, Lawrence Hoque, Albrecht Kastein, Oda Pälmke and Yvonne Matijas Seguso
In this episode we travel to both Greece (EL) and London (UK), where we can Neiheiser Argyros, this time under the voice of Ryan Neiheiser.
Repetition and diference is a long-time interest of theirs.
They don't bother looking at things over and over again, “there is something about repetition that might lead to something unexpected”. However, in other to find the unexpected “you have to completely invest yourself in an idea and totally believe that it can exist in the world”.
“A big part of finding new ideas is about copying interesting ideas”.
Interesting, I might copy this idea myself.
Once we explore the idea of “reuse”, Ryan brings a new, and more precise, word to the table: spolia. “We have been trying to make use of the word “spolia” to nuance the idea of “reuse”.” And they will keep on doing it over and over again.
Guest: Ryan Neiheiser + Xristina Argyros, Neiheiser Argyros (EL + UK)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop: Portugal, to meet Maria Rebelo and João Paupério, whom together in 2019, have founded Atelier Local.
Have you ever though about gosht writing applied to architecture? Maybe its more common than we think.
What is style?
Maybe, “style is what allows you to go further (…) if you repeat a same way of addressing an issue, your mind gets liberated to address other issues.
“Your own limitations travel with you wherever you go. Maybe that is what style is. (…) that’s the only way you know how to solve a problem.”
“Style is a limitation”.
Maybe.
“Once you start to reflect upon that, you start to use it more properly.”
For sure.
“We know a little bit about Palladio but we also know a little bit about ugly kitchens from our grandmothers.”
The real question here is: how local is Leroy Merlin?
Guest: Maria Rebelo + João Paupério , Atelier Local (Valongo, PT)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Massachusetts (USA) were we met Willian O’Brien Jr, who has been developing his architectonic vision under the name WOJR since 2013.
They understand their work more as an intellectual project that has a kind of business by-product. “We think of architecture first and foremost as an act of cultural production”, they say.
“To rehearse” is probably one of their favourite activities. They rehearse ideas over and over, as they are “hoping to find an aspect of that project that helps [them] do something that [they] wouldn’t do otherwise”.
“What is unique about a thing becomes the lens which all decisions get made.”
Metaphorically speaking, something very similar to pealing an onion and finding a new layer every time. “We hope those ideas find their way into other projects.”
But is there space for “rehearsing” during construction?
”I don’t think there is a 1-to-1 correspondence between the visualisation and the built work. One is aspirational and projective and other is, let’s say, much more opportunistic and discoverable.
“That’s something I have been thinking about a lot. What is the status of the visualisation once the work is built.”
Nevertheless, keep in mind that “it can be iterated, it can be rehearsed.”
Guest: William O’Brien Jr. , WOJR (Massachusetts, USA)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Zurich (CH) alongside Piet Eckert, whom together with Wim Eckert founded E2A.
Can a building ever be abstract? Can an idea ever be concrete? What about a model, how abstract can a model be? “The abstraction of a thought leads to an architectural strategy, we can produce a model that keeps this abstraction.”
With such a wide range of thoughts…how to keep our focus? Piet says he as “found a way to deal with many conditions and not have the obligation to always think everything through.” He explains it further: “for example, a plan, is more abou how a space is organised; a model is about how a structure is creating synthesis; an image, for example, can accentuate our attention a space.”
It’s about method and about methodically taking the best out of it.
Nevertheless, for E2A, it’s important to emphasise that "the built work is always the synthesis, otherwise we have done something really wrong”.
“Its about definition and tolerance.
It’s about defining the world but making it free to be discovered.”
“I am not trying to limit things. I am trying to enable.”
“Liberty itself is not a quality.”
Guest: Piet Eckert, E2A (CH)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Today we travel to Ghent (Belgium) to meet with Jasper Stevens and Karel Verstraenten whom, together have founded FELT architecture & design, back in 2014.
FELT favors the 'in between', creating objects and projects that oscillate between between architecture and design, scale and scaleless, between function the fiction. They “see scenography as an architectural commission”, what about vice-versa?
Sometimes they re-scale buildings to stool-size, other times, they skate stools to building-size. “This exercise of re-scale is something we do with almost everything we make.”
They believe in the importance of not ending up “with a grey, basic architecture”. Are you a believer as well?
“We are liars. We like to lie. We lie to tell a different story”. As it should.
Sometimes it is about adding sprinkles on top of frozen yogurt. (Yes, you need to listen to the episode to understand this reference.)
“There is a reference for those who wan to see it."
Guest: Jasper Stevens + Karel Verstraeten (Ghent, BE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Zurich (CH) alongside Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin. You might better know them for the short-form EMI Architekten.
The conversation starts on a high, discussing the difference between “concept” and “narrative”. Were you aware that there was a difference between one and the other?
On one hand, “the concept, goes back to a very heroic era of architecture”.
On the other hand, “the narrative, allows for richness and multi-diversity (…) it Its more about diversity, richness, heterogeneity, tentacular, contradictions”.
Therefore, “the narrative is also a critic towards the concept. But if you don’t know the concept anymore… it is difficult to recognise the narrative. (…) I think. In a way, it would be good to have a consciousness for both”.
“Do we cover the project with the story or do we develop the project in the story?”, they wonder.
“With our floor plans, we are trying to overcome preconceptions in housing.”
Successfully, I think.
We talk about mirrors that are moon eclipses.
We confess our obsession for doors. “Its all about doors.”
“Architecture is always very serious.”
“Architecture can be quite humorous.”, it is like a joke that can be told serval times, not a one-liner.
Guest: Ron Edelaar + Elli Mosayebi + Christian Inderbitzin (CH)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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For our 33rd stop, we’re going a bit all around the world with KOSMOS, an architecture practice whose tone is set by Leonid Slonimskiy and Artem Kitaev.
KOSMOS don’t do architecture as one is supposed to do architecture. Yet, they claim they do nothing new…everything they do “already exists”.
Rather than abstract statements, they focus on the specific issues within surrounding conditions, aiming to create architecture that reflects and subtly shifts these realities.
For KOSMOS, less is more…in the sense that “the less we propose to do with our project, the happier we are with it.”
“To us, it is very important to see the project as something that is not possible now/today, but something that is possible in a year or two. It should be very real in these terms.”
Using their words, “Innovation [is] introduced by requirements, not by our subjective vision.”
To them “like life without humor,” architecture without life “doesn’t make sense”.
They are right, I guess.
Guest: Leonid Slonimskiy + Artem Kitaev (www)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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In our 32nd episode, we travel to Hamburg (Germany) and Tokyo (Japan) to meet Kawahara Tatsuya and a Ellen Kristina Krause, the minds behind Kawahara Krause Architects.
Kawahara Krause Architects explores the subtle ways architecture can bring people together without rigid boundaries. “We are living together, and this togetherness should be architecturally staged.” “If things are separated from each other there is still a way to think about how they direct to each other.”
For Kawahara and Krause, each project is an invitation to endless “ways of reading.” Spaces should offer “stimuli without defining too strictly”. “We wanted to show people how enjoyable architecture can be”
"The more experience you have, the richer your intuition gets” and their rich intuition makes them wonder “what really needs to be defined”, after all?
Guest: Kawahara Tatsuya + Ellen Kristina Krause (Tokyo, Japan + Hamburg, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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On our 31st stop, we are travelling east, direction Brussels (BE)…or rather, to “ouest” to meet Stephan Damsin and Jans Harens, the duo behind “ouest architecture.”
ouest architecture thrives in the spaces left unfinished and unsolved, " there is a room for unsolved things and for a bit of ambiguity”. In their vision, not every problem has to be be fully solved. “We are interested in ways to repair stuff without hiding that it has been repaired,” they explain, a philosophy that calls for embracing the imperfections rather than smoothing them away.
Their approach invites a rethinking of architecture’s role in urban life.
How far can one question the brief? Can we question it so much that the kitchen ends up to be left out of the program?
“What are the opening hours, what is the price of the coffee? All these things are so important for how the building works in the city.”
“How to make a building as a swiss knife?”, they ask. I do too.
What does adobe’s strategy on “progressive discloser” has to do with architecture? Maybe nothing.
“Color pencils and excel tables” are all you need to do architecture.
Guest: Stephan Damsin, Jan Harens (Brussels, Belgium)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Our 30th stop is in Berlin (Germany), somewhere between a reconverted building and the next building to be reconverted. In fact, that is were we find B+. In fiction, we might also find them beyond the building, in station.plus. Olaf Grawert will take us through that.
To warm up, Olaf identifies 2 big groups of architects: both aim for “values” and “speculation” but their understanding of these terms is fundamentally opposite.
Should our honoraries be measured out of a percentage of construction costs?
What if “there is more then just building as an answer”?
What if climate crisis are good news for the market? “In our current economic system, a natural disaster is a fantastic thing because the moment you have a natural disaster and things get destroyed, the market grows.”
Is there a correct answer? Are we just giving better wrong answers over and over? “We need to speculate. (…) “Everything that is new, unknown or experimental is not interesting to those who have to sell it”
Sometimes an observation can become a question, and then a movie, and then a publication, and the an exhibition and then a building, and then a law.
Or not.
If you are still thinking about the words “values” and “speculation”…you should listen to our conversation.
“Its pure fiction.”
Guest: Olaf Grawert, b+ (Berlin, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Our 29th stop is in Barcelona (Spain), Mexico City (Mexico) and Basel (Switzerland) alongside Pablo Garrido Arnaiz.
Parabase have a very keen eye for picking up things and putting them out of place. At least out of their initially proposed place...to be place in a new place though out by them. “Decontextualisation is something we can find: in almost all contemporary art piece, in most of he songs we listen to, in in writing but in architecture it is not that common.”
Decontextualisation adds layers of meaning to architecture.
Why can’t a sculpture be understood as a column?
Why can’t a roof rotate 90 degrees and play as a facade?
Maybe they can. “Architecture can be read in many ways, and it has a lot of meanings.”
Sometimes, decontextualised ideas come out of absolute casualty “or maybe there is a certain hidden reason of why we have made these decisions” and post-rationalised.
“The social economical system we live in…it is not circular, it is about generating and destroying, generating and destroying.” Meanwhile, they are designing a Housing project made out of, al least, 2 500 pieces dismantled out of a parking lot.
We observe the phenomenon of pavilions made under the aim of biennales/triennials/festivals. Is it the case that all these events are “creating a typology of architecture” as well as “creating a typology of architects”? We wonder.
Pablo says the following quote at the beginning of our conversation…but I feel like taking it of place and putting it as the final message of this episode’s brief:
“To do meaningful architecture and have fun (…) basically this is the ultimate motivation of our work.”
Guest: Pablo Garrido Arnaiz (Barcelona, Spain + Zurich, Switzerland + Mexico City, Mexico)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Our 28th stop is in Mexico (Mexico), without forgetting Normandy (France) alongside Ludwig Godefroy.
What do pyramids from the pre-hispanic period and bunkers by the northern french sea have to do with each other? How can both of these come under the same architectural practice? “I have started to understand that pyramids and bunkers are kind of similar, to me.”
“Humanity has been doing pyramids for 4-5 thousand years and no pyramid is looking the same as the other one. If humanity was able to do pyramids for such a long time, I can spend the rest of my life doing pyramids…this is like an endless inspiration.”
“This is interesting to me because when you look at something you cannot even copy anymore, you have to reinterpret it. And then it becomes something very personal.”
We talk about modernist and about how NOT (only) modernism some modernist architects were. “Its is also about what part of those architects we are using. I am not using Le Corbusier in the same way that I am using Louis Kahn.”
Ludwig looks up to “the monumentality “out of Louis Kahn, “the detailing” out of Carlo Scarpa, and the “very strange magic” out of Le Corbusier “like he was inventing a new kind of space…beyond words”.
He also looks up to the way of doing out of those who actually build architecture. “This is why my architecture looks a little bit rough. Because part of it is the accident.”
What des an Hotel in Puerto Escondido, a Water Reservoir in Istambul and Álvaro Siza’s Fundação Nadir Afonso have in common?
“In Mexico we don’t have rules, everything is possible. Which means the worst…but also the best.”
Guest: Ludwig Godefroy (Mexico, Mexico + Normandy, France )
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Our 27th stop is at Boltshauser Architekten (Munich, Germany) alongside Roger Boltshauser.
For Boltshauser, to have an order is a must have.
“I always look for order.”
But is order enough?
“If I have an order, I am happy but I am not happy enough, so I try to find ways out of this order.”
He even puts the words in the right order when he concludes: “Order maybe needs disorder”.
Maybe.
Maybe it’s not the case they are looking for a balance, but rather looking for a strong character “and strong characters are often not that balanced…but they are interesting”.
Every project is part of a bigger process. Which means that some issues from a particular project might find it’s answer in an project yet to come. Sometimes “we have already built the answer but we still can’t explain it in a racional way. The brain is not ready o understand but you still think it should be the way to go”.
The strange thing comes when you have to build it…you did something…and now you have to build it even tho you are aware that some questions remain unanswered.
“Sometimes the brain is not there yet”.
I think this is a nice way to put it.
Guest: Roger Boltshauser (Munich, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
Sponsor: Duo-Thermo
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Our 26th stop is at Enric Mirrales Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT (Barcelona, SP) alongside Benedetta Tagliabue.
Sometimes, EMBT are attracted by something very simple. Therefore, they allow themselves to be a little bit like a child just to permite these ideas to emerge. “Maintaining the lightness of the first idea is a very very tough work”. And that is exactly what they work for “Projects, specially if they have a very long time or have many people involved, they have a tendency of getting diluted.”
“Enrique used to consider projects as alive beings, as a child. (…) So, in a way, projects need this attention as if they are people, they need to be looked after, they need to be helped in the difficult moments of their growing.”
Did you know that some projects are selfish, a good kind of selfish?
Did you know that some big roofs were supped to be even bigger then ended up being?
Did you know that some projects are “nearly finished” and “have been nearly finished for 5 years”?
“You need a lot of strength to maintain things into its pureness and beauty.”
Guest: Benedetta Tagliabue - EMBT (Barcelona, Spain)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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On episode 25 we think architecture alongside SO-IL, in the voice of Summer Liu.
SO-IL are constantly pushing the boundaries...literally the physical boundaries...with them we learn boundaries are not just made by walls or windows. Just when you think they've reached the limit, their next project pushes it even further. They have the right amount of madness to pursue things outside of architecture until that one moment they surrender and become into architecture form.
“Once you have an intuition, its about working with the real world knowledge and then learn from the people that will eventually make the thing.” When you do so, you can find a way to make metal mesh rings relevant for architecture, against all odds (for it’s weight, for it’s scale, for it’s production…). “It’s like Avatars, they just touch each other and then see what happens there. You have to find a bridge that equalizes the two pieces of information.”
“There is physicality to the abstract questions we ask.”…and it shows in every project.
Guest: Summer Liu - SO-IL (New York, USA )
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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