Arquitetura Entre Vistas ABROAD

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) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

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)Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.comInstagram @arquiteturaentrevistasFollow for more thoughts on architecture.

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) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

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 Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.