My point of view:
on Architecture and Travel

Interview Date: 02-02-2011

VIEW the entire interview on VIDEO!

What is the importance of architectural tourism?

One of the most important things is that when you are traveling, you are discovering new things and in any different place you can meet different cultures, different traditions and with these you can explore your knowledge. This is the most important; to discover new things and in the same time to make yourself more intelligent and know the world. To get more experience. That’s the most important.

In the same time, I would say that it attracts more people and it attracts more interesting people to these places. So, in the same time, it gives another life to the city. Maybe Bilbao for example in Spain, was not a city that people would travel to but now, after the Guggenheim, everybody goes there because of the architecture, because of the Bilbao Museum. So, I think with these nice architectural objects like amazing projects you can give another life to the city and for the people who live there is amazing.

What is the importance of Architectural events (like WAF that is holding us here) worldwide? What are the profits for a city holding this kind of events?

It’s an amazing moment, to meet different people and to share what we’ve done in a year, to meet other people, to meet other opinions and to discover other ways of how people are working, to be in touch directly and not just seeing a magazine or checking the website of other architects.

How would you characterize modern architecture nowadays?

Now, the architecture has to complete more things. Before, there were not so many regulations and not so many wishes of the client or the city. It’s a big challenge for the architect to make an interesting and nice object that will satisfy everybody; an architect by himself, the city, the visitors and whatever. Now it’s more complicated to be a good architect and to make a good project than before. In the same time, there are a lot of good projects and to make something always better is always more and more motive to go up, like with the Guinness Records. You have to jump over yourself and it’s quite complicated.

Is the world financial crisis an opportunity for everyone to reconsider the ways that we design and construct the buildings and the urban environment?

Yes and no. It always has a bad and a good side, that’s for sure. It’s an opportunity. In the same time, we lose opportunities because, maybe because of the crisis, the best projects are just on the table and they will never be realized. People will never see them, just because of the crisis. This is a bad part.

In recent years attention turns to green urban regeneration. Do you think that it is imperative for the city or it’s just a new fashion with economic outcomes and covertly interests?

Nowadays, it’s the key point of architecture because we have a lot of examples of this kind of architecture that was not really green and sustainable and suddenly they destroy the cities and people just don’t feel comfortable anymore in the cities. So we should really focus on this thing and to make our world better, more green and people will be happier. It’s very important.

Every project is amazing.  The most important for every person is to find the best part of every project. There’s no bad project. There’s no bad architecture, because, in any object you can find something really good; a detail, maybe a good material, maybe a good way of solving the projects that you have to solve. There’s no good or bad. They are all good; you just have to focus on the correct point of the project.

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