While I was surffing Designboom website, I found this interesting interview of Winy Mass. He was founded the rotterdam-based architecture office MVRDV with other two dutch architects jacob van rijs and nathalie de vries. They are specialising in the fields of architecture, urbanism and landscape design, the firm has worked on a wide variety of projects.
I suppose the reason why they are attend as one of the significant contemporary architecture, urbanism practices, because MVRDV explores the built environment by conceptual means in order to provide solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues. They have considered architecture and urbanism as something holistic. By negotiating the relationship between individual projects and urban planning, they tackle the issue of the density of future cities without losing sight of local cultural demands.
I scraped some of the interesting parts from his interview. In particular, his experience should be some instructive advices for future landscape architects.
when you were a child, did you want to become an architect?
when I was a kid, I loved drawing.
then I think when I was 9, I made my first building in scouts.
it was like a ferris wheel where you can sit four people, like a luna park attraction.
it was made out of wooden sticks and knots. I am so proud to say that that was my first realization.
my second realization was on the next scouts far. it was a dark house that you would enter
where you could not feel the end. the issue was how to compose a wall that would move away
from you as it went around. and with plastic, we managed it. and funnily enough, we are now
working with the why factory on a movable wall on the 'barbapapa house'.
do you discuss your work with other architects and designers?
I think our work is so public already that that in itself is a matter of discussion. or the books that we
endlessly make are a method of communication; it's an open invitation. but yes, there are friends,
some close friends that I discuss work with. because every time you are vulnerable, you should be.
and we explicitize that vulnerability. that's something that happens in any design, any moment.
please describe an evolution in your work, from your first project to the present day.
if there is one office that clearly shows its evolution! the best way to answer your question is by saying
that putting together one book leads to the next one. because you discover, while writing a book,
maybe the maximization of one step simultaneously reveals the weaknesses or holes which have
to be filled in afterwards. that sequence is how I see evolution within our scope of work.
what project has given you the most satisfaction?
I cannot rate satisfaction over the years because that would scrutinize all the effort that have been put
into so many different projects. they are all part of a scope and this oeuvre is what I want to defend.
I always say to students, never put everything in your graduation project because you will lose yourself.
you can do one thing for one project, and the next project, you can do another. this step, doing one thing
after another, is what potentially leads to work on a wider scale, a wider agenda.
who would you like to design something for?
there are projects that we haven't made yet like hospitals or schools, which are social factors in itself.
there are not too many architects who are allowed to work on such projects. hospitals are done by
specialists and then architectural layers are added to it later. this deserves enormous attention.
but in the mean time, who would I like to design for... I am quite happy that I have been able to design
for friends or for people that are close that have specific desires but is still very open and eager and willing.
I like, in general, to work on this kind of intimate level. and then there area range of people that
I would love to work with. we'll see.
is there any contemporary architects you appreciate a lot?
there are a lot of people but obviously I admire and am strongly influenced by rem koolhaus,
who I think is currently one of the most important people that I have worked with and for.
I think some parts of our work, in a way, follows up the intellectual responses to some of his questions.
as rem koolhaas is based on mies van der rohe before him, he released secrets of approaches and of depth.
this is ultimately a process in itself.
any architects from the past?
there are many. they can range from thinkers to painters to filmmakers. it's the eclectic possibilities
of our current time... I see that, due to facebook and all kinds of apps, there are ranking systems that
are popping up. maybe because my age, I haven't gotten around to doing that... so I please again for
non-hierchy on this subject.
what advice would you give to the young?
there are two things that I hope that the next generation will do. and that is be fully curious,
and that they kill us immediately--by being critical, and provide reasons for that, as we have tried
for the generation before us. maybe every generation is inclined to do this. I hope that this can be done
in a deep manner, intelligently, and in an interesting way. when I look back, I used to love the intellectualism
of south american architecture and it challenged me at the time to respond. not in a similar way but almost
in a formal and spatial way. and that's what I think sets the status. getting older, of course, I hope that
that kind of level of thinking, or level of intellectual approach remains attractive for the next generation,
and that they will adopt them. I started this question by saying that you should kill your parents.
it's a high contradiction, (laughing) an usual and normal human contradiction that I am happy to face.
and I think that's why I am here today in venice, to work with the younger generation and see what comes out of it.
what are you afraid of regarding the future?
if there is one thing that I am not afraid of, that's the future. I'm interested in the future. I have to defend
myself even to my closest friends who say, why aren't you afraid of floods and global warming?
I just seethem as a part of an evolution, and we can work on that. technology can help us. I think that mankind
can do a lot about it and become adaptive to it. our whole future city project is about that.
and his interview video is here..
interveiw was taken from: http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/9/view/11866/mvrdv-winy-maas-interview.html
video was taken from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJmlZqZzQV8&feature=player_embedded
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