Let's begin.
Well, thank you for coming.
Today, we'll finish this
lunch talks, this term.
For me, it's an
important day because it
is a whole academic
year we've been dealing
with a topic, the
design techniques
of the architects,
that is composing
a monograph for A plus B.
We have used this
[INAUDIBLE] that we
have celebrated in fall and
spring on design techniques.
We have used these lunch
talks that many of you
have come regularly.
And also, like the
commissioner lectures at Piper,
like Lacaton and
Vassal the other day,
to bring designers
to this school,
many of them teaching around
here that are innovative,
that are producing something
that is considered unique.
And that, in our opinion,
with the committee that
is supporting all these things
with me, in our opinions,
are showing new directions
that will be successful
sooner or later.
I guess we'll read the
names of all the past
have been involved.
Sharon Johnston and
Mark Lee; Jeannette Kuo,
who will be teaching
next year in this school.
Sharon and Mark are teaching.
Philippe Rahm that was teaching
in fall will come back.
Camilo Restrepo
that was teaching in
fall and will come back.
Neil Leach and
Carles Muro that were
the critics of the first
design technique symposium.
Enrique Walker that
was the introductor
of the second design
techniques symposium.
Momoyo Kaijima, from Atelier
Bow-Wow; Tom Emerson, from 6a;
Kersten Geers, from
Office; Florian Idenburg,
who is teaching here.
Tom is teaching in Zurich.
Kersten is teaching here and
will be coming back also.
Momoyo will be
teaching next spring.
Silvia Benedito, who is,
also, today responding
Victor and Maria.
And Antoine Picon, responding
the second symposium.
And independently, we
have Cristina Diaz Moreno
and Efren Garcia Grinda.
We had Nerea Calvillo
in this room.
We had Mason White
and Lola Sheppard
from Lateral Office in Canada.
They will be teaching in
this school next fall.
We have Anne Lacaton and
Jean-Philippe Vassal,
and Inaki Abalos [INAUDIBLE].
And we have, today, Maria
Langarita and Victor Navarro.
Victor is teaching.
Maria is pregnant
and is coming just
to say hello and present
this 20, 30 minutes talk.
And then both of them
were born in Spain.
Studied in different schools
in Pamplona and in Madrid.
And they teach in
the school of Madrid
and now will be turning
[INAUDIBLE] School of Design
here at Harvard.
They are really young, and
they have won a lot of very
important European awards, like
the Mies van der Rohe Special
Mention for
younger-than-40-years-old
architects.
And very recently,
they have been
involved in a couple of the
annals of architecture in Spain
and in the Spanish Pavilion
of the Biennale in Venice
this year.
And they have won
many other awards
that I'm not going to list.
They have won these awards,
been able to construct
a career that is based in
incredible skills for design.
And you will notice
it very soon.
And a lot of imagination
and clarity of ideas.
The respondents will
be Marcos Garcia Rojo
that is co-teaching with
us here in the first row
and his position with Anne
Lacaton, the optional studio
this spring.
He's a kind of
freelance architect.
But he is a freelance
that has been
involved in Lacaton and Vassal
I don't know how many years.
So I wouldn't call
him freelance--
a close collaborator and
sometimes a freelance.
He's dealing with a
five-star hotel in Dakar.
That was the last thing
that Lacaton and Vassal
presented the other day.
And he has worked
in Paris and he
has collaborated also with
other offices like Jean Nouvel.
Also, studied in Madrid.
And Silvia, she didn't
study in Madrid.
Thank God.
I studied in Portugal.
Very close.
But she has an office
based Germany, [SPANISH],
and she obviously is
an assistant professor
in this school, and she's the
co-chair of the sensory media
platform in this school.
For five, six years, she was
involved in the best years
of [INAUDIBLE] field operation.
And so she's in between
architectural landscape
and sensory media, whatever.
Atmospheres, let's say.
But this is the
panel, and that's it.
Let's begin.
Thank you.
Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]
Can we turn it off?
Thank you very much.
Hi.
Hello.
Hola.
Thank you, Inaki for inviting
us and for introducing us.
Thank you everybody for
being here during this time.
I will make a short
presume of how
are we going to develop
this lecture today.
We are going to start
without a statement.
For us, describing is
the same as design.
To describe is to design.
We will share with
you a description
of the wall based on what we
have developed some design
techniques.
And then we will show how these
design techniques performed
for our projects.
[INAUDIBLE] architecture.
It doesn't mean that there's the
only design techniques involved
for those designs, but the
whole thing will be enough
because we don't
have that much time,
and it helps to
make it more clear.
So as I said, for us, to
describe is to design.
Productivity can be
defined as the search
for new possibilities
of given reality.
And every description
of the wall
opens up a precise
order of possibilities.
This order will support a
set of intervention agendas.
These agendas become projects,
and in turn, these projects
will turn out our world view.
OK.
For us, architecture
deals with life,
but it deals with life by
managing the physical part
of the environment,
and by studying
the ways of how this
modularity performs and exists,
we have come up
with this visual.
Architecture can be categorized
in relation to its consistency.
We bring this bust
and pelt concept
that is a way to categorize
the material part of the wall
in order to teach
consistency, and we
have translated into-- we call
it [SPANISH] when we have just
limited to bust and pelt.
I don't know if pelt is the
right word because [SPANISH]
is a very precise word.
It's, for example, this is a
skin, and this is [SPANISH].
We will say that the pelt is the
skin seeking for independence.
So the bust, [SPANISH], it
is the part which is hard.
It's inorganic.
It is [INAUDIBLE] time.
It's low erosion.
It normally is
mineral, [INAUDIBLE].
And it's, as the formation
implies, very expensive means.
It's very difficult
to transform.
It's not impossible,
but it's not easy.
And architectural
archives, cultural archives
have learned how to talk
about it, write about it,
and how to take
care of the bust.
The bust doesn't need
a life to survive.
It can be preserved without
living people or living things.
On the other hand, the pelt,
or the [SPANISH], is organic.
It's soft.
It turns rotten and vicious.
It decompose easily.
It doesn't need special
training to intervene over it.
It just [INAUDIBLE].
The pelt has a difficult way
because of how it came to us.
It doesn't know to
start by itself.
It needs action of the
living and its affection
to get visible,
and generally, it
doesn't notice this, the
pass of time, [INAUDIBLE].
I would like around
here these two images.
They are from the
same street in Madrid.
The one on the left is
a [INAUDIBLE] street.
It's just a street in Madrid.
It's a picture from the '30s.
And on the right, we
have the same street.
It's just a recent picture.
But we can see that the
pelt, the [SPANISH],
is the one piece missing.
We have not preserved it
because of its passivity,
but also because
we as a society,
we don't have-- because
heritage regulation
doesn't protect them.
But we think that the
pelt, along with the bust,
they open an amazing world of
possibilities for [INAUDIBLE]
the city on architecture.
And both of them
[INAUDIBLE] start
of the physical
part of the wall,
and this society forms part
of the architectural period
of work.
Now Victor's going to talk
about these four projects
that deal with the system.
For us, we want a
lot of the system
is what we like the
best in the office.
It's not a nostalgic approach.
It's not only as a
result of a crisis,
economic crisis,
situation, or context.
It's because as we like
describing as the [INAUDIBLE].
60 million is open.
It start with a description.
They are like a party
that has already started,
and it's full of [INAUDIBLE].
And if you look carefully,
on existing buildings,
you might find something.
So that's why we-- because we
design on a conversation basis,
and describing, and
convincing of [INAUDIBLE].
That's why we really love
working within systems.
So now, we are going to show
you four strategies around first
a pelt, and we'll talk later.
So, well, the first
one is taxidermy.
Taxidermy, obviously
it deals with the pelt.
It's when there is no
bones, and no meat,
and then only you have
the skin, and then
you have to transform
it to something.
So you need a structure.
You work, in this case,
with wires and nails.
So that's what we made in this.
This is our first design
technique, taxidermy.
We made a contest in Mexico DF.
It's a pavilion artivo.
It's really close to
the [INAUDIBLE] House.
Do we have a pointer?
No?
She's the pointer.
She is the pointer.
So this is the
[INAUDIBLE] House.
He had the office
really close, and this
was a pavilion for
a summer pavilion
in the center of the
garden, an amazing place.
It was full of lianas trees,
which surround vegetation,
that you were expecting to
pass right into the place.
And we thought that
all this was pelt,
and all this was material
we needed to use.
So we just added
like a simple thing.
We decided to use all the
damage, all the vegetation as,
a cover to create this field
of operations, for example.
And we just created
this ring using
the structure of the
walls, existing walls,
big walls hard enough
to support this ring.
And then with a
metallic mass, we
created this vegetation room.
It was a simple action to
create a place that people could
use in the worst hours
of the day with the sun
and also at night,
just as a ceiling.
We thought that
this really could
be just a way of equip the
side with some electricity,
lighting, and
water, just what was
needed for these
kind of activities
that were going to take place.
And as simple as this,
we imagine this kind
of action working like that.
Second one is quite different,
but it works, again,
with the same idea--
Street Fighter.
Street Fighter is a
video game, but it's also
a design technique.
It's the bust and the pelt
has their own properties.
They have their own
superpowers, and you
can visualize
pretty easy how they
can deal in a kind of bottle.
So we decided to use this kind
of superpowers in competition,
and we used this street
fighter as the model
of the competition.
Street fighter, La
Serreria versus La Cosa.
That means the Serreria is
like the sawmill and La Cosa
is like, I don't
know, the thing.
Yeah, thing.
What has a thing?
The thing has all the elements
that were needed to transform
this existing building into a
20th century first building--
all the facilities,
technical installation--
Regulations.
--regulations.
That's it.
And the Serreria was
something that was given.
Serreria was place
and its place here.
This is in [INAUDIBLE].
This is [INAUDIBLE] Reina
Sofia, old museum of Madrid.
This is the [INAUDIBLE],
I'm sure you know.
We were really close.
These two was the last
industrial buildings
that were alive, still alive,
in this area of Madrid.
And we found that the
superpowers of the existing
was this kind of
computer structure, one
of the first made in the
20th century in Madrid,
industrial, made with
concrete part of [INAUDIBLE]
and protected by the heritage.
And this is how we found it.
So it was not too much
different between the existing
and the found.
Just the windows
were quite broken,
and that was starting to
take out from the bones.
But we thought that
instead of working
with an orthostatic view,
or kind of a surgery,
like adding botox
or silicone, we
decided to think that
the the Cosa could
be like an onion that
could just be introduced
into this building.
And with some clear elements,
develop an instrument,
a sampler.
This is what we think is the
most interesting part of La
Cosa is that it allows,
because of its materials,
because of its kind
of performance,
to make different
kinds of action,
and the people who is
there can easily transform,
can easily remove, can
easily activate it.
Pastor.
Yeah, pastor.
Sorry.
Pastor.
La Cosa, inside the
existing building.
La Cosa, it has an outside
part and an inside part.
So the pink parts
are made on textile
and the yellow parts
are made on plywood.
Also, materials in the pelt.
It's against the structure of
the completed structure that
pokes into the ground.
This is hanging.
It works like a puppet.
It's made of textiles.
Everything's made of
textiles, and we're going
to show you two minutes video.
It doesn't take too long.
To show you how, this
is a performance place.
It's a media, so I guess you
know what is a media log.
You have the original
one here, close to here.
And this is [INAUDIBLE]
that deals also
with this idea of how this pelt
can be transformed and used.
There are several
properties of the pelt.
One is that-- and we have
assigned the mechanical things
and the electrical things,
this idea of the pelt
because those have the same
[INAUDIBLE] time as the pelt.
I mean, nowadays, the
mechanical things, they
last for maybe 20
years, and the plywood
is going to last 20 years also.
So it's like in a way,
they are on the same time.
Also, the pelt is used to
show some kind of properties
of the space.
It can be really
easily transformed.
They can open these walls.
They can add other parts.
They can remove things.
And as media love, it's made
with a lot of people who
act-- it acts in the process.
Obviously they are aware about
how things can be changed.
As you can see also,
the mechanical things
are made with textiles, so
they inflate, or whatever.
And it's not just because
we think it's important just
it's made of pelt,
but also because it
can allow people to visualize
how the energy is consumed
or not.
There is data.
Yes, I did.
And if not, it turns
light, flatten.
And yeah, light.
The pelt, flat.
And also, another
important thing was this,
the internal part of the Cosa
is that it can be programmed.
So artists can use
this LED system
that is inside to project their
own specific arts as the media
facade that we showed you at
the beginning of the video.
So all these components
create light.
The next design technique
is the time channels,
and this is a
really exciting tool
that we have used quite
oftentimes that we are going
to show you in this project.
Time tunnels means that it's
a technique, design technique,
made or used in films.
In order to have the
narrative of the films
transport people from
the present to the future
and the future to the present.
And in architecture, we
have our own time tunnels
on our buildings.
The heritage buildings can
be seen as the most efficient
tunnel machine that
man has ever made,
and that's why we
can, in some way,
now understand how
[INAUDIBLE] people
were living because even
if the paint is pelt,
the bust can bring
them to the future.
So we took this idea
and we thought-- well,
this is a water
tank in Matadero.
Matadero is a cultural
complex that is here.
We were around here
the first time.
Now we are on the
south of Madrid.
And it was close to
this [INAUDIBLE].
It was like part of an
empty place with-- yeah.
And this was going
to be transformed
into a huge hub, transportation
hub, excavated transportation
hub.
So we decided to
think how we could
get the memory of this
place using the superpowers
of transformation.
So this place was where
the workers of the Matadero
used to have their
orchards, their plants.
So their [INAUDIBLE],
their figs,
these things that they were
eating in between their works.
So we took all
these plants and we
decided to create like a
Noah's Ark of Matadero.
So all the plants
that were outside
were moved, not because the
plants were not important.
It was important
the-- not exactly
plants, but some
just the species.
And we moved them to the
interior of the water tank
in order to let them
be alive so we could
keep the memory of that place.
And we created like a
one minute wall garden.
So it takes just a
[INAUDIBLE] to see the place.
So at the and,
now it's beautiful
because it can work
as the DeLorean, no?
The architecture can be
scene as this superpower that
can bring things as the almanac
and change the future if you
are not careful.
And-- yeah.
And the last design
technique we are
going to share with you is this
fast forward rewind technique
is relating to the
defined state that
can both bust and pelt perform.
We all know what is
the speed of the bust
because we have the experience.
We know how slow it get erosion.
It gets transformed by
water, wind, or prices,
or political parties.
But the pelt has different--
it has an open feel for speed
up interventions.
This is in the same
complex, Matadero.
This is called [INAUDIBLE] 15.
The water tower's here.
And we were asked for
an emergency a very
satirical project.
the Red Bull Music
Academy is an event,
it's a cultural event,
designed by this company that
is about to gather 30
people together from all
the world every year
in a different city
of a different country
and allow them to share
their knowledge about music.
Between them, [INAUDIBLE]
people, relevant people,
of [INAUDIBLE] of the
place where they are.
In 2011, this event was going
to be held in Tokyo, but because
of this, everybody
knows this disaster,
the Fukushima disaster.
The company decided to
move the flood from Tokyo
to any other place.
This is a very
complex error that
normally takes, like, two years,
one year and a half to be set.
And in this case, we
only have five months
to find a different city, a
different country with a space
ready to be transformed into
the Red Bull Music Academy.
In this case, it was in
Spain, Madrid, the ones
who took the challenge.
They say, OK, we can
do it in five months.
And we have this space,
which is in Matadero.
And it was the only of
these warehouse in Matadero
where it hadn't
been intervened yet.
So it was empty.
Not really empty, it was
being used as a trash space.
It was like a mess.
But instead, we have some
[INAUDIBLE] that was given.
We have this existing building
that has own properties.
The existing building has
this [INAUDIBLE] properties
where we have a wire proof
cover, really good ventilation
because this space was used
to keep pigs before they
go into the Matadero.
Matadero is a slaughter
house [INAUDIBLE].
But [INAUDIBLE], we didn't
think there was pigs
before it become pork.
We have time as we told.
We didn't have a
super big budget.
There was a 5,000
square meter space,
and we have no money, no
time, to, for example,
give a standard climate
control for everything.
We knew before even knowing
the functional program
that we should go for
small pieces independently.
So we cannot let these ideas,
statement for the project,
and we want this very small
competition with these three
[INAUDIBLE] because Red Bull
Music Academy wasn't going
to be a little bit [INAUDIBLE],
but it was going to be a city.
This allowed us to try
again this bust and pelt
research, but also a city
as a metaphor, a [INAUDIBLE]
and multilayered strategy of
design, which is [INAUDIBLE]
ask to have some parts
completely designed.
At the same time,
with other parts
are just from description.
So it was going to
be a city, but it
was going to be a pelt city
because at the Matadero
complex, which is this, it is
surrounded by the wall that
keeps all the vestibule,
the vestibule wall,
or the greenery, outside.
So the inside was going
to be a green city.
Not only green
city, it was going
to be a paradise
city, musical area.
And this is the final look of
the wall system and the city.
[INAUDIBLE]
I'll go very fast.
The wall has three different
[INAUDIBLE] system,
one for small
spaces, social spaces
of this really specific
recording studio [INAUDIBLE].
Other [INAUDIBLE]
systems were designed
and were brought to
the place because
of many strategic situations.
For example, we needed
to isolate acoustically
those small spaces for musicians
to research and to practice,
but if we didn't have the money
to make the space sophistocated
walls between them.
So we decided to split
it up around the place
because the only thing we have
enough of, more than enough,
was space.
We were using the
air between the boxes
to increase isolation.
At the same time, we
elevate it from the ground
so we can have-- because we
have more space than we need.
And because of the
crisis, we do have
a lot of people working
at the same time.
So we elevate it
from the ground.
So we couldn't have
people working below,
over, inside, and
outside every one
of the units at the same time.
So we avoided to
have foundations.
[INAUDIBLE]?
Yes.
Foundations are super fast.
Super fast.
Foundations are fast.
And I didn't say that we had
like three weeks for designing
and nine weeks for
construction, and we did it.
This is the inside of
one of the houses now.
They have it covered the
complete [INAUDIBLE] space.
In this case, isolation
wasn't that important
because where something
was happening here,
everybody was here.
There was nobody
working by himself
where somebody from the--
Motown.
Motown was talking
about his experience.
In this case, what was necessary
was to have acoustic comfort,
and what we needed was a
lot of absorptive surface.
So the project was
designed very super fast,
and we didn't get
the number of the
how much amount of surface
we needed until the end,
so we came up with this
idea of to spend it sitting
[INAUDIBLE].
And then we were increasing
the surface of the [INAUDIBLE].
This is the interior.
The only thing we have
planning on this four
weeks of construction time,
and [INAUDIBLE] in August
was kind of before shadows.
This is the first private space.
This one was super
specific because here,
acoustic isolation needed to
be extremely precise, extremely
good, mainly because the
most part of the visit
that, as we go here,
is electronic music,
and [INAUDIBLE] low
frequency sounds
because with high
frequency sounds,
it easily to cut with
a multilayer wall.
But for the way it sounds, you
need massive, massive elements.
Normally, those kind of
studios are made on concrete,
but we couldn't use the
concrete because, as I said,
this project needed
to be removed.
It's a temporary project
that is going to be removed
anytime in the future, or--
[INAUDIBLE]
This is the fastforward--
[INAUDIBLE] rewind.
Rewind.
So we came with
this idea of sun box
to create this wall, the
massive wall of sound.
This is the last element,
which is the garden that
creates these currents
needed for the project,
for this [INAUDIBLE],
for this community
productive space for
creating, for creative people.
But in this case, we have to
use the rewind perfectly again
because as it's
going to be removed,
as the same as the
orthostatic elements,
we wanted to give these
trees a second life,
so we plant it in
big pots, and then
we place it in the
shape of a heel,
currently with some
mud, and some salt.
[INAUDIBLE] this landscape
that we [INAUDIBLE].
This is a picture of the day of
the beginning of the planting.
So all the plants can be
removed after it's use
as if they were
in a [INAUDIBLE].
And this is an image of how
it is now, the same space,
because bureaucratic agreements
between the trademark
and to the [INAUDIBLE].
That's not been
occupied by humans now,
but it is still growing, and
it is still a musical space
because it's full of
animals, birds and mice.
It's becoming more
pelt, more [INAUDIBLE].
More pelt.
Because one of the
properties of the pelt,
the pelt keep on going,
can't keep on going.
And that's it.
Thank you very much.
[APPLAUSE]
Thank you.
[INAUDIBLE]
And then you may respond, and
then we open to the public.
[CHATTER]
OK.
So thanks, Maria, for sharing.
We'll try to be as
precise as you have been.
So I just want to hear--
well, first of all,
I'm going to start by the end.
I'm going to ask you
my question and then
try to elaborate with why I'm
asking the question so you
can think about the answer.
Sorry, I forgot.
I didn't see him.
He's the student that was going
to participate, [INAUDIBLE].
Good.
I was going to ask
you, picking up
on what Inaki said
about innovation.
Do you have concepts of
being innovative, and also,
like [INAUDIBLE],
is it in your case
if you feel like you
have been innovative,
is it like a
reaction to anything,
or is it naturally happening?
That will be the question.
And the reason why I'm asking
that, it's because in the end,
would you, like when
you describe your design
techniques-- like street
fighter, time tunnel,
fast forward-- in the end, they
look-- I mean, you put the bust
and you put the
pelt, but I would
argue that the bust
is not in your work,
or it's a given condition.
In the end, innovation
comes by the preservation
of the pelty conditions.
A lot like Terry
Gilliam in Brazil,
where the pelt is with botox
with the surgery and so on,
but something which is
different, and is questioning
many assumptions in
traditional architecture,
traditional approach
to architecture as
to the obsolescence with the use
of history, technologies, ready
made techniques,
and I don't know
if that is actually
a position or that
is a reaction to
something that happens
to be a temporary protection.
And the other question
is do you have
a plan that is [INAUDIBLE]?
So I will just respond to the
last part, Maria [INAUDIBLE].
I mean, we have choose
just a few projects.
We have just choosed
these ones that
obviously shows this relation
between pelt and bust.
And we just-- we love
to work on the existing,
but we have made also
some works without,
I mean-- that have
not on the existing.
And we have also used
these kinds of techniques.
So we have created some of the
bust, some part of the bust,
and some part of the pelt.
But just to be on time
here, we have just
choose this work because
it was better, more clear.
And what about innovation?
Well, I would say, this is
like a very personal question,
but I would say that because
we cannot say we are not--
it is not for us to say, but
what I can share with you is
that we design in a
conversation basis.
We design, Victor and I,
with people in the studio,
in a very intimate,
comfortable situation,
but always by talking
and in [INAUDIBLE]
conversation attitude that
implies to the need of flatter,
to convince, to conquer, to
delight, to amuse the other,
to impress the other.
So many of the
revisions of conclusions
that we might end up in
[INAUDIBLE] for the seeking of
impress the partner.
So on this kind of close
[INAUDIBLE] situation,
maybe some kind of
innovation can appear.
But it's just [INAUDIBLE].
Also, what's interesting
about describing
is that it brings a description.
I mean, a description is in
a certain way transportation
of value.
So you describe something
in a specific way
and it turns into
something different.
That's what we say.
And by making that,
you're in a certain way
making an innovation.
I don't know if it's, like,
important innovation, but sets
up [INAUDIBLE], it creates
like this kind of fluctuation.
Yeah.
And we are very influenced
by this [INAUDIBLE] statement
that innovation is to--
the new is to change
the value of existing.
And you can change it just by
describing, so something by it.
I will start with the
beginning, with your beginning.
Sorry if you can't [INAUDIBLE].
When you said to describe is to
design, I find it fascinating.
And congratulations.
The presentation is fun.
It's fresh.
It's great.
But in this sense of
description, which is something
that I find it very
appealing because to describe
is also to narrate.
It's about storytelling.
It's about even
other disciplines
of other fields, the way that
they describe space and the way
that it's describing
experiences.
So basically, you were
describing experiences.
I'm still not convinced that
you were describing techniques,
and I think that's
when my challenge
or also to understand a
little bit your position,
there's clearly a
resistance to embrace
the architectural language.
Like, OK, what is
bust and what is pelt?
And I know that your design
is very, very strong,
but if we kind of minimize
the use of metaphors--
the bust, the pelt, the
time tunnels, the street
fighter, what we going to have
to describe real architecture
and real design techniques?
And maybe your innovation is
not about using these terms.
Maybe your innovation
goes really
into the questioning
of the type.
What type of types are
you creating that are new?
And it's something that
probably you might ask,
you might think
about or respond,
is the type that
is a new type that
is promoted through material
research, technical research,
spatial research,
so on and so forth.
So maybe that's a
kind of a question.
The second question
is about storytelling.
When you present your project to
a client, are you telling them,
listen, I'm going to design
the pelt of this thing.
Do you talk on these
terms to the client,
or is that just an
academic conversation,
and to write about it, and
all this intellectual rhetoric
that we do about architecture?
We use a lot of metaphors,
if you want to call them
metaphors, but I don't
think our metaphor--
part of the design process, we
cannot separate the thinking
from the action as if they were
[INAUDIBLE] that it's here,
and then blah blah blah,
and then after that
it's [INAUDIBLE].
We combine, and we believe
in it, and as we said,
street fighter was the motto
of the contest, and we said,
[INAUDIBLE] La Cosa.
We won with that.
And I guess that
they-- I don't know.
I mean, maybe we were
lucky with the jury,
but I think they really believed
that keeping the existence
as it was, and using this pelt.
And at that time, we
didn't call it pelt
because we didn't have notice.
So this is something that
as in a conversation,
suddenly you realize that
some kind of things appears,
and some kind of things,
they can have name.
And once you're
able to name them,
suddenly it gets like
the-- yesterday we
were talking about
this, the [INAUDIBLE].
The Millennium Falcon.
The Millennium Falcon.
Suddenly you turn off the
bottom and then, shoo,
it goes really
fast because you're
able to share with a lot
of people that things
not only between us, but with
the people of the office,
with a client, with you--
And with the construction
process, which
for us is super important.
In order to reach some of
the results of our design
is not only about
how it's designed.
We also have to design the
process of the construction.
And for example,
as you said, it's
not only an academic role then
move to an real architecture
what you call.
But this is real architecture.
It doesn't mean that we
don't take care of materials,
or constructive details.
We know how to do it very well.
We have it inside
of us, but we share
and we research is the other
part, how to think about it.
For example, La Cosa versus
Serreria, the versus,
wasn't only part of the contest
where the jury were architects.
That was only part the
construction process.
And we were in the
construction moment.
Where is the [INAUDIBLE]?
I can't find.
He's in the Cosa.
And we were working
with everybody
because we understand
architecture is not only made
by architects, but
what architects
make beside the design is
also the diplomatic force
of architecture.
And we design not
only the objects,
but we design the
vocabularies going to be used
and the space where architecture
is going to be discussed.
For example, for us
it's very imporant,
the drawings, how
we draw, it's not
only because we had fun drawing.
It's because overall
drawing, overall big draw,
is where all the discussions
in our construction moment
are held.
We design the space where this
discussion is going to be held,
and this is very
important for us.
It's a superpower
that architects have.
It's the same as the
diplomatic [INAUDIBLE] where
they can turn down the air
condition and making it really
freezing to speed up a solution.
We do the same, but
with vocabulary.
So metaphors, share metaphors,
cultural share, and we draw.
Yeah.
And for us, what is
really interesting is
that the affection are the
ones who can keep the pelt--
And the bust.
--and the bust moving.
So you have to give
reasons to the people
and to provide reasons to
allow this bust and the belt,
these materials, to be kept.
[INAUDIBLE]
[INAUDIBLE] get the energies.
Right, but it seems like
the fundamental issue here
is about evocation, and
it's about the imagination
that these words carry.
So you're kind of
on a certain way
using also your vocabulary
the way that you draw,
the way that you talk,
is really allowing people
to embrace your storytelling
through imagination.
Maybe it's not super
direct and super didactive.
It's about this
collaborative imagination.
Because we need to
[INAUDIBLE] affections
in order to keep the energy that
has been invested, because we
think this is sustainability.
I actually find one of your
points really fascinating
because I think
it's radical, just
simply saying creativity
is a set of possibility
under a given reality.
But then the question
that immediately
strikes me is-- because
most of your project,
it seems to be a respond, an
intervention, of an existing.
But then what is your attitude
towards tabula rasa, then?
Because historically,
architects always
like to use that as [INAUDIBLE]
to generate new inventions.
But then do you think there
is still some value in that,
or do you think it's
just pure fiction?
There's no tabula rasa possible.
It's impossible.
It's just a way of
describing the world.
Tabula rasa is a
way of describing
the world when it doesn't
include some part of it.
You cannot include all elements,
all the cultural archives,
included in one moment.
We learn to simpliy is
how we perceive the world.
But we are not
against tabula rasa.
We think it's not possible.
It's always something there.
There's never a white paper.
It's never in the place.
I know that in modern
competitions very recently,
and then the [INAUDIBLE],
what about the tabula rasa?
Have you maintained the project?
Or have you changed it?
We haven't signed
the new contract.
[LAUGHTER]
[INAUDIBLE] a metaphor for that.
Yeah.
So we don't have the new site.
But we have--
[INAUDIBLE]
We know you're
going to have one.
We hope you're going to.
You guys are good.
But we have worked several times
in a what we call empty block,
and we have done
it several times.
And we have used the
same approach sometimes.
I mean, for example,
in Paso Doble,
we thought that we
could have like a bust.
It means that we
could have a part
of the house that
was already built,
like kind of modern house.
I mean, we are not trying
to be innovative always.
We use some kind of--
and then suddenly, we
added double as another part
that it was made on wood,
and it would be
made by the people.
It wasn't finished.
It wasn't finished.
So the people that lived
there could transform it.
And we have made
[INAUDIBLE] restaurants
where those kind of things were
also involved in terms of time.
The people who was going
to spend-- because it
was like an [INAUDIBLE]
of weddings and roadside
restaurants, so it
was exciting also
how to deal with the [INAUDIBLE]
coffee and 24 hours party.
And those things were involved.
But we think, I don't know,
in terms of a strategy,
more in control of this process.
I think that we have
to open to the public.
Inaki.
I just want to say that I think
the spirit that we have seen
here, Grace, Inaki to the rear,
Marco, and a lot of people that
are dealing with materials that
are natural uses as materials
[INAUDIBLE], as well.
Actually, two questions.
First of all, is it necessary?
I'm sorry.
OK.
So first one is about tools.
I completely agree that tools
define in many ways research
and result.
But when I go into this street
fighter tool particular,
I find that the result
is really about these two
apparently opposites,
but it's really more
about dancing than fighting.
You could say it's beauty
and the beast dancing
rather than fighting.
So how much of the
process within the two
are you interested in to
describe what you're actually
looking at the operation?
So it's not about so
much a state of affairs,
but more about the
relation that it creates
through how you look at it.
And the second question is about
this architecture as diplomacy,
or as a diplomatic tool,
whatever you want to say.
How specific it is
to the Madrid or even
the Spanish environment, and
how much it could be migrated
into something-- into
a different condition
that you guys are
not so familiar with,
because it seems like it
would be something very, very
local in terms of
your own experience
and what is expected
from an architect,
but I'm curious if
you have ever thought
or if you had an experience of
bringing it to another place?
You want I answer the first one?
[INAUDIBLE]
In this case, for example,
we didn't change our way.
In the contest of [INAUDIBLE]
is a contest we won in Peru.
We decided to keep this idea
of how this building could
be used now in a specific
term that was the [INAUDIBLE].
This is a convention
of [INAUDIBLE].
But then also, how it could
be transformed and evolve
with the pelt in a certain way.
And I don't know if--
they understood clearly
what were our goals
in this project,
and they decided
it was not better
to have this one, the
other ones, that were more
[INAUDIBLE] in a certain way.
So I guess it's something that
we share, and I don't know how.
It's hard to say what we do is
able to be under some outgrowth
because we haven't built
anything [INAUDIBLE].
But that works, I guess, well.
[INAUDIBLE]
On the first one, if the street
fighter is defined as a game,
it's objective is to
kill the person that
is not ready to fight, to be
in the moment, to be dancing.
All the time we have used
the metaphor for the Serreria
and La Cosa as in you have
throwing a party in your house
and you invited this neighbor
who is like 70 years old
and you like him.
He's nice.
And [INAUDIBLE] one corner.
And then you say,
are you [INAUDIBLE]
that feeling old and
pity of the self?
I just introduce him to some
pretty boy or girl, whatever,
and make a conversation
start a new thing
happen between the two.
It's just not one or
the other, it's the two.
It's the same technique.
For us, we designed the
material of the architecture
in a certain way, but what
Media Lab is the in between.
I mean, Media Lab, the people
who is dealing with that,
it's between the Cosa
and between the Serreria,
and we cannot design that the
actions they are going to make,
how are they going to perform.
We allow the place [INAUDIBLE].
We create the [INAUDIBLE].
The room.
We set the room, and
then [INAUDIBLE].
One last question there please.
Well, thank you so much.
I really enjoyed all
of your presentation,
and I will read back to
the economic context.
I have seen in different
times different job architects
like you really embracing
economic crisis,
and my question
goes that for me,
what is very interesting is
that you have been challenged
by the traditional model
of design where economics,
where money was the
tool of control where
you embrace this challenge
of creativity by scarcity.
So my question is
if you see this
like an emerging trend,
like in a certain way,
it's kind of reshaping
the design processes
and at the same time
how it's to perform
like future schools
of design [INAUDIBLE],
or like an alternative
model of design?
I would say we could
make a historic narrative
of the presence of the bust
and the pelt architecture
since the beginning
of architecture.
This is not a new
situation, but what
happened on a crisis,
or description
of crisis situation, is that the
bust operations, over the bust,
is stuck in some way.
So it makes more visible
the operations of the pelt.
But it doesn't mean
that it wasn't pelt
before because it was
not visible as much,
but having the same
in the [INAUDIBLE]
in the 18th century [INAUDIBLE]
with the economic crisis
through the changing of the
coin to the bigger coin,
you have the same.
The basis over the bust
stopped because there was not
security about the
money, but I make
visible over the pelt,
[INAUDIBLE], for example.
It doesn't mean that it
wasn't pelt before or after.
It's just-- it's not visible.
I will finish there's
a new situation where
we're hiding out.
It's like thinking in terms of
furniture instead of buildings,
and I think that's a
bit of [INAUDIBLE].
But it hasn't always been there,
like furniture in the world.
When there is
money, architecture
tries to bustify and
to pass into stone.
For example, [INAUDIBLE].
And sometimes, the pelt get
independent because it's
more-- it's fast, it's
cheaper because well
what humans, and society,
and the world needs
is all the time changing
and doing things.
We cannot do it with a stone,
we will do it with some music.
But it's all the
time [INAUDIBLE].
So we now are describing
the world this way,
and we're acting in the
description that is--
Thank you very much, everyone.
Thank you [INAUDIBLE].
[APPLAUSE]
And thank you, [INAUDIBLE].
I've been meaning to give you--
[LAUGHTER]
