Iñaki Ábalos is a co-founder of the Madrid bureaus Abalos & Herreros (1984-2006) and Abalos + Sentkiewicz (since 2006). From 2013–2016, he directed the architecture department of the Harvard School of Design.
Archi.ru:
In your research activities and in a number of your projects - the Yiwu Art Islands in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, the San Antonio Parks in Medellin and Philip VI in Logroño - you have addressed the issue of urbanization. What is the relationship between urbanization and architecture?
Iñaki Abalos:
- Urbanization is a surprisingly complex phenomenon and a key challenge in the development of mankind throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Architecture is significant, but it has very limited impact on the process of urbanization, the transformation of the idea of the city and the use of public space. The social and political system has become more complex, a new attitude to time and scale has emerged, all this requires new approaches in architecture.
At the IV International Architecture Congress in Pamplona, you said that architects should switch from creating “iconic” forms to functionality. What is it?
- If we turn to the experience of the past two decades, we will find that architects have gradually moved from creating projects aimed at perpetuating their own name, from buildings-self-portraits, from a kind of narcissism in architecture, to creating "still lifes", to fitting projects into the environment, to functionality. In the projects of our workshop, we pay equal attention to the object and the environment, we combine organic and inorganic, natural and artificial, as a result we get something more complex, more usable.
In the book "Essays on Thermodynamics, Architecture and Beauty" we say that architects need to strive to achieve "sophisticated passiveness" (sophisticated passiveness) of buildings by building a certain ratio between their mass, volume, surface area, ventilation system and climatic characteristics. environments where they will be erected.
You design buildings of various profiles - museums (Museum of Contemporary Art in Zhuhai, Antoni Tapies Foundation in Barcelona), train stations (railway station in Logroño), shopping centers (in Zhuhai and Shanghai), office buildings (Lolita complex in Madrid) and etc. Do you have a favorite type of project?
- By and large, no. It surprises me that many architects avoid designing commercial buildings. This seems ridiculous to me. It doesn't matter what the purpose of the facility under construction is - a shopping center, a private house or a hospital. It is perfectly normal that someone wants to make money using our project. Architecture is both a business and a service delivery. During the construction and operation of the building, someone has to earn money - including architects, by the way. In my opinion, it's great if the customer is from the private sector, it usually has a positive effect on the fee.
You have been working with your partner in the architectural bureau, Renata Sentkevich, since 1999. What is the secret of your successful partnerships?
- Renata is the best designer I have met, and I must say I have met thousands of designers. She is pedantic, serious, passionate, shares my views on architecture and has a character that is different from mine. We complement each other. Daily discussions between us can be quite tough, but they are constructive, we immediately feel when one of us offers a worthwhile idea.
Renata was my student, she wrote a diploma under my supervision. We quickly realized that we speak the same language. After that, we worked together at Ábalos + Herreros, where the team began to divide into those who worked with me and Renata, and those who worked with Juan Herreros. Over time, we decided to open our own bureau, it was a logical step.
You grew up in San Sebastian, Renata in Krakow. How do your roots - the Basque Country, Spain and Poland - affect your collaboration?
- Our origin brings us closer, there are many similarities in it. Sometimes it seems to me that there is more in common between Spain and Poland than between Spain and France. Both countries have experienced the brunt of an authoritarian regime - in one case, Franco, in the other, communist. I do not see the difference between them, in both cases there was a kind of military dictatorship. In both countries - 40 million inhabitants and a strong influence of Catholicism. This does not mean that we are very religious, but we received a similar religious education. Finally, both countries have a culture of work, Basques and Poles are extremely hardworking.
– You have three offices in your office: in Madrid, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Shanghai. How different are your projects in different parts of the world?
- I know many architects who use oriental metaphors when working in Asia, highlighting the cultural differences between East and West. I have no desire to resort to such means. I perceive the position and perception of my clients in Asia, but I do not want to lie, I want to be honest, these metaphors are far from me. Our bureau remains true to itself in all contexts. We are convinced that it is necessary to behave systematically in developed and developing countries. The projects that we carry out in Europe and Asia follow the same principles.
What are these principles? What makes the work of all three offices recognizable as Ábalos + Sentkiewicz projects?
- In all three offices, projects are carried out under the guidance of partners - Renata Sentkevich and mine. Any project begins with a dialogue between us, the result of this communication goes to our studio, to our fellow experts, customers and all other interested parties. Our offices are quite hierarchical. Everyone has the opportunity to speak, but we are focused on getting a reaction to the original idea and its criticism, rather than putting forward new ideas. We listen to all our employees, but to varying degrees and not simultaneously, but consistently and methodically. We are always interested in improving our ideas and expanding the number of their supporters.
Another thing in common is that we have wonderful employees who share our passion for architecture. This is a privilege that we have received thanks to our connection with the world's leading universities (among them - the Higher Technical School of Architecture in Madrid, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Columbia, Cornell and Princeton universities - approx. EM). The atmosphere in the team is important for us. When we have new employees, we ask them to be natural and speak directly about their wishes and problems. We do not accept sad faces in the office, all employees should feel good. If someone is uncomfortable or lacks attention, this should be said. 99% of the problems are solvable.
I suppose you have an international team in your office. Tell us who works in your offices?
- Our offices are very small. In Cambridge we have only four employees, in Madrid - ten or twelve, several of them are from Latin America, the rest are Spanish. Our former students mainly work in Shanghai, those who trained in the Cambridge branch, they know our advantages and disadvantages. They are often graduates of Shanghai Tunzi University, one of the leading schools of architecture and engineering in China.
You teach, do research and design. What kind of activity do you consider to be paramount for yourself?
- Renata would answer this question differently, since she does not share one of my hobbies - writing texts. Renata is Polish, but, being in the second grade of school, she moved to Italy and then to Spain. Today she has lived in Spain more than in Poland, she already has more Spanish than me. But for presenting thoughts in an academic form, this is not enough. When a person begins life in a new language, as happened with Renata, he often does not feel the confidence necessary to write scientific texts.
I have always written and continue to do so. This is a brain exercise. I write about what I dream about, not about what I know, so my writing is experimental sketches, essays, not scientific articles. I test my ideas in the scientific field. It's cheaper than in practice (laughs). Students are always interested in working with something that is still unknown and unpredictable. After testing ideas in the educational process, I present them in the workshop, we include them in projects. It turns out that all three activities - research, teaching and practice - are intertwined.
What competitions do you usually participate in?
- We select architectural competitions that encourage an experimental approach, realistic competitions seem less important to us. We usually lose in architecture competitions, so we repeat ourselves, use the same ideas four or five times until we win one day.
New ideas rarely get accepted the first time
- True, but architects often have a special relationship with projects, where they first express a new idea. Although it is not at all necessary that the project will be the most advantageous the first time. When we make a second competition project with the same idea, we collect comments on the first draft and try to take them into account. We are fighting for our ideas, after all, there are not many of them. No architect can scatter ideas. If an architect has one or two ideas a year, this is a real luxury.
How did you come to lead the architecture department of the School of Design at Harvard? (Abalos was in charge of this department in 2013-2016 - approx. Archi.ru)
- I was invited by the dean of the School of Design Mohsen Mostafavi. We have been cooperating for many years. When Mohsen became the head of the London School of the Architectural Association, I was the first person he invited as a visiting professor. Later, Mohsen moved a lot, finally moved to the States - first to Cornell University, then to Harvard, where he headed the School of Design. Over time, I was invited there to head the department of architecture. For several years I had doubts, but when the economic crisis began in Spain, I had no choice but to move. There is simply no job in Spain to match the position at Harvard. I accepted this offer and am still very happy with my decision.
What is the similarity and what is the difference between traditions in the architectural education of Europe and America?
- The main similarity is talented students. This comes as no surprise to Harvard, which is arguably the best School of Design in the world. The Higher Technical School of Architecture in Madrid is state-owned, it is not as wealthy as other European architecture universities, for example, the Faculty of Architecture of the Federal Higher Technical School in Zurich, but its students are no less talented.
The main difference between university programs in architecture on the two continents is the different approaches to the program. Spain has a strong tradition of polytechnic education; in the United States, architecture teaching has a hybrid form with a strong emphasis on the arts. At Harvard, the influence of the German school of architecture is strong, which came from Chicago (obviously, this means the Illinois Institute of Technology, where in 1938-1958 the architectural department was headed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe - approx. Archi.ru), and actually from Germany, with German professors who moved to Harvard, fleeing the Nazis.
It was obvious to me that my duty was to strengthen the polytechnic component of the Harvard program. The lack of polytechnic training made the education of architects commonplace. And times, they change, as Bob Dylan would say. There was no more money to spend on banality. The students were receptive to my innovations, to some extent they were waiting for them. They now have more levels for materials analysis, building maintenance, and the social component of architecture.
How do you build communication with your students?
- I take into account the peculiarities of each stage of student life. The freshmen are still blind; working with sophomores you know more than your students, but the difference is not that great. We communicate with third-year students on equal terms.
How did you understand that you want to study architecture?
- Not right away. I wanted to be a writer. In the end, we become who we want. I didn't expect to be able to write so many books (laughs). Everyone in my family said that I was very good at drawing. It's true, drawing is probably what I do best. When I entered the university, I doubted the choice of a specialty. The family advised me to go to the Faculty of Architecture. I agreed, I thought that if this was not mine, then in a year I would change my direction. From the beginning of my studies to this day, I am in a state of love with my profession, drawing and designing space.
The profession of an architect is surprisingly exciting, but it is also terrible from an economic point of view, in terms of the return on investment and time spent. Only a person who passionately loves this profession can become an architect.
