Francisco Mangado is the founder of the Mangado y Asociados bureau in Pamplona and the Architecture and Society educational foundation, which introduces a wide audience to the problems of modern architecture. Since the early 1980s, Mangado has been teaching, including at Harvard, Yale, the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne and other leading architecture universities in the world.
Archi.ru:
How do you think nature and architecture relate?
Francisco Mangado:
- Architecture is the act of creating something artificial in a natural environment. Architecture that pretends to be part of nature is alien to me: that's when mistakes arise. Greek temples were erected on top of a cliff on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, proclaiming human peace and helping to see the beauty of the landscape. This is an example of an honest, correct combination of natural and artificial.
The buildings you design are conceived as an inseparable part of the environment. For example, you call your tower in the Puerto Madero area of Buenos Aires the vertical extension of the boulevard where it appears. But why are buildings so often built that have nothing to do with context?
- One of the main mistakes of modern architecture is the focus on creating an isolated object, as if designing a building is like creating a sculpture. The building is connected with what is happening outside of it, so we must think about the relationship of the object with the external environment, about the inseparability of personal and public space.
I always tell my students - “Don't forget about urbanization” - and not so much about its physical manifestation (that is, not about asphalt and high-rise buildings), but about urbanization as a qualitative transformation of space. The building should be an instrument of urbanization, it should give the space around it the properties of an urban environment. That is, when we create a project, we have a chance to influence the processes that take place outside the building.
Even the most hierarchical and dry architectural trends are now worried about what is happening in the city as a whole. The reasoning that this or that object can be successfully moved to another environment, generally to any space, seems silly to me. There is a strong connection between the context and my goal of transforming the environment. If I am trying to transform the environment, I need to use the various tools and registers that exist in the environment of the future building.
- Your bureau has designed objects of various types – museums, exhibition pavilions, including the Spanish pavilion at the World Exhibition in Zaragoza in 2008, swimming pools, hotels, office buildings. What principles do you follow in your work?
- I try not to follow a certain "code". Depending on the material, the size of the site and the context, the architect selects the architectural forms he needs. Conceptual cohesion within each architectural project is much more important to me than following a constant set of principles.
In my office, any project starts with a contextual analysis. Context and reality are key resources for designing a space. An architect transforms reality, no matter how complex and rough it is, how acute various problems are in it - be it climate change, overpopulation, lack of natural or financial resources. Challenges are amazing opportunities for creating architectural designs.
Another important, obligatory stage is the definition of the fundamental idea of each project, its program. For example, when designing a pool, I ask myself: what is a pool? In my opinion, this is the part of the sea that is located in the building. What is a library? What is its main purpose? Storing books or providing a place to read? When designing a museum, what should be placed in it is paramount for me. Etc.
You have a lot of experience in creating projects in historic city centers - take, for example, the recently completed project of the Museum of Fine Arts of Asturias in Oviedo. How attentive should architects be to the historical layer of the urban fabric?
- History is extremely valuable. Studying history is a source of inspiration for an architect. Attention to the unchanging, fundamental elements of history allows us to find ways to solve the "classic" problems that architects continue to face to this day. I am extremely passionate about evolution and the structure of history. I am interested in changes at the level of ideas, not at the level of stylistics. History is important not for repeating images of the past, but for learning and development at the level of ideas.
In developing the project for Oviedo, I tried to understand the historical layers of this city and show respect for them. Only the facade remained of the historical structure that existed at the construction site, and its destruction would have destroyed the memory of the city. Therefore, when erecting a new building, I designed it in such a way that it would be inside the old facade, not touching, but interacting with it - like different historical periods.
Redevelopment of the Dali squares in Madrid and Pe-Berlan squares in Bordeaux was carried out according to your projects. Both there and there were bright dominants - the sculpture of Isaac Newton by Salvador Dali - in Spain and the cathedral - in France. How did you work with these projects?
- We, indeed, extremely carefully and attentively treated the existing accents - the cathedral and town hall in Bordeaux and the sculptural composition in Madrid. However, a more important similarity of these projects was the centuries-old history of the existence of these public spaces, which accumulated a mass of historical events and processes that unfolded within their boundaries. The purpose of the redevelopment of both squares was to return these public spaces to the townspeople, since at the time we began our work they were mainly used by motorists. For example, the area where Dali Square is now located was originally an important part of the center of Madrid, but after the Spanish Civil War, this space was lost to the townspeople. The decision to remedy this situation was made quite recently, and this initiative did not come from architects or residents of Madrid, but from the municipal council. That is, the redevelopment of these two squares was a way of re-imparting meaning to the public space, which for centuries has been key in the history of both cities. When designing, we tried to emphasize the symbolic and functional significance of each area.
What do you want to experiment with?
- Probably, among the Spanish architects, I experimented the most - especially with materials. I am close to the world of material manufacturers and I learn something new every day. At the same time, it seems to me that I did not even start experimenting. In terms of the functional type of the new project, I would like to design a church.
What material was the most difficult to use in your practice?
- Foam aluminum, which I found in Canada. It is commonly used in the manufacture of hulls for cars, trucks and tanks. I decided to apply it for the Palma de Mallorca Palace of Congresses. The main difficulty was that we did not know how aluminum would behave near the sea. Foam aluminum was recently used by Rem Koolhaas at the Prada Foundation complex in Milan, but I discovered this material for architecture. I like to use materials that have become widespread in other areas, but are not yet used in architecture. With foam aluminum, the architect has many new opportunities, this material is economical, but for some reason no one uses it. The builders are very conservative.
Your office develops projects throughout Spain and abroad, while you are based in Pamplona, the capital of the Navarra region, in the very northeast of the country. Is it difficult to maintain the level of a world-class architecture firm, far from major cities?
- Today, excellent architectural projects can be done regardless of the location of the office: there is no longer a need to live in capitals. Our workshop is located in Pamplona, but I am not isolated at all, I have a lot of influence in Spain. Most of my projects are outside Navarra, I stopped building in my home region about 15 years ago.
However, unfortunately, I do not spend much time in Pamplona - at best, a couple of days a week. Part of the week I live in Madrid. Once I thought about moving to a big city, for example, to Boston, where I taught at that time. But I love the silence. Pamplona is good for reflection and relaxation. Outside Navarra, life is more stressful.
You teach a lot. What activity - design or teaching - do you consider to be your main activity?
- They are equal to me. Paci Mangado is one - practitioner and professor [Paci is a diminutive of Francisco. Approx. Archi.ru]. I cannot practice architecture without teaching, I learn so much from my students. They say to me: "You are too generous - you spend so much time teaching." I taught for four years at Harvard, two years each at Yale and Cornell Universities, then at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne, and now at the Polytechnic Institute of Milan. But I only teach because I study with my students at the same time. I must admit that what I am doing at the moment does not seem very interesting to me. In every new project I want to move further, there is a constant struggle with myself in me. Each project provides an opportunity to start from the beginning - this spirit is very close to youth. My students challenge me to be critical of my own work.
Teaching and design are inseparable for me. If one day I quit designing, the same day I’ll quit teaching, because it’s impossible to explain what talented architecture is if you yourself cannot create it.
How do you perceive the level of quality of architecture education in Spain?
- Architecture education in Spain used to be pretty good, but now it's a disaster. After the economic crisis, universities with an architectural specialization have lost the ability to train qualified personnel.
And in Navarre?
- Over the past two decades, the best centers of architectural education in Spain have been in Madrid and Navarra - Pamplona. Several years ago I began to reform the Navarra school, but now the university administration does not show interest in my project of creating a center for training architects of a new level there, so I am leaving.
And what is this center for training architects?
- At some point, I decided to no longer travel to different universities around the world and create my own. This school of architecture was supposed to consist of three different postgraduate programs, in which architecture would be taught in conjunction with other subjects - economics and sociology. There was supposed to be a very tough selection - only 60 students, no more. The most prominent Spanish architects have agreed to teach with me at this school.
For what purpose did you found the Architecture and Society Foundation (Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad)?
- I like to think of the Foundation as an open school of architecture. The foundation was created to improve mutual understanding between architects and society. In particular - to spread knowledge about what we, architects, do, what and how we think. Recently, architects have been preoccupied with creating unique objects for personal promotion. Society did not know why certain architectural decisions were made. A reaction followed: whose interests govern architecture - systems of architectural "stars" or society as a whole?
99% of architecture is done for society, so society has the right to demand from 99% of architects that their projects interpret reality, be useful and beautiful. At the same time, many architects think about how exactly they should serve the society. We live in a society of amazing complexity. This complexity makes it necessary to create the Foundation as a platform where society and architects could enter into dialogue with each other. This dialogue serves as a reminder to architects that everything is possible to do with beauty, and that they are not gods, that the architect's task is to serve society.
“This is a very difficult mission
- Yes, it was difficult. I have invested all my savings in the Fund. Architecture has given me a lot, including in economic terms. At some point, I decided that it was time to return the funds I received to architecture. In 2008, when I opened this Fund, a deep crisis reigned in Spain. Many friends said that I was crazy, predicting that during a crisis I would not be able to find other investors. Today, almost ten years later, the Foundation still exists and is actively involved in the transformation of architecture. In 2015, the Foundation received a gold medal from the Supreme Council of Associations of Architects of Spain (Consejo Superior de Colegios de Arquitectos de España), in 2016 the King of Spain was present at the opening of the IV International Architectural Congress of our Foundation - these are important signs of recognition. The foundation has become one of the most important Spanish architectural organizations.
