Arquitetura Entre Vistas ABROAD

In our 32nd episode, we travel to Hamburg (Germany) and Tokyo (Japan) to meet Kawahara Tatsuya and a Ellen Kristina Krause, the minds behind Kawahara Krause Architects. Kawahara Krause Architects explores the subtle ways architecture can bring people together without rigid boundaries. “We are living together, and this togetherness should be architecturally staged.” “If things are separated from each other there is still a way to think about how they direct to each other.” For Kawahara and Krause, each project is an invitation to endless “ways of reading.” Spaces should offer “stimuli without defining too strictly”. “We wanted to show people how enjoyable architecture can be” "The more experience you have, the richer your intuition gets” and their rich intuition makes them wonder “what really needs to be defined”, after all? Guest: Kawahara Tatsuya + Ellen Kristina Krause (Tokyo, Japan + Hamburg, Germany) Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

On our 31st stop, we are travelling east, direction Brussels (BE)…or rather, to “ouest” to meet Stephan Damsin and Jans Harens, the duo behind “ouest architecture.” ouest architecture thrives in the spaces left unfinished and unsolved, " there is a room for unsolved things and for a bit of ambiguity”. In their vision, not every problem has to be be fully solved. “We are interested in ways to repair stuff without hiding that it has been repaired,” they explain, a philosophy that calls for embracing the imperfections rather than smoothing them away. Their approach invites a rethinking of architecture’s role in urban life. How far can one question the brief? Can we question it so much that the kitchen ends up to be left out of the program? “What are the opening hours, what is the price of the coffee? All these things are so important for how the building works in the city.”  “How to make a building as a swiss knife?”, they ask. I do too. What does adobe’s strategy on “progressive discloser” has to do with architecture? Maybe nothing. “Color pencils and excel tables” are all you need to do architecture. Guest: Stephan Damsin, Jan Harens  (Brussels, Belgium) Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

Our 30th stop is in Berlin (Germany), somewhere between a reconverted building and the next building to be reconverted. In fact, that is were we find B+. In fiction, we might also find them beyond the building, in station.plus. Olaf Grawert will take us through that. To warm up, Olaf identifies 2 big groups of architects: both aim for “values” and “speculation” but their understanding of these terms is fundamentally opposite. Should our honoraries be measured out of a percentage of construction costs?  What if “there is more then just building as an answer”? What if climate crisis are good news for the market? “In our current economic system, a natural disaster is a fantastic thing because the moment you have a natural disaster and things get destroyed, the market grows.” Is there a correct answer? Are we just giving better wrong answers over and over? “We need to speculate. (…) “Everything that is new, unknown or experimental is not interesting to those who have to sell it” Sometimes an observation can become a question, and then a movie, and then a publication, and the an exhibition and then a building, and then a law. Or not. If you are still thinking about the words “values” and “speculation”…you should listen to our conversation. “Its pure fiction.” Guest: Olaf Grawert, b+ (Berlin, Germany) Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal) Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.com Instagram @arquiteturaentrevistas Follow for more thoughts on architecture.

Our 29th stop is in Barcelona (Spain), Mexico City (Mexico) and Basel (Switzerland) alongside Pablo Garrido Arnaiz.Parabase have a very keen eye for picking up things and putting them out of place. At least out of their initially proposed place...to be place in a new place though out by them. “Decontextualisation is something we can find: in almost all contemporary art piece, in most of he songs we listen to, in in writing but in architecture it is not that common.”Decontextualisation adds layers of meaning to architecture. Why can’t a sculpture be understood as a column?Why can’t a roof rotate 90 degrees and play as a facade?Maybe they can. “Architecture can be read in many ways, and it has a lot of meanings.”Sometimes, decontextualised ideas come out of absolute casualty “or maybe there is a certain hidden reason of why we have made these decisions” and post-rationalised.“The social economical system we live in…it is not circular, it is about generating and destroying, generating and destroying.” Meanwhile, they are designing a Housing project made out of, al least, 2 500 pieces dismantled out of a parking lot.We observe the phenomenon of pavilions made under the aim of biennales/triennials/festivals. Is it the case that all these events are “creating a typology of architecture” as well as “creating a typology of architects”? We wonder.Pablo says the following quote at the beginning of our conversation…but I feel like taking it of place and putting it as the final message of this episode’s brief:“To do meaningful architecture and have fun (…) basically this is the ultimate motivation of our work.”Guest: Pablo Garrido Arnaiz  (Barcelona, Spain + Zurich, Switzerland + Mexico City, Mexico)Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)Upload your references to: arquiteturaentrevistas.comInstagram @arquiteturaentrevistasFollow for more thoughts on architecture.