Dominica:You are ahead of all my questions. Which of these experiences is the most valuable to you?
Boris:I don't think one experience is the most important. For me, the important thing is deciding something for myself and realizing it. At the time, my goal was to explore the world, something I wouldn't give up at any price. I also had a dream to graduate from the best architecture school in the world. Maybe the best one in the world I didn't graduate from, but a pretty good one I did. I know I made the best use of my study time.
Dominica:When your application to the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts was not accepted, you tried again a year later. Are you a patient person?
Boris: I think you have to be stubborn and have a bit of an athletic approach to life. Don't worry about failures, but also successes, just pursue your goal. It's quite simple.
Dominika:You've been working with your dad at Wrzeszcz Architects for the past five years. What have you learned from each other? How is your cooperation going?
Boris:It wasn't easy at the beginning, because our relationship - father and son - has always been frugal in expression. However, working together brought us closer - we also learned to talk to each other, and our relationship took on a more partner-like form. We don't compete with each other, rather we dialogue and cooperate, and I think it works out quite well for us. Maybe it's also because we are different by design. I would describe it this way, that my dad arrives at a solution by the method of small steps, a lot of analysis, while I, on the other hand, do nothing for a long time, until I conclude that I will make a move that I am sure is good.
House from the Old Barn
Photo: Przemyslaw Turlej
Dominika:Such a good move was the House from the Old Barn, designed by you, which combines modern form and respect for history visible in the brick details and openwork.
Boris: This was the first project I did in the office of Wrzeszcz Architects after returning from Copenhagen. The proposal for cooperation came from my sister's friends. It was pure coincidence, because we met on the way to a wedding and liked each other enough to do this project together. The investors were a young couple, nevertheless we worked together really well. In these few years of practice, I have noticed that working with the younger generation is different than with the older generation.
Dominica:Which group of clients do you work better with?
Boris:Representatives of the older generation come to the architect with their habits or needs, which create certain limitations, making design simpler. And we younger people are the picture generation. Such people show inspiration from Pinterest during meetings and don't think about what they really need. However, we found common ground with the investors of the Old Barn House. I proposed opening up to the forest with a bedroom module suspended above the living room. My clients showed courage because they were open to something they had never seen before. Which is not obvious, because we usually like what we've already seen or heard. And it's also a general message to future investors, who start looking for inspiration on the Internet before coming to an architect....
Dominika:So it's better that they don't look, that instead of inspiration they come to the meeting with an open mind?
Boris:It's better for them to tell what they want or need in a more abstract way. We're talking about associations, memories of houses they've lived in or stayed in, determining what they like, what they need, whether, for example, they'd like to be in touch with everything at once, or whether they'd rather hide somewhere sometimes. We design quite a lot of single-family homes in the studio, and the most difficult part is designing for singles, because you have to determine the needs of future partners or children.
House on the River
Photo: Przemyslaw Turlej
Dominika:Looking at the houses you design, it's clear that you give their occupants a lot of space and light. What is your recipe for good architecture?
Boris:I believe that good architecture is created when the participants in the design process - the investor and the architect - give each other time: to meet, talk and get to know each other. As architects, we don't impose a time frame on our clients, a moment when this process should end. It ends when we jointly recognize that we have reached our destination. I once heard my dad say that an architect is the cheapest psychologist and lawyer. The time an investor spends with an architect helps determine the needs of the former. And you can see that our clients are very well affected by this whole process. Even if they argue with each other, they have a moment in this crazy world to get to know each other better, to talk, to go deeper into their own relationship. I think it's a very valuable time in every way. I believe that architecture and the design process is a meeting between people and place. It is important that this meeting is sincere and open, and when, in addition, it is not focused on a specific result and can go in different directions, something good is bound to come out of it.
Dominika:And what do you, Young Creator, think is the role of an architect in these specific times?
Boris: It's only been five years since I've been in the profession, but I have some inner conviction that the work of a designer will change in the near future. I remember coming to my dad's studio as a child, where architects would draw their visions by hand on big drafting tables, and there were plenty of mock-ups around. Although the tools have changed, our work today looks very similar. From the perspective of the galloping world, architecture is such a romantic and archaic field where not much has changed. Still, based on the brick module, we build a house, and to create a piece of architecture, we need time to meet and decide. I wonder if these processes should speed up, if architecture should chase the world and follow technological innovations. It is a fact that artificial intelligence can take over the role of architects. If we simplify the role of the designer to giving a specific function in the best possible economic development of a plot of land, artificial intelligence can certainly handle it. A world generated in this way can be economical, but also inhumane. That's why I think that as architects we should cherish those values that can't be computer-generated. So let's appreciate unreplicated and unconventional architecture.
Lab150 center for designing, prototyping and testing products and services, created for small and medium-sized companies in the creative and interior design industries
Photo: Tomasz Hejna
Dominica:Going back to the beginning and closing our conversation in a certain frame - do you think the NAWW award that was given to the three of you will prompt you to do design collaborations in the near future?
Boris:We already had the opportunity to collaborate in college, and our semester's work was honored with the Prof. W. Czarnecki Award. Since last year we have also been active in SARP, so we have the opportunity to see each other more often. It is not easy to agree that we will work together on a topic. It would have to be a big project, requiring the involvement of three architectural offices.
Dominika:So we are looking for an investor to commission you for a complex project.
Boris:Either one challenging project, or three completely different micro-buildings.
Dominika:Thank you for the interview.
interviewed: Dominika Drozdowska
Illustrations provided courtesy of Boris Wrzeszcz.
