"10 Questions to..." is a series of short interviews with architects and female architects, to whom we address the same pool of questions. In today's installment of the mini-interview about inspiring cities, who she would like to design with and the buildings most important to her, Ewelina Jaskulska answered.
Ewelina Jaskulska - a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Cracow University of Technology. She gained professional experience in renowned design studios. She has won international competitions, including: an honorable mention in the international competition on the occasion of the centenary of the Bauhaus, Dom dla Dominika (2018); the installation "Where is Tiffany" among the best works of the Burnham Prize competition at the Chicago Architecture Biennial (2017). In 2019, she was included in the 40 Under 40 list. Since 2014, she has run her own design studio Artectonica, and since 2019, together with Joanna Aleksandrowicz and Monika Nalewajk, she has formed the research and design office Molecule Architecture Research and Design. She is co-initiator of the research and design project "Architektoniczki" conducted by the Katarzyna Kozyra Foundation.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Man.
b. Relationships.
c. Emotions.
2. the three most important buildings for you...?
a. Anyone who supports the development of human relations: architecture by Iwona Buczkowska, Le Blanc-Mesnil.
b. Any that does not end its function at its "foundation" in space, but adds value to the community and place: buildings by Francis Kéré, Alejandro Aravena.
c. Any that turns the standard notion of a building upside down and opens one's head to a completely different way of thinking about space, here: by Sou Fujimoto, SANAA.
3. the most important book about architecture...?
About architecture itself I read very few books. I like the pen of Rem Koolhaas, Peter Zumthor. Recently, however, "Invisible Women" by Caroline Criado Perez.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
I am inspired by details, situations and conversations. I am curious about the other bottom, something that is hidden....
Cities... cities I love, because I am a city dweller: Chicago - because there I could take a deep breath; Warsaw - because it is remarkable and challenging to discover; Havana with its beautiful modernism andinteresting history of the "Cinco Escuelas Nacionales del Arte," and Barcelona - but not necessarily for its architectural "symbols," but because it allowed women to change the city and for proving that women's thinking about space and changing it serves everyone and excludes no one.... All in all, that's why Barcelona should now be first on this list.
5. architect with whom you would like to design something and why...?
Not with an architect, but with people who are open to the world - artists(-gas), futurologists (-gas), anthropologists (-gas), sociologists(-gas) - who and who are not "contaminated" by architectural thinking about space.
6. hand drawing or computer drawing?
To convey a thought - hand drawing.
To make a design - a computer. One does not exclude the other.
7. mockup or 3D model?
Mock-up - for thinking and analyzing the form. 3D model to verify this very thinking.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
Good architecture - without definition.
9. Work after hours or sports?
Meetings over wine.
10. architecture or business?
Architecture. I'm waiting to make a business out of it.
You can read more about the "Architektoniczki" project in an interview with Ewelina Jaskulska in the latest issue of A&B - Is architecture a good business?
