"10 Questions to..." is a series of short conversations with architects and female architects, to whom we address the same pool of questions. In today's episode of mini-interviews, we asked Malgorzata Kuciewicz and Simone De Iacobis, architects from the Warsaw-based Centrala group, for answers.
Centrala is a Warsaw-based architecture and researchstudio pursuing a program of reinterpretations and interventions that seek to renew the language of architecture. Their way of working is as much about creating narratives based on their own research that change ideas about space, as it is about construction and artistic projects. They are involved in architectural education - they conduct numerous walks, lectures and workshops. The project "Amplification of Nature" by curator Anna Ptak and Centrala was presented in the Polish Pavilion at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia 2018. Centrala is currently continuing this theme, creating projects about architecture-in-natureand nature-in-architecture.
Wetland Warsaw, proj.: Centrala (Simone De Iacobis, Malgorzata Kuciewicz); collaboration: Aleksandra Zawistowska;
model: Kuba Morkowski, Adam Perka.
The work was created for the exhibition "Futurama Warsaw" (curated by Jakub Szczęsny), Zodiac Warsaw Architecture Pavilion, December 2018-February 2019.
photo: photodoc.org
Simone De Iacobis studied architecture in Rome. He gained experience at Urhahn Urban Design in Amsterdam, STAR strategies + architecture in Rotterdam, and collaborated with studiometrico in Milan. He has won awards in both architecture and photography competitions.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Revolution.
b. Metabolism.
c. Rituals.
2. The three most important buildings for you...?
a. The Pantheon in Rome, especially when it rains.
b. St. Benedict's Monastery, Mamelis, Netherlands, 1967, designed by Dom Hans Van Der Laan.
c. Nivola Garden House, Long Island, United States, 1950, proj.: Bernard Rudofsky.
3. most important book on architecture...?
"The Iliad," by Homer.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
New York, because as Rem Koolhaas says: it is the arena of the final stage of Western civilization.
5. architect with whom you would like to design something and why...?
SUPERSTUDIO, because:
if design is merely an incentive for consumption, then we must reject design; if architecture is merely a codification of the bourgeois model of property and society, then we must reject architecture; if architecture and urbanism are merely a perpetuator of unjust social divisions, then we must reject urbanism and its cities... until all design activities are aimed at satisfying original needs. Until then, design must disappear. We can live without architecture....
And also because they dissolved the studio, the year I was born.
6. hand drawing or computer drawing?
Hand-drawn.
7. mockup or 3D model?
Mock-up.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
Premodernism.
9. After-hours work or sports?
Swimming - experiencing the continuity of matter on your own.
10. architecture or business?
Definitely not business.
Malgorzata Kuciewicz studied architecture in Warsaw, Montpellier and Tampere. She gained professional experience at the Berlage Institute in Amsterdam and at EASA workshops, and was a resident of Akademie Schloss Solitude. She has won prizes and awards in architectural competitions, and has authored and co-authored individually designed interiors, architectural objects, exhibitions, as well as projects to stimulate reflection on urban space. She is engaged in both research, popularization and action to preserve and revitalize the valuable heritage of architecture and urbanism.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Light.
b. Water.
c. Gravity.
2. the three most important buildings to you...?
a. The Hansen House in Shumin - the subject of our research since 2013.
b. KS Warszawianka - the object of our systematic reconnaissance since 2014.
c. Warsaw Zoo - which we have been studying since the spring of this year, and this is the most "relevant".
3. the most important book on architecture...?
"Libri Illeggibili," by Bruno Munari.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
Warsaw and the biography of the local space.
5. an architect with whom you would like to design something and why...?
Alina Scholtz. Her talent and skills in rebuilding Warsaw's green space after the war would come in handy in the face of current challenges.
6. hand drawing or computer drawing?
Sketchbook - every research project has an A3 notebook with us, into which we paste everything so we can connect the threads with lines, like on a mind map wall in a detective series.
7. mockup or 3D model?
Mock-up, although we are still looking for how to represent natural processes well.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
Altermodernism (the one in the book "The Radicant" by Nicolas Bourriaud).
9. After-hours work or sports?
Living in awe.
10. architecture or business?
That dot over the "i".
Listen to Luke Harat's conversation with Małgorzata Kuciewicz in the series Awakenings:
