"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, Maciej Franta of the Franta Group studio talks about the most important buildings, the dream of design collaboration and the most inspiring city.
Maciej Franta - a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at Tadeusz Kosciuszko Cracow University of Technology. Since 2010 he has been running his studio FRANTA GROUP Architekt Maciej Franta in Katowice, and his project for an apartment building in Chorzow - Villa Reden - was awarded this year in many international competitions, including ICONIC AWARDS, European Property Awards and World Design Awards.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Observation.
b. Logic.
c. Travel.
2. the three most important buildings for you...?
a. Those of my own that didn't work out for me and I would do them better now.
b. The ones I feel good about and don't know why.
c. Those I haven't seen yet and haven't been in, but would like to see and be in.
3. the most important book on architecture...?
"On the construction of architectural form" by Juliusz Zurawski.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
New York, of course - for me it's a place where I felt at home from the first day. I prefer modern cities to historic ones, as they are more in line with my expectation of scale/space/vision. I like places where architecture overcomes more barriers and is sometimes uncompromising to its surroundings.
5. architect you would like to design something with and why...?
My grandfather, because I always wanted to, but never made it.
6. hand-drawing or computer drawing?
Hand-drawn, of course.
7. mockup or 3D model?
Mock-up, of course.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
Once modernism, now more often postmodernism.
9. Work after hours or sport?
An architect who is 100% engaged in this profession is never really after work - he is always thinking about professional areas, even when he is playing sports, because the logic and regularity of sports allow thinking, and in this case thoughts always drift towards observations and conclusions of the environment, which is already architecture.
10 - Architecture or business?
The most important question - of course, these are two inseparable and equally correct answers.
