"10 Questions to..." is a series of mini-interviews with architects and female architects, to whom we address the same pool of questions. Are you curious about what buildings are most important to your favorite architect? Or find out what city inspires her the most? In today's installment of the series - Monika Arczynska.
Monika Ar czynska is an architect with many years of international experience gained in design offices in Poland, the Netherlands and Ireland. She studied at the Gdansk University of Technology and Technische Universiteit Delft. She worked with Heneghan Peng Architects on projects including the Grand Egyptian Museum, the Palestine Museum and the National Center for Contemporary Art in Moscow. Since 2015, together with Lukasz Pancewicz, she has been creating A2P2 architecture & planning, a firm that solves complex problems with an architectural and urban planning profile.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. No
b. can
c. define.
2. The three most important buildings to you...?
a. The family home, because I will always associate it with security and the people I love.
b. The Berenplaat water treatment plant near Rotterdam designed by Wim Quist (1965), because it is the greatest architectural surprise of my life.
c. The Great Egyptian Museum in Cairo, because I learned the most from this project.
3. the most important book on architecture...?
"Mart Stam's Trousers. Stories from behind the scenes of Dutch moral modernism " by the Crimson group - showed me that important architectural issues can be written about with a sense of humor.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
I won't be original: New York. I'll never forget my first walk through Manhattan on one sunny autumn day. Maybe it's the associations with the movies I've seen, or maybe the fact that people from all over the world live there, but I had the feeling that I was simultaneously in many cities, enclosed in a rigorous urban grid.
5. architect with whom you would like to design something and why...?
Together? But what do you mean, with someone? In life! (And seriously, there are few fields as collaborative as architecture).
6. hand-drawing or computer drawing?
Hand-drawn, although I don't feel very good at it.
7. mockup or 3D model?
Students usually want to murder me when I require them to make mock-ups, but I think that especially at the first stage of design there is no better working tool.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
Modernism, although I appreciate a good pomo!
9. work after hours or sport?
Work is my sport.
10. architecture or business?
Architecture is my business.
On our portal you will also find a development plan prepared by architects from A2P2 studio for the area of Stare Świdry in Warsaw's Białołęka[here].
Listen to Lukasz Harat's conversation with Monika Arczynska in the series Awakenings:
