"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, Natasha Minasiewicz answered about the most important buildings, books, Hong Kong and female architects she would like to design with.
Natasha Minasiewicz - an architect living and working in Hong Kong. Graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Wrocław University of Technology and the Parsons School of Design summer school in New York. She focuses on spatial, material, social and historical research in the context of cultures and environmental equality, and her analytical work integrates building forms, processes, methods and tools from different disciplines to create spaces, objects and strategies.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Environment.
b. Material.
c. Method.
2. the three most important buildings for you...?
a. MASP in São Paulo, Brazil, 1968, designed by Lina Bo Bardi.
b. Ningbo Museum, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China, 2008, proj.: Wang Shu, Amateur Architecture Studio.
c. A typical 19th century settlement house on Hong Kong's Tung Ping Chau Island, built using a method specific to the materials available there, which I dream of researching and restoring.
3. the most important book on architecture...?
a. "Design As an Attitude" by Alice Rawsthorn.
b. "Down to Earth" by Bruno Latour.
c. "Sapiens" by Yuval Noah Harari.
Not directly about architecture as buildings or cities, but very important in understanding the current challenges facing the architectural profession.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
Hong Kong - because everything happens here in the present. Problems of the future are solved here in the "now", which has a huge impact on the tectonics and typology of the city, this applies to China in general. Of course, I'm not talking about the narrative of individual actions here, and many I don't support.
5. architect you would like to design something with and why...?
Zeina Koreitem - because I find her working methodology fascinating and very relevant (digital manipulation of technology and model as a process of creating physical form).
Lina Bo Bardi - I just could work for her because of her social commitment, tying contemporary and vernacular architecture and promoting culture through activism and design activities. She was a super-woman.
Malgorzata Kuciewicz of the Centrala group - because her "amplification of nature" and designing with nature resonate very much with me.
6. hand drawing or computer drawing?
I understand that the word drawing here suggests 2D, which as a concept is no longer adequate. A 3D model is also a computer drawing, so is a 3D scan or VR, or even 3D printing. By defining a pencil or computer as a tool to work with, we are actually giving it a lot of control over the final result, and at the moment there are many more tools. However, freehand drawing as the simplest form of recording thoughts and computer and related technologies as a tool for further exploration, and production of documentation.
7 Mock-up or 3D model?
I think the computer drawing from the previous question and the 3D model are the same thing. I am more interested in prototypes than mock-ups, especially in terms of details, materials, methods of application and manipulation of technology.
8: Modernism or postmodernism?
I'm not convinced that the two can be separated altogether and that you have to choose.
9. working after hours or sports?
Running, swimming, biking and being alone <3
10. architecture or business?
Architecture & Systems Change.
Be sure to listen to Natasha Minasiewicz's conversation with Luke Harat in the Wake Up series:
