Catherine: Do you mean you've turned down an assignment because you didn't feel it?
Karolina: I think every commission can teach us something. We think deeply about each one. They say that as good as your architecture can be, as good as your client is. It has to have an openness in it.
Paul: But you can also make something unique out of every subject. That's the approach we try to have - the theme is supposed to inspire us, and we are supposed to surprise the client and ourselves.
Catherine: What do you strive for? What would you most like to design? What would you like to specialize in?
Karolina: We wouldn't like to specialize, we would like to do different things.
Paul: I would like to do more projects related to art. Art inspires us.
Karolina: We would like to work with someone who doesn't expect a result at the very beginning, but participates in the process. We would like clients more than projects.
Catherine: So it's not that you would like to have a library, a museum or a skyscraper in your portfolio?
Paul: A museum yes. But not right away.
Karolina: We used to really want to do a chapel.
Paul: ...and we still want to!
Karolina: I would like to do cool apartments, this is a very interesting topic. How to live today? How to get high spatial quality with a restrictive budget?
Monika Sosnowska atelier, cross section
pic: Architecture Club
Catherine: Let's go back to the openness of investors, which you mentioned earlier. Do you have the impression that clients in Switzerland are more open than in Poland, for example? Do we have any geographical trends here? Monika Sosnowska was an exception to the rule?
Karolina: You can't generalize. It's about the type of person, a certain preparation or willingness to set out.
Paul: These are psychological conditions. An architect must also be a psychologist. We have to convince the client to do something. Often individuals spend a huge amount of money on construction, this involves a lot of stress.
Karolina: To convince and understand. It doesn't depend on the place at all.
Catherine: Now let's talk about how you work. In the context of Monika Sosnowska's studio, but you probably use this method of working for other projects as well. Does it always involve building 1:1 models?
Karolina: We always work on models. Our studio, as you can see, is filled with models. We build all the time, and from small scale to large scale. We have always worked this way, it has always been important to us. Of course, we don't reject the computer and use it, making drawings, but what is important to us is working with our hands, real materials, real light.
Paul: We design on models. We don't make a model based on something we've already invented, we build them so that we design on them.
Karolina: It's not like we draw something exactly and then make a presentation model. We have an idea of the first idea, we build a model, and then in this model we check a lot of things, change them, and only then we draw them. We surround ourselves with models that we work on, where you can see the process.
Paul: We cast the model of the atelier from plaster, rebuilt it several times, then on the spot, during one meeting, we cut off the roof. The mock-ups are our tools. If it is possible to build a piece of mock-up 1:1 and test a piece of building in the construction process - we are very satisfied.
Monika Sosnowska's atelier, a bench made of three solid oak beams, designed by Architecture Club
photo. © Hélène Binet
Catherine: It raises the cost a lot? Because it's not only the cost of making the models, but also the time spent on it.
Karolina: But we don't know how or want to do otherwise.
Paul: This is an integral part of the process for us. Drawing goes quickly afterwards. Besides, we are efficient at building models.
Karolina: This is how we want to work. We've always wanted to. That's why those two offices fascinated us so much, because that's the way we work there too, especially at Zumthor's. He lives among models.
Paul: In our studio we also want to have beautiful models. Not presentation models, but suggestive objects - cast, bent, glued, painted....
Karolina: Sometimes we need a model on short notice. We want to include a synthesis of ideas, without knowing everything yet. These first models carry a certain imperfection, which is inspiring. Many times a new idea has been created from a "mistake." We prefer mock-ups to renderings. The latter we try to avoid.
Paul: If something in our process looks like a rendering, it is a modified photo of the model. Sometimes we build a mock-up just to have an interior with real sunlight.
Karolina: This is something you can't cheat. But we're not against modern technology, of course. It's just that it's a bit like with books - I still read paper ones, even though there are already other forms. We also always make brochures or publications for the project, closing a certain stage of it. The whole process is there, lots of photos of our models, sketches.
Monika Sosnowska's atelier, basement door of the north facade
photo. © Hélène Binet
Catherine: The design process for Monika Sosnowska's atelier was relatively long. What was the reason for this? Did the artist not care about time?
Karolina: Many things contributed to this. First of all, the fact that everything there is non-standard. Every detail was designed from start to finish. We redesigned a lot of things many times. We used a lot of non-standard solutions: the facades were craft-welded, every detail, despite looking simple, or maybe because of that, was time-consuming. There was no element that we could take out of the catalog and say this is what it would look like anyway.
Paweł: To też było nietypowe dla wykonawców i niektóre rzeczy trwały nieco dłużej.
Karolina: All the systems - ventilation, geothermal heating and cooling, alarm, acoustic panels, etc. - are all concealed. The idea was to get a clean space.
