"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 installment of the mini-interview, Wojciech Witek of the Iliard studio in Krakow talked about the buildings closest to his heart, the architects he would like to have a chance to design something with, and his ways of taking a break from work.
Wojciech Witek - a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at the Cracow University of Technology, member of the Małopolska Regional Chamber of Architects. He gained his professional experience in Cracow - in GD&K Consulting and Ovotz studios, in Amsterdam - in ANA Architecten, and in Rotterdam - in 2012 Architecten office. Since 2009, together with Łukasz Koziana, he has created the office Iliard Architecture & Interior Design.
1. architecture in three words...?
a. Reason.
b. Emotions.
c. Creation.
2. the three most important buildings for you...?
a. An old family vacation home in Muszyna from 1930, because it represented my first and most lasting experience of architecture - its smell, its texture, its being together in space.
b. Peter Zumthor's Thermae in Vals, because it made me realize the power of the tools that architecture uses.
c. The house I will one day build for myself and my loved ones.
3. the most important book about architecture...?
For me it's "The Seduction of Place" by Joseph Rykwert, the only one I keep coming back to.
4. most inspiring city and why...?
Amsterdam, where I lived for a fraction of my life, and which has most powerfully shaped me as an architect and where I always feel at home. Energy and pragmatism mixed on an unprecedented scale.
5. architect with whom you would like to design something and why...?
Oh!... the list would be long - Zumthor, Chipperfield, Pawson... all of whom I greatly appreciate and relish studying their projects. In my work I happen to miss the uncompromisingness that I feel in their realizations.
6. hand drawing or computer drawing?
Both. They are purely tools, and each is used for something different.
7. mockup or 3D model?
In our studio, mostly computer models, but the mock-up has essentially irreplaceable features and allows, in my opinion, to take the project to the next level.
8. modernism or postmodernism?
In aesthetics, modernism, in philosophy, postmodernism.
9. working after hours or sport?
An architect who works creatively never mentally leaves work. Such is the life of an architect - the cross he carries with him, but also the beauty he carries within himself. Although actually - advanced meditation practice or extreme sports can break the addiction for a while.
10 - Architecture or business?
At Iliard we work exclusively on commercial projects, so architecture is always related to business for us. At the same time, I flirt not infrequently with the idea - to paraphrase the masters of the profession - that Architecture begins where business ends.
