TODAY WE TALK WITH GLORIA OLD IBARRA

Francisco Sanjuan is associate director of luis vidal + architects and director of design. He has extensive experience focused on the design and calculation of the technical aspects of architecture. His experience includes numerous highly complex airport and building projects. He is a BREEAM Advisor and has worked on the LEED certification process for multiple projects. His responsibilities include the supervision of construction processes and the coordination of multidisciplinary teams during the phases of the construction project. He has participated in the design of Terminal 4 and 4S of Madrid Barajas, Terminal 2 of Heathrow International Airport, Warsaw International Airport, Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport in Santiago de Chile, Pittsburgh International Airport and Boston Logan International Airport among others.

Let us get to know you a little better... What is architecture for you?

First of all, for me architecture is a profession. Perhaps this approach is very archaic, but I have always thought of it as a trade (artisanal, artistic and technical) that you gradually approach, from the simplest to the most complex, through years of experience. In this sense, I see her more as a simple craftsman or the old stonecutting apprentice, who in principle were entrusted with simple tasks that increased in difficulty as the learning progressed, where each apprentice had to be supervised and strictly supervised by a master. who was in charge of his training.

This form of work and learning, extensible to the world of art, disappeared in the s. XX with the modern movement and now skips essential steps. The usual and tending attitude of current architecture is that of an architect or group of designers who act as visionaries who anticipate spaces, materials and experiences that, once defined, are transferred to other teams so that they make that vision a reality, adapting it to the technical, economic and regulatory possibilities of each project and each place.

This is usually a source of conflict and a notorious waste of time, as the number of meetings, alternatives and solutions that are needed, prior to a definitive solution agreed by all parties, multiplies. Sáenz de Oiza argued this point about multidisciplinary architectural studies, defending that he liked "cow's milk", and not the "average milk from several cows".

It is important to recover the figure of the multidisciplinary architect, more than that of multidisciplinary teams, even though both are perfectly compatible. For this reason, I firmly believe in the architect who imagines the “what” (object or space), but who also anticipates the “how”. It is essential, therefore, to recover the guild learning methods.

Sustainability and architecture are increasingly linked.
In fact, at luis vidal + architects we pride ourselves on incorporating environmental responsibility from the first moment we start thinking about design. That is why we like to talk more about “responsibility”. I firmly believe that architecture and sustainability have always been linked.

Although the industrial revolution gave access to cheap energy and means of transport that allowed materials of various sizes to be moved over great distances, greatly distorting the relationship between architecture and the environment in which it was developed. There is more to see the vernacular architecture that was built with nearby natural materials. Pitched roofs were built where it rained a lot; flat roofs in Mediterranean climates; in climates with temperature fluctuations between day and night, the walls were thick to take advantage of the inertia of the material; and a lot of insulation (wood) was used in cold climates. An extreme example, but very illustrative, is the design and construction of igloos in cold climates.

The use of spherical shapes in these climates optimizes the surface/volume ratio and is therefore the most energy efficient option in these climates. In short, throughout history it has been built with the available means, using the experience transmitted by generations to build logically and naturally without great effort.

This is, in essence, sustainability. It is surprising that environmental qualification systems are made to establish that toxic materials must be avoided, that there must be views to the outside, to seek that natural light enters and that little energy is consumed. It is something inherent to architecture. Sustainability and architecture have always been one.

How do you imagine the architecture of the future?
I imagine it much closer to the object for which it is intended. Architecture has always been a product of reason, which is actually the way in which man is able to understand the world around him. As a result of the frequent confusion between reason and ration, the products designed by man are often just mere simplifications or abstractions that man makes of nature.

A shortcut to solve a problem. It is surprising to see how objects created by nature solve much better the problems for which they were "designed", objects that would never have been created from a rational point of view. Thus, we can see that the zooplankton in the oceans create extremely light, efficient and beautiful mineral skeletons, and we can verify how the thermoregulation mechanisms of insects work, or the human skin itself, which resolves the energy exchange with the environment in a self-regulated. Beautiful and functional objects are created, which tells us that man has a lot to learn and that creative processes must be changed.

Fortunately, the entry of digitization into architecture has made it possible to include many more variables in the architectural analysis, which will enable more creative solutions to solve current problems. I firmly believe in a much more imaginative architecture that arises from a much greater amount of data than that with which we architects have always worked.

Any important project you are working on that you can tell us about?
Although it is an ongoing project about which there is not much public information yet, I am currently in charge of works for the Torres de Colón, in Madrid. A large-scale project that, among other things, will adapt the building to the new energy and functional needs of the 21st century, which is why it aspires to be the first high-rise office building considered a Nearly Zero Consumption Building in Spain.

What is the most curious place where you have been inspired?
It is a difficult question to answer, because I have found more inspiration in what I have dreamed or imagined, after seeing books and magazines, than in what I have experienced in a specific physical place, where I have always had more disappointments than confirmations. Perhaps, a place that has inspired me a lot even before I saw it, and whose visit and experience was a great joy for me, has been Kahn's Kimbell Art Museum, in Fort Worth. For me, the perfect building, with no weak points. Insuperable.

Any dream project come true?
A lots of. I have participated in projects ranging from T4 at Madrid-Barajas International Airport or T2 at Heathrow International Airport in London, to Álvaro Cunqueiro Hospital in Vigo, and Can Misses in Ibiza. Recently, we have led the design of the new international terminals at the Pittsburgh and Boston airports in the United States, which are already well advanced. Quite a few dreams come true, many of them with luis vidal + architects.

What led you to dedicate yourself to architecture?
I had no intention of dedicating myself to architecture, I had more of an engineering vocation. But from the age of 15 or 16 I started going to drawing academies to prepare for architecture because my sister was in the first year of her degree. Thus, to occupy my free time on vacation, I began to draw models, something that I was passionate about, and there I discovered a hitherto unknown skill. I entered the world of art and, later, of architecture. This was a radical change in my way of seeing the world. A change that was quite a challenge at the beginning of the degree and that, little by little, I have adapted to make my technical part coexist with the artistic one.

Each project is different, as is the environment where it will be physically reflected. How do both concepts come together?
With knowledge, imagination and, above all, sensitivity. Without these three characteristics, it is impossible to capture the essence of a place, the relationship of the building and the users with the environment, the way to access a building, the vision of how users are going to participate in the building, the best climate adaptation to the environment, and thousands more variables that must be anticipated, which require the simultaneous participation of these three concepts in order to carry out this work well.

With the appearance of virtual maps and their easy accessibility on the internet, it is possible to see the terrain and its road accesses online, obtain climate data and even automatic 3D visualisations. These tools are of great help, speeding up the process of approaching the site, but they also distort the way of understanding the environment, by allowing many architects to carry out their projects without having managed to capture the true essence of the place. I prefer what Christian Norberg-Schulz defined as Genius Loci – of Roman origin – the guardian spirit of places. A spirit that “gives life to people and places, accompanies them from birth to death and determines their character or essence”.

In his famous writing, Norberg-Shultz defines it with the help of the word “dwell”, to highlight the distinction between “space” and “character”. I literally extract this paragraph from his writing, which cannot better explain my vision of the relationship between the project and the environment: “When man dwells, he is simultaneously located in a space and exposed to a certain character of the environment.

The two psychological functions involved can be called 'orientation' and 'identification'. To gain an existential grounding, man must be able to orient himself and must know where he is. But, in addition, he must identify himself with the environment, that is, he must know how he is, a certain place.

The way of dwelling cannot be anticipated by any computer, and it is the designer who has to capture it, visit it and live it. But, above all, he has to activate the three characteristics necessary to find his essence: knowledge, imagination and sensitivity.