Speed Date / MICHAL KUZEMENSKÝ, architect and teacher
Where are you from?
Prague.
Where did you study?
FA CTU.
Who was your best teacher?
Miroslav Šik.
Who were/ are your parents?
Doctors (epidemiologist and ENT clinician).
What don’t you enjoy in design?
Photographing and publishing architecture.
And on the contrary, what do you?
Observing. To think. The fear of not figuring something out and the relief when I do.
What do you listen to?
Lots of music, sounds, noise, I also listen to the whirring of the boiler at night, most recently the quiet clicking of our cottage. Buzzing. I’m addicted and sensitive to noise and music. This video.
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
I love any movie where the opening scene is blue-black with a bit of bright yellow, stars, haze, globe, and a spaceship comes out of the side of the picture.
I have a very favorite scene from the movie Smoke, “slow down or you won’t understand” says the newsboy to the writer who is looking through an album of photographs taken over many years from the same place, every day at the same hour.
Then the films Raid, Alien, Jaws, Cube, Secrets and Lies and the films of Mike Leigh. Thomas Paul Anderson, etc.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
I don’t have any authority, I have a lot of respect for most people, I’m fascinated by people who goof up on stuff. Nerds. Hardcore nerds interest me. The woman in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing or the newsboy.
What thing did you last buy?
Food or cigarettes. If it’s something bigger, a series of white T-shirts, 30 socks, two jeans, two shoes and two jackets. I buy it more than once so I don’t run out and have to think about it.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
No, but my wife does. She also tells me what they write. Sometimes pictures.
Do you vote?
Always.
Who throws the best parties?
I don’t go to parties. The only one I’ve been to was Marek Chalupa, so Marek.
Your favourite dome?
I’ve never been into domes, so I don’t know.
Party dress. Made by…?
I like brown. And orange. Green and pale blue and beige.
Your hero from the past?
From the past, from the past, why from the past. Like Jules Verne? Or hard-nosed outsiders amuse me. There’s a lot of them, I can’t remember who’s the most. There’s always one that fascinates me the most and doesn’t go out of my head. Nothing at the moment because I’m nervous about speed.
Best/nicest house?
I like houses with a porch. Interiors, front porches. That space on any building, regardless of size or function. I like the front porch of the city, too. Like the early Lacaton & Vassal stuff – when the front porch is the whole house. Maison Latapie.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
I observe, I think, I lurk. I don’t talk, or I talk all the time.
What’s on your desktop?
I always mix such a khaki colour: brown, green and grey. Soothing.
Best exhibition, work of art?
I don’t know, I don’t remember, I don’t go out much. I like the relief of pulling out a tick, i.e. Jan Kostohryz’s “Tick” and Vítek Svoboda’s red racing car (the only work I can stand at home).
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
A lot, but I don’t remember much, for example Lütjens Padmanabhan – contemporary, precisely imagined, sharp and comfortable at the same time, Adam Khan – communication, civic communication, clarity, working with references. Svobodova Blaha – fresh, witty, contemporary, Lukas Imhof – beauty, precision, restraint … Monadnock, Bovenbouw, Dierendonckblancke …
Ethics or money?
Ethics. Too black and white a question. Questions about ethics tend to be more subtle.
Extraordinary book?
I don’t know, last time I read it was 2001’s Extension of the battlefield. Once upon a time, for example, I wished I liked Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or, Life in the Woods … but it’s the most boring book in the world.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
Skeptic. I guess it’s an optimist with additional questions.
Do you have any hobby?
Music, observing, doing nothing, weeding, the porch, being with my wife, evenings at home, TV in general, sports on TV. Trying things out. I like to try things in general.
Solo or in a collective?
I’m an introvert. Individualist. Part of a lively work team.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
Yes.