Speed Date / DOXA, architects
O (Ondrej Jurčo), T (Tomáš Boroš), M (Maroš Mitro)
Where are you from?
O: From Stará Turá.
T: From Iňačovce.
M: From picturesque Sobrance.
Where did you study?
O: In Košice, Wismar and Liberec.
T: In Košice and Graz.
M: Faculty of Arts TU Košice, Hochschule Wismar, Politechnika Krakow.
Who was your best teacher?
O: Ika.
T: Life.
M: Every teacher pushed me further, but most of all probably Juraj Koban. At the moment collective in the doxa, where we learn more or less from each other.
Who were/ are your parents?
O: Very nice people.
T: Entrepreneurs.
M: My dad is a civil engineer, my mom works at the employment office as a vocational counselor.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
O: Dishonesty, non-conceptuality, worrying.
T: I don’t like making coffee.
M: Untruthfulness, excessive pretentiousness, controversy for controversy’s sake, lack of emotion, obsession with energy balance, budget limits, profit at the expense of quality. The worst is the grief of the client who has no understanding of our best proposal.
And on the contrary, what do you?
O: Lately I’ve been enjoying questioning best practices. I respect the brave architects who are not afraid to experiment. Admittedly, the error rate grows that way, but at least it has the balls.
T: I like to drink coffee.
M: Lifelong school, diversity, variety, creating emotion and atmosphere, conceptuality, materiality, construction, detail, inheritance and the production of heritage.
What do you listen to?
O: Nick Cave, Radiohead, Sigur Rós and podcasts.
T: Sounds.
M: Various branches of rock and metal, lately mixed with electronica (Pink Floyd, Bring me the Horizon, Weval,…).
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
O: I’ve now finished watching True Detective again and once again I’ve been reassured that it’s probably the best series.
T: Fantastic Mr. Fox.
M: The Dark Knight, The Simpsons, The Walking Dead.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
O: In order to perceive someone as an authority, I mostly have to know him/her personally. A few would be but there would be.
T: My grandfather was an authority to me.
M: Anyone who does their job with integrity and quality. People with great visions and people who sacrificed their lives to help others or to protect nature.
What thing did you last buy?
A: Fried cheese with tartar sauce.
T: Glasses.
M: A tent.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
O: Last time it was Radical Cities by Justin McGuirk.
T: Yeah, MIES VAN DER ROHE – Montage/ Collage.
M: Not much, but I’d like to have it as a hobby someday. Most recently Peter Zumthor: Buildings and Projects 1985-2013.
Do you vote?
O: Of course, always.
T: Regularly.
M: Yes.
Who throws the best parties?
O: Peťo.
T: Igor Matovič.
M: Once in a while I get together with my best friends and it always ends up crazy. Those are the parties I remember the most, otherwise I don’t go very much.
Your favourite dome?
O: Aula Maxima in Nitra.
T: PopIT.
M: Newton’s cenotaph.
Party dress. Made by…?
O: Second-hand.
T: I don’t like to deal with dresses.
M: It doesn’t matter, I don’t like one brand, as long as it fits my eye.
Your hero from the past?
O: Old Shatterhand.
T: Jesus Christ – Superstar.
M: Our partisans!
Best/nicest house?
O: I’ve been admiring Maison à Bordeaux by Koolhaas for a while now. Its static scheme and spatial functioning are beautiful.
T: I haven’t seen it yet.
M: I adore the houses by Harquitectes and Tham & Videgård Arkitekter. From the Slovakian scene, my favourites are Paňák’s House extension, Skoček’s House V and Jančok’s House within a House.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
O: Not so much when I’m working, but when I finish a project, I regularly follow the motto that the work is not finished until it’s glorified.
T: /:: I draw – I discuss ::/
M: Everything on my desk should have its place, I tend to put off phone calls, I often check multiple possibilities when I’m creating, I like to think while walking or on the couch while mumbling under my nose.
What’s on your desktop?
O: Order! Of course, except for the handover period, when there are a lot of files with dodgy names.
T: Black paint.
M: A universe with a windows logo (we’re having an Apple vs. Windows micro battle in the studio).
Best exhibition, work of art?
O: 4′33″ – John Cage.
T: Seattle Public Library – Rem.
M: Slavic Epic by Alfonso Mucha at the Trade Fair Palace. One of the works that impressed me the most speaks to me is a painting by Pieter Bruegel Sr.- Hunters in the Snow.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
O: I respect the work of several generations of architects of the modern era of Czechoslovakia, they left behind exceptional legacy. From the foreign scene, DOGMA resonates with me the most at the moment. It is inspiring that they work with the possibilities of architecture also in the social and political plane. Moreover, Aureli is a great author.
T: I respect the humility and courage in the domestic and foreign scene.
M: From the domestic scene, I probably admire the 20th century architects the most – Dedeček, Milučký, Matúšik, …, for raising the quality of Slovak architecture to the world level and for their courageous approaches. Z more recent creators are zerozero, Plural, n/a, totalstudio for their conceptuality and poeticism, GutGut for their work with architectural heritage, and lately I’ve been enjoying interiors by Kilo/Honč. From the Czech scene, I am always surprised by the work of Chybík&Krištof studios, which grew up with incredible speed into world-famous creators and also the work of Jan Šépka for hisexperimental approach. From the foreign ones I would mention Peter Zumthor, KWK Promes, KGDVS, Harquitectes, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, WOJR, Penda, BIG…
Ethics or money?
O: Ethics.
T: Ethics and money.
M: Ethics, even if I cry afterwards.
Extraordinary book?
O: Everyday Gets a Little Closer (Irvin Yalom).
T: The Bible.
M: The Man Who Planted Trees. Short, but beautiful.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
O: Yes.
T: Optimist.
M: A phlegmatic optimist.
Do you have any hobby?
O: Sometimes my friends and I pretend to be musicians and try to play the instruments that are just handy.
T: I draw.
M: A lot, but I neglect them – photography, guitar, cgi, …
Solo or in a collective?
O: I enjoy almost everything more in a collective.
T: 100% collective.
M: I don’t mind solitude, I quite like to think alone, either in silence or with music. I prefer beer in a collective.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
O: Europe is the promised land.
T: Eastern Slovakia – the promised land.
M: I wish.