Speed Date / GRAU, architects
Photo: Lousy Auber.
(A) Andrej Olah, (F) Filip Marčák
Where are you from?
A: From Bratislava.
F: Bratislava.
Where did you study?
A: Variously, primarily at FA STU in Bratislava, but also in Lisbon and Ljubljana as part of the Erasmus programme.
F: FA STU Bratislava, KTH Stockholm, FA CTU Prague.
Who was your best teacher?
A: At the faculty, definitely Ivan Gürtler, and then Vasa Perovic.
F: Those who influenced and shaped me at the faculties – Jozef Bátor, Štefan Polakovič and Petr Hájek.
Who were/ are your parents?
A: My father is an electrical engineer, my mother is a designer.
F: Dad is a civil engineer, majoring in civil engineering; mom is an economist, but a clothing designer at heart.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
A: Banal and repetitive solutions.
F: Generic approach and non-conceptuality.
And on the contrary, what do you?
A: Experimentation and new challenges.
F: Freedom, process, testing and sophisticated spectacularity.
What do you listen to?
A: An absolute mix of genres and styles.
F: Spotify. They have a good algorithm, I enjoy the new things they have to offer. A good one to listen to is the current DARKSIDE.
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
A: Currently Modern family, pure chill out.
F: Inception, The Simpsons, Unorthodox.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
A: There are many great role models but I don’t have a single clear favorite.
F: In the field Milučký, Dedeček, Matušík, Svetko and others, mainly for what they did and how they worked.
What thing did you last buy?
A: Lunch.
F: 2pcs of gel double-sided tape.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
A: Yes, last time probably Architecture is just a pretext.
F: Bratislava (un)planned city.
Do you vote?
A: Sure.
F: Of course!
Who throws the best parties?
A: Team of the Grape festival.
F: A good group you go to a party with…
Your favourite dome?
A: Camp Indian Sauna.
F: Pantheon.
Party dress. Made by…?
A: From my closet. I don’t care about that.
F: I don’t deal with this at all, I reach for what is and what I feel good in. You always have to be prepared for unexpected parties too, sometimes you can’t change.
Your hero from the past?
A: The Three Searchers.
F: J.K.
Best/nicest house?
A: The family home of my neighbors, the Skoček family, where I spent part of my childhood.
F: So far, of all the ÅRSTA KYRKA houses I’ve visited, I really enjoy experiencing the houses…
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
A: I guess I’m a bit impatient, plus I like to design and correct things on site.
F: Sketches, notebook and yellow stickers – it’s all over the place.
What’s on your desktop?
A: A pretty mess and the slogan “Work for money, design for love”.
F: Black surface with a white circle in the centre, 50mm diameter.
Best exhibition, work of art?
A: What is luxury in the Victoria Albert museum.
F: A life’s work of photographer Philippe Halsman.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
A: Definitely studios like gutgut, JRKVC, MAPA, with whom we share a similar view on architecture, but also studios like Plural, N/A, Jano Studený, zerozero. And last but not least, the author tandem Kusý-Paňák. As far as foreign offices are concerned, I like the work of young progressive studios such as NP2F, Paradigma Ariadné, Raamwerk and others.
F: From the local scene, definitely Paňák and Kusý, for their insight and knowledge. Atelier gutgut, with whom we collaborate a lot, JRKVC with whom we currently have a studio, MAPA – they have a similar perception of architecture. Foreign work for inspiration and fresh approach Leopold Banchini, Gonzalez Haase, Emil Dervish, Paradigma Ariadné, Raamwerk, etc…
Ethics or money?
A: Ethics for fair money.
F: Ethically earned money.
Extraordinary book?
A: Orwell – 1984.
F: The Old and New Testaments.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
A: Endless optimist.
F: An optimist, but sometimes you have to question in order to come up with something new.
Do you have any hobby?
A: Cycling, until I did a somersault over the handlebars.
F: Architecture is a hobby too. From sports: hockey, snow freeride, cycling.
Solo or in a collective?
A: Definitely in a collective.
F: Mostly collective, but something individual.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
A: Oh yeah, definitely.
F: It’s a good place to live.