Speed Date / Ô, architects
Photo: Peter Čintalan / Dynameet.
(K) Martin Kvitkovský, (V) Martin Varga
Where are you from?
K: From Košice.
V: From Vrakuňa.
Where did you study?
K: AFAD in Bratislava, FA VUT in Brno.
V: AFAD Bratislava, BAS Berkeley.
Who was your best teacher?
K: Juraj Žáry.
V: Jan Tábor (RIP).
Who were/ are your parents?
K: Strong people who have been through it all.
V: Hydraulic engineers.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
K: PUR foam.
V: Convincing company-clients of the obvious truth.
And on the contrary, what do you?
K: Learning, development, application, debate, collaboration.
V: PUR foam.
What do you listen to?
K: Cuckoo clock (10x) at the moment. Otherwise almost everything, from French electronic to Balkan brass. I try to avoid home-made brass music, though.
In: “Spolok skúsených spevúľ” [Society of Experienced Singers].
Your favourite film, cartoon, series?
K: Wes Anderson movies. That magical world of his is somewhere else entirely, above everything. Lately I’ve been enjoying watching Peppa Pig with my daughter. Everything is presented there in a minimal way. And it’s really funny.
V: M.A.S.H, Walking Dead, The Cremator, Men about Town.
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
K: Anyone who knows their craft properly and isn’t afraid to share their knowledge.
V: Jan Tabor, who has just left us, as befits an architectural theorist, at the Venice Biennale. His teachings – unteachings and quarrels with the great Mr. Zervan will remain with us forever. The theory of sexuality in architecture is a blessing to us in our most difficult moments.
What thing did you last buy?
K: A parking ticket.
V: A developer and a fixer.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
K: Obsessively, from the last batch: Archaeology of modernism_Conservation of the Bauhaus Dessau_Markgraf, Construction: manual_Daniel Mettler and Daniel Studer (ETH Zurrich), Rotunda 3_Johansen Skovsted Arkitekter, A Little House_Fondation Le Corbusier.
V: Still, but I only read when I have time and I don’t …. Libri D’Architettvra Di Gio: Antonio Rvsconi.
Do you vote?
K: Regularly.
V: Always!
Who throws the best parties?
K: Probably our neighbours the Lakatoš’s, judging by the noise.
V: Us!
Your favourite dome?
K: Grandma’s sloe wine jug.
V: Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence.
Party dress. Made by…?
K: I’d probably look comical in a dress, whoever it was from.
V: I have no idea.
Your hero from the past?
K: Older brother.
V: Jozef Gabčík.
Best/nicest house?
K: The Machnáč curative house, no compromises.
V: I will evaluate at the end of my life, for now Villa Hermína / HŠH architects leads.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
K: I try to keep things in order. They manifest themselves in the way that I have order.
V: I question and complicate things, I don’t have order in things :D.
What’s on your desktop?
K: The best possible default illustration and few folders.
V: Folders that I’m afraid to open, they pile up.
Best exhibition, work of art?
K: The Tomas Bata Memorial in Zlín. Very strong, even if it’s not an exhibition in the true sense of the word.
V: LACMA.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
K: Everyone who manages to push the bar at least a little bit higher. I am very happy with what our former classmates from AFAD are doing. Each of them is passionate in a different direction, they started honestly from scratch, managed to survive the first years and today they are working brands with a visible social impact. Totalstudio, Woven, Archimera, 82 Bøok & Design Shõp, Dynameet and many more. Fantasy, fingers crossed!
V: Those who don’t give up and create meaningful products with heart.
Ethics or money?
K: It took me a few years to realise that they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
V: Ethically earned money.
Extraordinary book?
K: UNIKA 2021-2022 rate book. Finally an edition valid for two years. A truly riveting read.
In: Tracy’s Tiger – William Saroyan.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
K: I have rather lofty ideas about a lot of things, so rather naive. But it’s great when it eventually manages to translate into an outcome, it feeds the optimism then.
V: Optimist.
Do you have any hobby?
K: Contemporary work in the broadest possible sense. Interspersed with that is cycling, also in the widest possible range. Kite flying (you can do it year round, not necessarily just in the fall), our cabin, cutting wood, long car trips.
V: Carpentry.
Solo or in a collective?
K: Individually and once in a while to refresh ourselves collectively.
V: Manual – 1984.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
K: There’s a lot of prerequisites for that, but it still takes a lot of sweat.
V: We are still parting ways, so it can be again and again-promised.