Speed Date / RÓBERT BAKYTA, architect
Where are you from?
From Jarok.
Where did you study?
Piarist united school in Nitra, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Faculty of Architecture and Design of Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava.
Who was your best teacher?
Gymnasium: Alexander Kántor – Physics – I love Physics!
Andrea Skyvová – art school.
Faculty of Civil Engineering: Jaroslav Halvoník, Jozef Oláh – concrete structures, KPS.
Faculty of Architecture: Paňák + Kusý.
Who were/ are your parents?
My mom is a nurse, my dad works as a sorting line manager for waste management.
What don’t you enjoy in design?
Trends.
And on the contrary, what do you?
Timelessness, humility, wit, guessing the right measure…when it’s goosebumps on the second or third glance, and then still.
What do you listen to?
Whole discography: Thom Yorke, Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode, Joy Division, Air, Philip Glass, Daft punk, El Guincho, Arctic Monkeys.
SK + CZ: Midi Lidi, Štefan Kráľovič, Juraj Zdurienčík, there’s more and it’s varied.
Your favourite film or cartoon?
I like stuff by: Jim Jarmusch, Stanley Kubrick, Christopher Nolan, Joel Coen + Ethan Coen…
Who do you respect as an authority in and out of your field?
On the Slovak scene, certainly my teachers – I write this with honour – and also my older colleagues Kusý and Paňák… I follow and appreciate the work of: PLURAL, Totalstudio, zerozero, 2021, NlA, Studený architekti, gut gut, kuklica – smerek, grau…
From abroad: Souto de Moura, OFFICE KGDVS ,O.M. Ungers, Petr Hájek, projektil…
Outside: Roman Ondák, Palo Čejka, Tomáš Klepoch, Patrícia Koyšová, Boris Németh, Matúš Lelovský, Marek Wurfl, Braňo Matis, Paulína Morháčová – I know many of them and I talk to them about their stuff – I understand it – that’s important for me.
The greats: Gerhard Richter, Mark Rhotko, Rachel Whiteread.
And the overlap: Alexander Brodsky.
I’m generally interested in things that don’t go on the surface, it has to have an idea… I’m not very particular, I like to be inspired by anything that has an intellectual basis, but with a certain moderation, lightness and unencumberedness – there’s not much of the good stuff…
What thing did you last buy?
Hot and sour soup and rice noodles.
Do you buy professional literature? What was the latest book?
Yeah, sure. Most recently Analogue Oldnew Arhitecture – Eva Willenegger, Lukas Imhof; also some new INTROs landed in our studio.
Do you vote?
I’m a Democrat, yes!
Who throws the best parties?
Matúš Lelovský, although I haven’t been to one for a long time.
Your favourite dome?
Pantheon, Reichstag, Rotonda.
Party dress. Made by…?
I’m not dealing with this.
Your hero from the past?
Zinedine Zidane.
Best/nicest house?
Altes Museum Berlin, Estádio Municipal de Braga, Schulhaus Leutschenbach Zürich, dostavba Kunstmuseum Basel, Cintorín San Cataldo by Aldo Rossi, Mies’ Neues Nationalgalerie, Solo House by OFFICE KGDVS, Università Luigi Bocconi by Grafton architects.
Do you have any stereotypes when you work? How do they show?
Long decision making, forever changing everything .
What’s on your desktop?
A mess 😀
Best exhibition, work of art?
It still amazes me that I became an architect – Alexander Brodsky, Architekturzentrum Wien, 2011,
…I still remember it vividly.
Big Beng Data – Olga Subirós, José Luis de Vicente, DOXX Praha, 2017.
What do you respect both from the local and foreign design scene? And why?
I always like things with an idea, I like when architecture takes inspiration from other works – recognised ones – and uses/quotes/paraphrases it well, I like wit and detachment… I like consistency and coherence, contextuality and neo-contextuality.
Recently I have been pleased with the realization of the house in the culvert on Dunajská Street (because the house fits in perfectly, and you don’t even notice it – that’s what I like) by Petr Jurkovič, Marcel Dzurila and Kristina Tomanová, or Villa Bôrik in Žilina by PLURAL (spatial program, expression and overall execution).
In Berlin, for example, Wohnregal by FAR Studio – the theme of prefa housing construction in the Berlin context and the consistency – great! And the work of Lacaton Vassal and their thinking on sustainability.
Ethics or money?
I’m an idealist, so ethics – but I need to find a balance, plus I need to feed my team and myself…
Extraordinary book?
I recently read/listened to Quo Vadis – and was really blown away realizing the time of its creation, Stefan Zweig – The World of Yesterday and Ryszard Kapuściński – Imperium, especially in the context of the events surrounding the UA.
Optimist, pessimist, nihilist?
Optimist + rationalist.
Do you have any hobby?
Running, swimming…
Solo or in a collective?
Once this, once that.
Slovakia as the Promised Land?
I like it here…