This week Gianpiero Venturini interviews the architect Juan Herreros. The objective of these interviews is the same as in previous ones: to know information about his career, his methods, themes, approach,...; and at the same time his opinion about the profession and inspire new generations of architects and students.
PAST narrates how his beginnings were, which reasons led him to study architecture, anecdotes and first commissions. Also, the conditions that allowed him to take his company to be among the most recognized internationally are questioned.
PAST narrates how his beginnings were, which reasons led him to study architecture, anecdotes and first commissions. Also, the conditions that allowed him to take his company to be among the most recognized internationally are questioned.
Gianpiero Venturini: "Could you share with us one or two anecdotes of the first period of your career?"
Juan Herreros: "When I was teaching at the AA, I met Cedric Price. Cedric Price was really a surprise for me, he was completely different than the mythology of Cedric Price that the Cedric Price lovers were instigating at that time. I still had the idea of Cedric Price as a "non-architect" person or being against the discipline. But what I found was a person incredibly, deeply engaged with architecture and with the practice. And it was really quite interesting for me. I would say I learnt from him the necessity of having a critical approach to everything we do".
Juan Herreros: "When I was teaching at the AA, I met Cedric Price. Cedric Price was really a surprise for me, he was completely different than the mythology of Cedric Price that the Cedric Price lovers were instigating at that time. I still had the idea of Cedric Price as a "non-architect" person or being against the discipline. But what I found was a person incredibly, deeply engaged with architecture and with the practice. And it was really quite interesting for me. I would say I learnt from him the necessity of having a critical approach to everything we do".
PRESENT is about the functioning and growth of your firm. Through knowledge of the organizational structure of the study, its current fields of research and the analysis of a current project, which allows us to understand some of the reasons for its success.
GV: "How would you define your practice?".
JH: "I’m not very obsessed about looking for this cool word that everybody is fighting for to define their practice. I can say that the work we do is quite pragmatic, collaborative - in the real term of the word, not in the fancy way - and absolutely obsessed about simplification. So the process of the work we do is usually explained through taking a lot of information, working a long time, having a lot of conversations, to produce something incredibly simple that can be given back to the world".
JH: "I’m not very obsessed about looking for this cool word that everybody is fighting for to define their practice. I can say that the work we do is quite pragmatic, collaborative - in the real term of the word, not in the fancy way - and absolutely obsessed about simplification. So the process of the work we do is usually explained through taking a lot of information, working a long time, having a lot of conversations, to produce something incredibly simple that can be given back to the world".
FUTURE seeks to debate today's and tomorrow's issues. Each architect suggests a selection of key concepts that represent his or her own approach; and ends with advice aimed at new generations.
GV: "Which are the key-words that you think should guide architecture in the future?"
JH: "My message for the young generation is not «You are the future», it’s «You are the present». Never before has the difference between the work of the younger architects and the established ones been so great. And never before has the work of young architects informed so much the work of the established ones. So we are looking at the work of the young architects, searching for information, using them and using their work to understand the conditions of the present that perhaps are not so easy to understand for us. In other words, my message for the young generation is «Let us work together»".
JH: "My message for the young generation is not «You are the future», it’s «You are the present». Never before has the difference between the work of the younger architects and the established ones been so great. And never before has the work of young architects informed so much the work of the established ones. So we are looking at the work of the young architects, searching for information, using them and using their work to understand the conditions of the present that perhaps are not so easy to understand for us. In other words, my message for the young generation is «Let us work together»".
