Interview

1、您是怎样开始设计的呢，设计理念通常是怎样引发出来、产生的呢？

我们开始设计时，首先要确定必须要解决的问题和利用建筑解决这些问题的途径，这就意味着，我们的工作开始时，需要超越客户或简介信息的描述或要求，真正的确定建筑需要解决的问题，如果你没付出必要的时间和努力找到需要解决的真正问题，那么所提出的方案也将是留于表面、不堪一击的。我们的工作是为了抓住问题本质，并专注于问题本质，我们相信我们应该做的是回答一个基本问题，而不是很多个次要问题，因为这些次要问题在之后的过程中自然会迎刃而解。之后，我们利用建筑历史、理论和实践中获得的通用工具制定策略，而不是设计概念，我们会制定可适应不同情景的灵活策略，帮助我们找到问题的答案。我们发现这种工作方法与希腊的Techne概念息息相关。

2、您的很多建筑作品并不是规模很大、外形简单，但是却对外墙的材料和设计非常讲究。您可以与我们的读者分享一下您处理建筑表皮的方法吗？

对待任何问题，如果不去考虑解决方法的话，我们是无法解决的，因此结构、材料和施工，及它们与建筑物条件和环境的关系会影响我们做出的每一个决策。在厄瓜多尔，特别是在安第斯山地区和基多，由于天气相对温和的原因，我们可以模糊内部和外部的边界，将我们所拥有的美丽的自然环境融入到我们的建筑中，发挥材料和几何结构的内在可能性和特质，而不是试图模仿或复制自然；我们在尝试通过物质化和几何结构，来调和建筑和自然、策略和现实之间的关系。

3、在您的设计中，您是怎样一直保持创新性和创造性的呢？

这不是我们努力的目标，而是我们利用一定工作方法后产生的结果，我们可应用类似的策略去解决不同问题，比如天井或庭院，但是其必须要符合的条件往往会影响并改变最后形成的建筑。对同一个通用原则或策略来说，材料和施工中的变化将会产生非常不同的结果，我们将天井从x房屋到科塔卡奇房屋、到扩散边界RI房屋项目的应用表明了我们工作中的这种变化发展。

4、厄瓜多尔保持了传统的城市风格，并拥有很多历史建筑。您认为城市环境会影响贵公司的风格或理念吗？

当然会，城市和自然环境是我们建筑发挥作用的必要条件和场所；我们将我们所有的工作视为对一个已存在环境的介入，同样地，我们必须努力改善现有的环境。在城市环境下，介入范围总是更复杂的，涉及到很多不同方面和程度的影响，所以能够确定我们的建筑在城市品质改善方面可发挥的作用，在定义所需解决问题方面是非常关键的，我们的方案必须对个人用户和集体有效，可将两者融合在一起，在这个项目中，便是对私人和公众之间的界线再次进行模糊，以重拾我们城市集体生活的悠久历史。

ICONO：可渗透生活（公寓和办公室） Icono: Permeable Living (Apartments and offices)

5、您表达空间的方式非常丰富多样，那么您的思想基础是什么？

我们不会让工作受到程序或形式的限制，同样也不会让我们建筑中的出发点或主要考量因素受到其限制；我们尝试去确认建筑中的基本问题时，就希望结果可以是本质层面上的，与仅处理表面问题相比，能够与用户在不同、更深和更多的层面上产生共鸣。

6、您已经成功完成许多重要项目，包括厄瓜多尔安巴托的法院建筑，您是怎样处理新建筑、老建筑和城市之间的关系的呢？

如果我们将我们所有的建筑都视为一种介入，关系便会成为主要关注焦点，特别是建筑物和城市之间的关系，怎样在其边界或空间内进行工作，才可在规模和特色方面，形成与公共和私人或个人和集体边界一样的第三空间。法院大楼项目涉及到一系列位于不同城市和环境中的项目，我们将需要解决的主要问题定义到法院大楼应该为这座城市提供的公共空间上，这一公共空间在规模和特性上应该拥有较少市政和压迫因素，多些个人和吸引人的因素，形成一系列可缓解和分散人们在这类建筑中通常体会到的紧迫感的空间。为实现这一目的，我们利用了城市门廊或门厅及绿色广场原则，通过规模、材料和几何结构的调整，让其融入每一个建筑环境。

7、据我们所知，您会强调建筑的个性。您是如何在获得用户认同的情况下，对建筑特色进行创造的呢？

我们发现工作中利用抽象作为一种工具去理解本质问题，也用它来创作基本建筑，可以让我们超出表面期待或流行话语，与客户以更深的方式建立联系。同时，我们努力建造的建筑，可为用户和用户的需要提供支持，具有适应性和可调整性，同时具备足够的特性和目的因素，可让建筑作为用户思想的促成者和强化者，而不仅仅是一个基础设施。

8、您的建筑中使用的材料和部件之间的联系都是经过精心设计的，您是怎样对这些细节进行控制的呢？

这就是我们极力强调Techne原则的地方，通过应用通用原理获得知识的积累。在厄瓜多尔我们必须要面对建筑技术的实际局限性和经济限制，这迫使我们必须采用、重建现有的且已证实的通用技术，而不是依赖标准技术。通过研发这些细节和技术，我们的建筑在材料和施工基础上成型、变化，所以我们从不发明或从零开始，我们是在与制造者或建造者一起不断地发展和适应中，从通用到具体，从策略到现实。定义和完工是这个过程中的步骤，而不是开始和结束，绘图和施工是一体的、相互依赖的，所以我们坚持获取本质这一原则，将这些细节和整体施工过程视为一套逻辑上可被理解和完成的规则和原则。

9、在您的作品中，您常常使用抽象集合体和大面积透明玻璃幕墙，你可以谈谈您对这种形式的看法吗？

利用抽象作为工具和工作方法不一定会形成抽象几何结构和形式，但是我们一直试图解释它是一种结果，而不一定是意图，透明度和环境联系也是如此。在这个意义上，我们会说我们更喜欢依靠鬼斧神工的地形和安第斯山脉的美景，或者四季常青的茂密植被和变幻不定、美不胜收的天空，而不是依靠建筑的客观特性；这不是说我们在模仿或隐藏，或在极简化和让其充满趣味。我们不认为建筑应该是关于形式或意象的美，而是我们致力于让美超越其本身的意象和形式限制，同时保持其工艺和与现实的联系。

10、您对中国建筑的印象是什么？如果有机会的话，您想在中国留下什么样的作品呢？

很多年以来，我们一直在关注中国建筑的发展，最近几年越来越感兴趣。我们发现当前中国建筑师开发的作品范围和质量堪称典范，特别是在较小和中等规模的作品和环境中。我们看到当代建筑方案中体现了与当地施工、历史和环境更密切的联系，这些方案虽被重新打磨，但是却非常有效。在这些建筑中，我们观察到中国和拉丁美洲间的关系比两者中任意一方与欧洲的关系都要密切，我们认为，这具有很大发展潜力。

我们很乐意在中国工作，进一步加深对建筑问题共同原则和方法的了解，同时将我们的观点和工作方法带到中国，以在这个边缘领域探索出第三种选择建筑，拓展亚洲文化和拉丁美洲文化之间这块鲜有涉足的广阔区域。

1. How do you start a design, and how do design concepts often trigger and generate?

We start by determining the problem we have to solve and how it can be solved through architecture, meaning that our work always begins by going beyond what the client or brief can describe or ask for, to actually determine a problem that can be solved with architecture, if you don’t spend the necessary time and effort establishing the actual problem you are being asked to solve, then your solution will be superficial and weak. We work towards the essential in the nature of the problem and focus on that, we believe we should be answering one fundamental question, not many secondary ones, those tend to answer themselves later in the process. We then rely on universal tools that architectural history, theory and practice provide us, to develop strategies rather than design concepts, flexible strategies that can adapt to different circumstances and allow us room to work out the answers we need. We find this working method relates to the Greek concept of Techne.

2. Many of your architectural works are not big in size and simple in shape, but they are quite concerned about the materials and design of the facade. Could you share with our readers how you deal with the building skin?

We cannot approach any problem without considering how to solve it, thus structure, material and construction and how they relate to the conditions and context of the building inform every decision we make. In Ecuador, particularly in the Andes region and Quito, thanks to the relatively mild weather we can blur the boundaries between inside and out and incorporate the amazing natural environment we have into our architecture, working with the intrinsic possibilities and qualities of material and geometry rather than trying to emulate or copy nature; we try to approach materiality and geometry as a way to mediate between architecture and nature, between strategy and reality.

3. How do you maintain continuous innovation and creativity in your design?

That is something we don’t strive for as a goal but rather is a result of our working method, we can apply a similar strategy to different problems, for instance the patio or courtyard, but the conditions it has to respond to will inform and change the resulting architecture. A change in material and construction will have a very different result for the same universal principle or strategy, the way we have applied the patio from the x house to Cotacachi house, to the diffuse borders RI house project shows this development in our work.

4. Ecuador keeps a traditional city style and has many historical buildings. Do you think the urban environment has an impact on the style or philosophy of your firm?

Absolutely, urban and natural environment conform the reality that our architecture has to work with and within; we consider all our work as an intervention in an existing context, and as such we have to strive to always improve that pre existing environment. Within urban contexts the scope of the intervention is always more complex and deals with many aspects and scales of influence, so being able to determine the degree in which our architecture will improve the quality of the city is fundamental in defining the problem to be solved, our solutions have to work for the individual user and for the collective, always trying to bring the two together, again to blur the boundaries, in this case between private and public, to regain that rich history of collective living in our cities.

5. The way you express space is rich and diverse,what is your basis for the idea?

We never work within the limits of program or form, neither are starting points or the main considerations in our architecture; as we try to identify the essential problems within architecture then we hope the results will be as essential, and as such resonate with the users at different, more profound and rich levels than you can achieve when you work, literally, with the superficial.

6. You have completed a number of important projects, including the court in Ambato, Ecuador,how do you deal with the relationships between new buildings, old buildings and the city?

If we consider all our work as an intervention, that relationship is always present as a main concern, particularly the relationship between building and city, and how to work in the boundary or space in between, to generate a third space that works in scale and character as that place in the border of public and private, or personal and collective space. In the Court House projects, as a system of projects to be located in different cities and contexts, we defined the main problem to solve as precisely that public space the court building should always give to the city, but with a scale and character less civic and imposing and more personal and inviting, a sequence of spaces to relieve and distract from the tension the user always experiences in these buildings. We used the principle of the urban porch or portal and a green plaza to achieve this, varying the scale, material and geometry to adapt to each context.

7. We know that you emphasize the individuality of the building. How do you create the building features, while winning the user's identity or approval?

We have found that working with abstraction as a tool to understand the essential and also to produce essential architecture, we can go beyond superficial expectations or fashionable statements to connect with the client in more profound ways. Also, we try to produce architecture that works as a support for the users and their needs, always adaptable and modifiable but with enough character and intention to be able to act as enabler and intensifier of the user’s ideas and not just as mere infrastructure.

8. The use of materials in your buildings and the connection of components are carefully designed, how could you control these details?

This is where we relate strongly to the principle of Techne, procuring an accumulation of knowledge through applied universal principles. The actual limited scope of building technology and economic restrictions we have to work with in Ecuador allows/forces us to always have to adapt and redevelop existing and proven universal techniques, rather than rely on standard technology. Our architecture is shaped and informed by material and construction through the development of these details and techniques, so we never invent or start from scratch, we work in constant development and adaptation, always with the fabricators or constructors, always from the universal to the specific and always from strategy to realization. Definition and completion are steps in this process, not beginning and end,drawing and construction are integral and interdependent, so we apply the same principle of procuring the essential,so as to treat these details and the whole construction process as a set of rules and principles that can be logically understood and carried out.

9. In your work, you often use abstract geometric volume and large area of transparent glass curtain wall, could you talk about your views of the form?

Using abstraction as a tool and working method not necessarily results in abstract geometry and form, but as we have tried to explain it is rather a consequence and not necessarily an intention, the same with transparency and connection with the environment. In this sense we can say that we prefer to rely on the beauty of the amazing geography and landscape of the Andes, or the lush year-round greenery and the constantly changing skies, rather than rely on the objectual quality of our buildings; that is not to say we try to mimic or hide, or try to be minimal and intriguing, we don’t consider architecture should be about the beauty of form or image, but aim to reach beauty beyond its own image and formal limits, as well as within its craft and connection with reality.

10. What is your impression of Chinese architecture? What kind of work would you like to leave in China if you have the opportunity?

We have been following the development of Chinese architecture for many years, and with much more interest in the last couple of years. We find the scope and quality of the work being developed currently by Chinese architects exemplary, particularly in the smaller and intermediate scales and contexts. We see now a much closer connection with local construction, history and context informing contemporary solutions that are retrained but highly potent. In these architectures we see a much closer relationship between China and Latin America than between either and Europe, and that has an enormous potential for development in our view.

We would love to work in China precisely to further understand these common principles and approaches to architectural problems, while bringing our outlook and working methods, in order to develop a third option,architecture produced within that fringe, diffuse expanse between Asian and Latin American culture that has been little explored.