ADD Architecture Studio

LEGENDARY INTERVIEW

Design Legends ("DL") had the distinct honour to interview legendary designer ADD Architecture Studio ("AAS") for their original perspective and innovative approach to design as well as their creative lifestyle, we are very pleased to share our interview with our distinguished readers.

DL: Could you please tell us a bit about your design background and education?

AAS : Both of us –Argyris and Dionysios- are architects. We studied together at the Faculty of Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens and have been collaborating ever since our University years, but have been knowing each other for a lot longer time. ADD Architectural Studio was formed by us after our MA graduation from the Faculty of Architecture at the National Technical University of Athens in 2016. Our graduation was marked by our Diploma Project getting awarded an Honorable Mention at the 2016 European Architectural Medal Awards-Best Diploma Projects- and getting nominated for the 2016 EU Mies van der Rohe Young Talent Architecture Awards. We were also selected as representatives of the Technical Chamber of Greece for the UIA 2017 Seoul Congress. Since our graduation, we have continued our collaboration as ADD –a collaboration spanning through all of our University years, and a longer friendship. We already have numerous built projects and publications in architectural and design sites and magazines as well as projects in progress.

DL: What motivates you to design in general, why did you become a designer?

AAS : A designer should not make the mistake to consider him/her self part of an autonomous community. What we design, from the smallest to the largest scale project does affect people’s lives. It seldom mediates interpersonal relationships and can even add to the overall formation of our psychology. A design also affects the environment, having a great impact on natural resources. Being society-caring and environmental-sustainable is not a matter of new-age trend. It really is a responsibility, not just for designers, but for everyone.

DL: Did you choose to become a designer, or you were forced to become one?

AAS : Our families have had a huge influential role in our becoming designers, our fathers being a civil engineer and an architect respectively. But it was not only this that led to a design-oriented life. We both felt the need to be able to combine knowledge from various disciplines so as to create something new. Something personal. When we entered the University we would constantly look around us and be thrilled by the new world presenting itself before us. The more we studied, the more we felt this was the place for us. Since then, not a day passes without at least a sketch. A sketch can be relieving some times. We guess that our innermost selves had always wanted to be a designer, it all just came naturally and felt right.

DL: What do you design, what type of designs do you wish to design more of?

AAS : Just everything! We design everything we can get our hands on. Whole buildings from scratch, interiors, industrial products, expressive pieces of art, anything that combines a multidisciplinary approach and expression possibilities. And since we believe that “design” is both tangible and intangible, we also design music. Yes, that’s right, we also design music, we do not write music.

DL: What distinguishes between a good designer and a great designer?

AAS : A good designer is someone who works in a disciplined way, and usually a lot. A great designer is someone who knows exactly how much emotional and time investment is required each time. Both might eventually produce a successful design. However it is not always about the final product, but it is also about what this product bears in its innermost essence.

DL: What makes a good design a really good design, how do you evaluate good design?

AAS : A good design is a design which has the power to communicate its purpose without the designers having to argue on its virtues. However the success of a really good design has to do with the Japanese notion of “ikigai”. “Ikigai” is the intersecting point of “what you are good at”, “what the world needs”, “what you love” and “what you can be paid for”. And this does not only applies to human beings –designers- but also on designs. A successful design is a design which is love at the first sight. It is not necessary to be a fully conscious love –you do not have to realise that you love a piece of design-. It is sufficient to say that a design is successful when you can not easily think an alternative to it upon asked, unless the alternative answer is even better. On this case, the successfulness of the original design is the birth of a new idea.

DL: What is the value of good design? Why should everyone invest in good design?

AAS : Design shapes the world we live in. It defines the form of our surroundings with all the influences this implies. Good design is not necessarily expensive nor reserved for the wealthy. But it is indispensable. Investing (psychologically, time, money etc) in good design is indicating that we care and respect the world we live in. A good design has a lot to do with environmental sustainability.

DL: Who are some other design masters and legends you get inspired from?

AAS : Rem Koolhaas and OMA for their interdisciplinary approach spanning their whole design process.

DL: What are your favorite designs by other designers, why do you like them?

AAS : We both adore Villa dall’ Ava by Rem Koolhaas. It is a private-commissioned house in Paris. It is a work that has had a great influence on our work, since it incorporates the seminal theorems to be found on the later work of OMA, which we love. Villa dall’ Ava is a great lesson on themes such as analogies, references to constructivism and surrealism, games of perspective and most of all: how to make a work of art a camouflaged personal expression whilst respecting the design’s mission-a mission surpassing our immediate needs.

DL: How could people improve themselves to be better designers, what did you do?

AAS : Always practice. Find a topic which interests you and be ready to sacrifice a night drink or a holiday for it to become your knowledge. Spend time with yourself during the process but reach out for others’ feedback when you have something concrete to show.

DL: If you hadn’t become a designer, what would you have done?

AAS : Most likely Argyris would have become a Techno music producer and Dionysios would be a screenwriter and cinema director.

DL: How do you define design, what is design for you?

AAS : Sometimes people tend to treat “design” as a rather “taboo” word. This happens a lot when designers try to separate themselves as an autonomous community. But for us, this is not the case. We believe that “design” is everywhere and everything. “Design” is both tangible and intangible. “Design” is a drawing, a plan, a sketch, an industrial product but also a piece of music, a way to talk, a way to walk, a way to have sex. Good “design” makes our lives better, bad “design” makes us sad and might also be dangerous. We sincerely believe that “design” is an innate quality of human nature. The ability to combine different disciplines, to think out of the box, to produce something originally benefiting. If there is something that our architectural background has taught us is that the best architects never received any kind of official “design” education. But they lived. And hence, they designed. This is why our motto is just that simple: “We design”.

DL: Who helped you to reach these heights, who was your biggest supporter?

AAS : Our teachers and Diploma thesis supervisors, namely Joahn Zachariades and Andreas Kourkoulas.

DL: What were the obstacles you faced before becoming a design master?

AAS : Doubt. This is the greatest obstacle along with the tricks one’s own mind tends to play during the design process.

DL: How do you think designers should present their work?

AAS : With simple and humble words. No need for academic juggling when it comes to a subject that matters everyone.

DL: Which design projects gave you the most satisfaction, why?

AAS : Every project gives us a special kind of satisfaction. You never do the same trick twice, even if you try to.

DL: Where do you think the design field is headed next?

AAS : We believe that the design field is greatly being influenced by the appearance of common-grounds and open-resource programs. Nowadays the knowledge is easily and more-equally (unfortunately not all-equally) distributed. This means that the basic resources needed to make an idea realization are spreading freely across the globe. So, in a few years –if not already- it might even be futile to name a person a “designer”. This is not a danger for the contemporary designers. It is a promise for the long inherited “designer and not-a-designer” societal gap to disappear once and for all. We expect a great deal of important designs to emerge from people who in another time might not have been given the chance of expression.

DL: How long does it take you to finalize a design project?

AAS : It depends on the complexity of the object, as well as on whether it is a commission with a strict deadline or a personal experimentation. For example, our Silver A’ Design Award awarded “Reverse Pickup Table Lamp”, started with an abstract sketch in Athens in January 2017 and was completed in early May 2017 as a concept design.

DL: When you have a new design project, where do you start?

AAS : Our inspiration emanates from architecture, industrial design, music-especially techno-, arts, theatre, cinema and everyday life. Sometimes we like to experiment with the surrealist paranoid-critical method introduced by Dali and see how our minds’ “museum of inspirations” might reorganize everything we have read and seen, even if we didn’t do it on purpose. It usually all starts with an idea. It might be a simple practical idea, or a more philosophical one. If it just a practical one, we like to see if there are indeed any philosophical extensions to it. This is not just a mind game. It is about trying to find a pure idea-guide so as to form a kind of filter for what design feature might come next. Then, a lot of sketches and 3d models or even physical ones follow. They all swindle until one moment they just fall into the right place. And you know the design is good when you cannot add neither remove anything without spoiling some of its virtues.

DL: What is your life motto as a designer?

AAS : “It’s in the doing that the idea comes”

DL: Do you think design sets the trends or trends set the designs?

AAS : Maybe it is a vice-versa kind of relationship. Trends are set by the rhythms of life, essentially by people. So is design.

DL: What kind of design software and equipment do you use in your work?

AAS : We like to sketch a lot at the beginning, so as not to prison the idea into anything concrete. Books, philosophy, movies and music are also a valuable way of communication between us, a way to convey the desired atmosphere. Afterwards of course follow the clear designs, 3d and physical models.

DL: Who is your ideal design partner? Do you believe in co-design?

AAS : We usually work as a team. On the rare occasion that a design does not start like this due to reasons of time and place, we definitely take is a team afterwards. We also like to propose to each other what it would be fun, interesting and meaningful to occupy ourselves with.

DL: Which people you interacted had the most influence on your design?

AAS : We both worked on a very prestigious Greek architecture office for 3 years, while still studying at the Faculty of Architecture. This was an invaluable experience, since we had the chance to work also as project architects for a number of projects and competitions, some of which are on their way to realization. The time we spent in the office was priceless since we really got to understand that a line is not something not to be taken seriously. A line on the paper implies time, money, weight, space, labor, light and shadow. All the lines must be in an harmonic balance.

DL: Which books you read had the most effect on your design?

AAS : SMLXL, Delirious New York, Architecture Depends.

DL: How did you develop your skills as a master designer?

AAS : A great deal of self practice.

DL: How do you feel about all the awards and recognition you had, is it hard to be famous?

AAS : It is always great to receive an award. It is a confirmation that your ideas find connection to other people’s ideas. Although it makes you feel special, at the same time it reminds you that you are not alone and definitely you are not secluded in an imaginary sphere.

DL: When you were a little child, was it obvious that you would become a great designer?

AAS : Not really. We were both exceptionally good at school and with everything we would get our hands on. However being a designer rarely has to do with all the practical skills and knowledge you pick up during school years.