PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE – PEOPLE OF DESIGN VERSION!

What prescient youthful memory relates to your present career?

I never knew I would be an architect, but I always knew I would be dedicated to something related to design and the arts. When I first visited Barcelona, shortly before I entered the university, I strongly felt architecture would be my life. Everything in that city is design and that marked me.

What are three basic rules you learned from your mentors?

■ Never work alone. Teamwork will take you further.
■ Always listen to the client and put yourself in
their place.
■ Never be afraid to think big.

Do you listen to music while you work and what music is that?

Of course! Music and creativity for me go hand in hand. The type of music depends on the time of day and the degree of concentration I need, but there are also times when I just need silence.

Do you work in PJs or three-piece suits?

It depends! If I work at night, which happens very often, I prefer to work with comfortable clothes or PJs. Daytime, I prefer to dress well, ready to go and meet a client at any moment.

What is your current design state of mind?

I’m open to anything. If the current pandemic has taught me anything, it’s that everything can happen, that things can change more quickly than we believed or expected, and that every event can open the door to new opportunities, new needs and therefore new designs.

What living designer/architect do you most admire?

Impossible to have only one. Kazuyo Sejima, Bjarke Ingels, Carme Pinós, Alvaro Siza, are just some of the architects whose work inspires me.

KAZUYO SEJIMA

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Rama, CC BY-SA 2.0 FR, via Wikimedia Commons

BJARKE INGELS

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Epizentrum, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

CARME PINÓS

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https://www.australiandesignreview.com/architecture/in-profile- carme-pinos/

ALVARO SIZA

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https://www.vitra.com/en-us/about-vitra/who-we-are/designer/ details/alvaro-siza

Photo: https://www.zaha-hadid.com/

What past designer/architect inspires you the most?

ZAHA HADID
I like some of her designs more than others, but more than her architecture, which I think is powerful and feminine at the same time, I deeply admire the place she arrived at and how she positioned herself among the best architects in the world as a woman, in a world predominantly made of men.

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What is your most marked design ability and or quality?

I’m stubborn, in a good way. I mean that I am convinced of what I am looking for in designing and I am faithful to my first instinct. I am also flexible to change direction when I know things are not working, but I don’t do it until I have exhausted all the possibilities on my first idea.

How would you like your designs to go down in history?

Designs that touch the soul, spaces that make you feel, that speak to you in some way or another, but never leave you indifferent.

What peer quality do you most value?

To be humble and able to pass their knowledge to others, to spread their own enthusiasm and passion for design in a constructive manner. It seems simple, but there are those who lose themselves in their own ego and lose the sense of collaboration and teamwork, when the success of every project in any discipline is based on this.

How are your country of belonging’s values reflected in your work?

Mexico is a country full of light and color. They are attributes you find everywhere, in architecture, in people, in food. Everything is warmth. This is something I seek to reflect on my designs. Create spaces that in a subtle way pay tribute to what is lived day by day in every corner of the country, where you feel welcome, where light is the protagonist.

What always inspires you?

I can find inspiration in anything, knowing how to open my eyes and in general all my senses to perceive it. Objects, nature, a good book, a good wine, other people, other cities… creativity and inspiration can come unexpectedly at any time, anywhere.

If a spell were to transform you into an object, by all means, what would you like to be, and why?

WATER.
Water is flexible, has the ability to transform into whatever it wants, to change course, to evaporate, touch the sky and return in the form of thousands of drops; to become ice, to be solid, strong, imposing, and then melt and return to that fluid state that reaches every place it wants. Water is movement, it is light, it is sound. It is both subtle and imposing. It’s always moving, nothing stops it. Water is freedom.

What is your favorite place in the world?

My bed, with my children asleep in my arms.
For me, it is the most loving and spiritual place in the world.

What is your mantra?

Everything is possible if you can imagine it.

What is your dream? THINK BIG!

This year, I decided to start two of my own companies, one of architecture and another of furniture design. So my dream for now is to position them in the big leagues of design and be recognized not only locally, but internationally. I want to take Mexican design to many corners of the world where people can recognize the quality of Mexican details and values and identify with them.