Jury-GRANDS PRIX DU DESIGN / Published on January 18, 2021
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Georges Adamczyk
Professor
École d’architecture, Université de Montréal
Montréal, Québec, Canada
PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE – PEOPLE OF DESIGN VERSION!
What prescient youthful memory relates to your present career?
Villa de Paul Poiret, https://www.yvelines-infos.fr/content/uploads/2018/paulpoiret-15.jpg
In the late-1940s, a visit to Paul Poiret’s villa, designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens in 1921, rehabilitated and modified in 1932 by Paul Boyer for the Romanian and French actress Elvire Popesco was quite a revelation.
It was my first experience of white cubist architecture.
What are three basic rules you learned from your mentors?
Observe,
appreciate,
Transmit!
What project launched your career?
As a young designer trainee at the PGLE agency (Papineau, Gérin-Lajoie, LeBlanc, Edwards),
I cut my teeth by participating for three years in the Mirabel terminal project, in the north of Montreal.
Source : https://docomomoquebec.ca/patrimoine-menace/151-aeroports-en-peril.html
Source : https://www.montrealsignsproject.ca/fr/sign/affichage-de-laeroport-mirabel
Any music playing while you work?
I rarely do! Sometimes I’ll enjoy classical pianists…
Do you work in PJs or three-piece suits?
Somewhere in between! I choose comfortable casual clothes.
Source : https://www.facebook.com/umontreal/photos/les-professeurs- fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric-dub%C3%A9-georges-adamczyk-et-anne-cormier-avec-leurs- %C3%A9tudia/10161498483465494/
What is your current design state of mind?
As a teacher, my current state of mind leads me to concentrate on the essentials.
As a critic and curator, I want to rediscover yesterday’s avant-gardes.
What living designer/architect do you most admire?
They are many.
I very much appreciate the approach and the work of David Chipperfield. |
 Bruno Cordioli, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons. org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons |
What past designer/architect inspires you the most?
There are also many. This is a huge subject!
I like improbable dialogues: Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier; Marcel Breuer and Philippe Starck ; William Morris and Charles Eames; Charlotte Perriand and Denise Scott Brown.
Mies Van Der Rohe (1886-1969), Crédit photo : Hugo Erfurth, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Le Corbusier(1887-1965), Joop van Bilsen / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Marcel Breuer (1906-1981), © Homer Page
Philippe starck (1949-) attribution : jikatu, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Wililiam Morris (1834-1896)
Discover Charles Eames
Charles Eames (1907-1978) Source : https://mubi.com/cast/charles-eames
What is your most marked design quality?
I do not know myself of remarkable quality or skill, but, if I have one, it is to discover these in young designers and architects at the beginning of their careers.
How would you like your designs to go down in history?
My few design projects do not deserve to make history, but what could be reported is that I was the first to say so! Humble!
What peer quality do you most value?
The concern to think about improving people’s lives.
Houses-Places, Montréal, Canada, 2004. Introduction to Canadian contemporary architecture manual cover by Georges Adamczyk.
Which project is the epitome of your work?
The book: Maisons-Lieux / Houses-Places, published in 2004 by the Center international d’art contemporain de Montréal.
How are your country of belonging’s values reflected in your work?
The search for artistic references from Quebec modernity!
What always inspires you?
The great historic European cities by the sea or crossed by rivers are most inspiring to me.
If a spell were to transform you into an object, by all means, what would you like to be, and why
A large wooden table.
What is your favorite place in the world?
At home… in Montréal!
What design or architecture project do you wish you would have thought of yourself?
I envy Marcel Breuer for designing the Wassily chair. Perfection!
No machine-readable author provided. Borowski~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
If you could host any three guests, past or alive, over for dinner, who would you choose and what would you dare serving?
Grilled fish and a good bottle of white wine.
Seated at the large table: Le Corbusier, Charlotte Perriand Pierre Jeanneret and myself!
 Le Corbusier (1887-1965), Joop van Bilsen / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons |
 Charlotte Perriand (1903-1999) |
Pierre Jeanneret (1896-1967), Casa le roche, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
