IA&B July 2012 - Lets Partner

MUMBAI ` 200 JULY 2012 VOL 25 (11)

ARCHITECTURE Mahindra Research Valley – Charles Correa & Associates Restoration Architecture for ‘Homegrown Neighbourhoods’ – Marc Hood Narke Residence – Manthan Architects INTERNATIONAL The Holy Redeemer Church - Menis Arquitectos i.lab – Richard Meier & Partners URBANISM ‘Open Mumbai’ - P K Das & Associates ART ‘Pipeline Network’ - R&D Cell, KRIVA

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SOLID STATES

In conversation with IA&B, Fernando Menis of Menis Arquitectos talks about the overwhelming potential of material research in his projects, while constantly searching for architecture that is emotionally evocative.

Photograph: courtesy Menis Arquitectos

After studying architecture in Barcelona and practicing in collaboration between 1981 and 2004, Fernando Menis found his practice ‘Menis Arquitectos’ in 2004 in Tenerife and Valencia. Menis serves as Associate Professor of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, Associate Professor at the European University from Madrid and President of the Laboratory for Innovation in Architecture Design and Advanced Tourism of Tenerife. His highly acclaimed practice has won several awards including the National Prize for Architecture and Design. He has been nominated twice for the Mies van der Rohe Award. Menis’s works are presented consistently in publications around the world, and made the subject of many exhibitions. His biography and works are featured in depth in the volume “MENIS”, released in 2011 by the Korean editorial Archilife. Menis’s work evokes an elusive, poetic language of architecture through forms sculpted in concrete.

IA&B: Tell us about Menis – as a practice, and as an individual philosophy. What can be identified as the central idea of your design?

FM: The architecture that we do, I believe, is characterised by a signature; a very personal architecture that I have been improvising on over the years. Menis Arquitectos has an extensive curriculum of high quality.

Our architecture is generated by focussing on common sense acquired in my education as an architect. I believe in constant conversation with an emotional component drawn from my personal experiences from the island I come from, with an emphatic landscape and a tradition in the use of certain materials such as concrete, which is capable of buildings of expressiveness.

This way, we design “emotional-rationalist” buildings in which there is a tangible and intangible strength. In all our projects we start a dialogue with the project owners, trying to realise their wishes in our architectural Indian Architect & Builder - July 2012

let’s partner work by working together. Also, one of the main objectives of our projects is to promote and support the local economy.

IA&B: You spent a long time learning from architecture. What can you say about your academic interests? How do you put them into practice?

FM: When I studied Fine Arts in Tenerife, the experience gave birth to a passion for physical work that remains unchanged as of today. This passion was to be enhanced and fine-tuned by a profound interest in rationality (use, functionality, structure, economy…) acquired after a period of intense training at the Barcelona School of Architecture. The subsequent development of many competitions such as the one for La Villette in Paris set the tone for this learning period and entailed the crystallisation of a personal working method, where the use of a ‘plasticine’ models and other means of drawing and working ensured a highly emotional, physical and intimate approach to the project. But my learning time doesn’t stop at this point. I am still learning a lot from professionals and students. My teaching in Valencia, Madrid and Paris helps me to understand the architecture from my students. Menis Arquitectos also organises a lot of workshops in Spain as the learning continues.

IA&B: Concrete is your material. You have worked and experienced the forms and possibilities of concrete. Tell us about this fascination/interest.

FM: Concrete allows you to adapt to any form. We like to use it in our projects for the emotional component we were discussing before. Besides, concrete is durable and has good behaviour facing fire. But not all solutions can be found by using the same material. Every location, every programme guides you to find unique solutions. Every project whispers to you on the way it wants to be materialised and the result must be a continuous dialogue between all the materials that shape the building.

However, a common component in all of our projects is the search of solutions within the context. Also, concrete makes it possible to use lot of local workforce as people know how to work with concrete all over the world. This helps the project to become rooted to the place and allows the benefits of the building activity to go to the local population.

IA&B: Research of materials, spatial and experimental, forms the foundation of your architecture. What can you say about the interest of Menis Arquitectos for research?

FM: To get to the origin of things, it is necessary to investigate them - their function, their purpose to propose new solutions. In Menis Arquitectos, our concern has to do, in many cases, with the relationship between architecture and site.

We defend the global knowledge applied locally, which means we keep the perspective upon the context of the project. Surrounded by a specific landscape, we try to imagine and research about the relationship between our architecture and the site. Eventually the project takes shape crystallising under the demands of a specific location and time. Each project gives us the opportunity to participate at the solidification of some of the people’s idiosyncrasies, giving rise to a tangible element that will become the part of its future development.

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IA&B: The process of execution of your projects is complex.

What are the physical and virtual instruments that help you execute these complex spaces? What is the process?

FM: A project that changed the way to develop our work and its subsequent execution was the Magma Art & Congress design. During the time of the work, our knowledge was growing, as our ideas were changing continuously. Therefore, we were forced to constantly modify the project in the making - trying to make pillars disappear or redoing the roof - in the come and go, we were constantly rethinking the beginning of our working methodology. In fact, the curved roof, that follows a fully differentiated geometry from the base, but interwoven with it at the end, didn’t have a final design until the very end of the project.

To carry it out at that time, we had to use computer programmes that were not as common as today. Right now in the office, we are combining the elaboration of manual models that are subsequently digitalised.

IA&B: Menis Arquitectos is a team of more than 15 people. How does the office work? What is the workflow?

FM: At the moment, we have 25 architects in the office where the projects are developed, but we also have various collaborations with other disciplines. We have a fundamental large team of professionals (engineers, biologists, historians, electricians, locksmiths, scenic equipment managers and acoustic professionals), in addition to collaboration with offices in other countries.

This interaction that enriches the project and is therefore produced through new parameters that come out as knowledge is complemented.

More accurate the data received from the team, simpler is the work. The exchange with other disciplines is an opportunity for experimentation to understand the environment of building materials - where do they come from, and the new uses that can be given intervening in their elaboration.

It is a constant intervention. Solutions come from the nearest; the intention is to impress, to create states of mind.

IA&B: You have been professor of architecture in many widely known universities. What is your opinion on current state of architectural education?

FM: The teaching of architecture is like a lasagne, you add layers of knowledge as your knowledge evolves, it is about a continuous learning, you never stop learning. The architect is a great coordinator who manages to overwhelm.

IA&B: If you had to choose one of your emblematic projects, which one would it be? Give specific reasons.

FM: One of our current projects is the study of a high standing housing tower. It is a new challenge for us, given that most of our projects have a marked horizontality - while in a tower we try to move that character that the project emerges from the ground but with a severe verticality.

Menis Arquitectos’ work is chronicled in this issue in the article titled ‘a symbiosis of dualities’ on page 86.

Indian Architect & Builder - July 2012