Closing Inquiries

Cole Johnson: Did you find that your time as an educator at the Faculty of Architecture of the Polytechnic of Turin and the University of Toronto furthered your architectural skills more? How did you see growth through that?

Stefano: I think that every experience you do in our profession (teaching, working, and learning) is very important to changing your view and seeing things differently. I don’t teach anymore because my language has become incorrect for the new generation of architects. My way of seeing the world is, of course, different from the younger generations. On top of the generational difference is the fact that students are not equal to students, teachers are in a privileged sort of situation and so a lot of the students look up to you. A teacher has to be convincing, I mean that’s what they are paid for, but I don’t want to be convincing. I myself am not even convinced of what I think.

Katelyn Owens: What advice would you have for young architects on how to become more comfortable with the idea of surprises and errors being incorporated into our projects? How would you suggest we learn to better adapt our errors so that they can impact our design?

Stefano: One thing that is always a good instrument is to relax, and being relaxed is my suggestion. It is like, what you do is very important and can do a lot of damage. Try not to do damage but because you have the power of doing damage, study, work, and experience a lot–whatever it may be, arts, science, and everything outside of school. Then find a way or how all of those things can influence your way of thinking and your way at the end of the day of acting. That is my suggestion. Don’t get impressed.

Architecture is not rocket science. It is not. I always say architecture is for dummies. It is not a complicated thing. It is something doable. It is pretty easy to do. The problem is, as with all things that are easy to do, not everybody can do them. So people say that because they are easy to do, everybody can do them. No. It is easy to do, but everybody who studies, for certain, can do it. The other ones, it is better to not, because they can do lots of damage.