1st extract | primer extracto
Patxi Mangado and Félix Arranz in conversation. 2004.
We fly along in Patxi Mangado’s car up to the vantage point of his studio in Pamplona, where we chat. Lots of people greet him along the way: he appears to be very popular and well liked.
Our conversation, like his architectural style, is direct, humorous and frank without any puns, ironic comments or ambiguity. He says what he means. Like his buildings, the things he designs are exactly what they seem to be. There are no tricks: the homages, references and things he has learnt are all duly recognised. He calls things by their proper names. The architect who possesses a natural curiosity for life chats happily.
They say that there is an old man living in his studio. Nobody has ever seen him but he answers the phone when everybody else has gone home. He might talk of the legendary animals living in old, damp forests, of dark abysses and leafy heights, of the moist soil, of enormous boulders, of the light and heat that radiate from molten metal.
I was lucky enough to be able to talk to both of them.
Conversación: Patxi Mangado, con Félix Arranz. 2004.
Volamos, en el utilitario de Patxi Mangado, hasta la atalaya de su estudio, en Pamplona, donde charlamos. Por el camino le saludan muchas personas: sin duda, es popular y querido.
La conversación, como su arquitectura, se instala en un sentido directo, de humor franco, sin dobleces, sin ironía, sin polisemias. Lo que se dice es lo que se quiere decir. Como lo construido, lo hecho, quiere también ser lo que parece.
No hay trampas: los homenajes, las referencias, lo aprendido, se evidencian con honradez. Al pan, pan, y al vino, vino.
Habla el arquitecto, con alegría, curioso, de la vida.
Dicen que en su estudio habita un anciano, que nadie ha visto, pero que atiende las llamadas cuando todos se han ido, que hablaría de animales legendarios, de bosques antiguos de maderas olorosas, de simas oscuras y altos frondosos, de tierra húmeda, de piedras ciclópeas, de la luz y el calor del metal fundido.
Tuve la suerte de conversar con ambos.