(a propósito de) programa - investigación > [ver +][English] Patxi Mangado: Just don’t ask me to work a computer. Unfortunately, computers have become an objective in themselves. I tell students that it’s not a good thing to work out a project from the PC, I prefer that they think with the pencil first, and then draw things out on the screen. I try to learn something from everything: from all of the new points of reference as well. But sociology, physics, fluids etc applied to architecture - all of those diffuse inter-disciplinary exercises - make me feel a little uneasy and generate quite a lot of doubt. I cannot quite see the intermediary stages that generate the project through all of this.  These are discussions that are of interest on an intellectual level, like a curiosity, but the feeling I have is that there is too big a jump between the origin and the results and that, therefore, they are just so much added value. I don’t know, they’re like additives, an essential business card in  a world today so dominated by the media. I believe that there are more sincere debates about serious research. If we were to think about all that a structured revision implies, we would need to revise how people live, how certain types of homes are organised  in terms of functional  new systems or materials, think about how a family might be affected… what  is an airport for example? Or think about the train station you have built in Zaragoza* – what that really means, going beyond just a simple platform and converting it into...

(a propósito de) procesos > [ver +][English] Patxi Mangado: I do what I know how to do, and I also try to do things that I don’t know how to do. A few years ago, when I was quite insecure and was trying to find myself a style, my attitude was ‘praetorian’, rather black and white. But not today,. Today I immerse myself in trying to research new options, trying out different things. That means taking risks with things over which I have no mastery over. It is really hard work. I research something, and once I’ve tried it out and taested it, I might reject it and look for something else. I get quite consumed by it all. That didn’t used to happen. Maybe this search has something to do with a complex about getting old before my time. Too old for certain things and too young to give up others. That’s a contradiction, isn’t it? But you must bear in mind that I started off very young, and that the majority of those of my generation are only just beginning to get commissions now, at my age.  [Español]Patxi Mangado: Hago lo que sé hacer y me esfuerzo por intentar hacer cosas que no sé hacer. Hace unos años, por la necesidad de encontrar un modelo, ante la inseguridad que me rodeaba, tenía una actitud bastante pretoriana y maniquea. Hoy ya no, estoy imbuido en un esfuerzo por intentar investigar nuevas opciones, probar, lo que implica el riesgo de lo que no dominas. Y es muy cansado: investigo, y una vez que he probado, saboreado lo nuevo, lo rechazo...

(a propósito de) ETSAUN >>> [ver +][English]Patxi Mangado: I got my first real sense of what architecture was all about from Javier Carvajal, during my fourth year at university. The faculty was really just starting to take off then, but it was all very provincial. The lecturers meant well, and some of the more technical subjects were quite well taught, but it was all rather amateurish. There was no way you could make mistakes, or take risks. Javier Carvajal was the first one  person who talked to us about risky architecture, warts and all. He was the first to mention the quest, the dream and the possibility of mistakes as well. He was able to transmit  convey that dream of architecture to us. When I finished my studies, I worked as an assistant to Rafael Echaide for three years, until he died. He taught me the trade, and how to use reason as a vehicle that goes beyond the merely practical. Echaide had one of the best libraries of architecture, including books from all over the world: from Germany, Switzerland, Scandinavia and as well as Spain as well. And I had access to all of it. There were drawings and books whichbooks that had the most exquisite appreciation of detail. Echaide had an exceptional feel for materials, but a quite austere one at that: he was like a monk, very timid, difficult to get a word out of. Through him I discovered the architects who have influenced me most, the Scandinavians like Arne Jacobsen, the German architects, and an appreciation for people like Alejandro De la Sota etc. That...