December 2010 • Text Message
RAFAEL VIÑOLY
The renowned architect—and man of many
spectacles—fills out our questionnaire.
JOB DESCRIPTION:
Architect
CURRENT PROJECT:
Building a house
FIRST STEP ON A PROJECT:
Understand the client
LAST STEP ON A PROJECT:
There isn’t one.
HOW DO YOU BREAK A CREATIVE BLOCK?
Play the piano
WHY DO YOU DO WHAT YOU DO?
It intrigues me.
EDUCATION:
In the field
MENTORS:
Fina Santos, Giancarlo Pasian
WORLD-SAVING MISSION:
Educate
FIRST ACT AS “DESIGN CZAR”:
To make clear that design isn’t what
people today take for art
DREAM TEAM:
Mahadev Raman, Jörg Schlaich,
Anish Kapoor, and Satoshi Toyoda
OFFICE CHAIR:
Whichever I can find
FAVORITE TCHOTCHKE:
A lead holder my father gave me in 1962
MOST USEFUL TOOL:
Rhino
BOOKMARKS:
BBC
BEST PLACE TO THINK:
Bed
CURRENT READ:
The Pregnant Widow, by Martin Amis, and On the Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
SOMETHING OLD:
Me
SOMETHING NEW:
Ideas
FAVORITE SPACE:
The keyboard
GUILTY PLEASURE:
Drawing faces
UNDERRATED:
Work ethic
OVERRATED:
Talent
LEARNED THE HARD WAY:
Architecture
COMMAND-Z (UNDO):
Many, many things
DREAM JOB:
Mine
Read Related Stories:
Dreams Unfulfilled
Architecture shows in Los Angeles examine the city that is, and the one that might have been.
Machine-Made Living
A Dutch architect teams up with an Italian inventor to build the world’s first 3-D printed house.
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