Hello what? Such a good afternoon. I' m Karen Ramirez and we
' re one more radio mission. The design in your ears and we are
releasing the new season. We have little, little chapters, but this is
already starting very well and I am very happy because we are transmitting from working
capo in this new season that we are in San Luis Potosí one hundred and
thirteen in the Colonia Roma, and the truth is that I thank them very
much that they are lending us their space. So come and take a little
turn at his shorrum so they can meet him. And today I am very
happy because I am with the first guest we had formally on D Radio,
that is, when I di Radio almost eight years ago and it was built
as such. He was the first guest we had and since then he had
not been with us alone, because I have already been with other guests collaborating.
But it was already just and necessary, like remastering the podcast we were
saying. A little while ago of other backstages and this is Germán Velasco,
how you are Germán very well. Thank you so much for the invitation.
Again, thank you so much for seeing me come by myself. Yes,
from the first time exactly eight seven years have passed since that time you interviewed
for the first time that time quickly goes away. Hey, yeah, it
was really fast. It' s been a lot of changes. You left
you came this already I have you here again how good, but already you
need to tell me who is Germán Velasco now because we already have new listeners,
because they tune in in other countries also then so that they know you
again too and I want to ask who is Germán Velasco, because Germán Velasco
is an architect. First of all, and above all, I have devoted
myself more to the interior design part. I can' t get off the
hook, let' s say, that interiorist architect part of design. Not
as much as I want then, it' s kind of been a very
important part of my career of being Not yesterday we' re talking to some
friends. Not then like in this school, the education you have, like
it' s been a part of you I think that' s in every
race. Not then. I' m a person who pays close attention to
design, which I love design. I am passionate precisely about everything that is
design, that is, we are talking about architecture, design, interiors,
design, product, experiences, graphic design, art fashion, all those things.
I think they' re the ones that encompass Harman No. Then I
really like to be traveling too and it' s the things I notice not
and where I get all the experiences and that you learn a lot. Also,
of course, I think it' s one of the best schools we
have. Yes, of course he does, what a father he hears and
how it was that Germón Velasco said one day. I' m going into
architecture. Look. My dad is an architect also Mira and also called Quemán
Velasco Mira and at some point, like I said, no, no,
no, no, I' m going to study architecture in the eighties i
mean imagine this I said I want to study design this, but rather of
product, not of its industrial design. Okay, and at that time,
the truth wasn' t so much in vogue yet. It' s all
that kind of stuff. Not now, it' s necessary. We can
see that. Not then I thought well, if I study architecture, I
' m studying like this something a lot bigger where they cover all the other
specialties and then I can specialize in whatever I want. Then, at the
end of the race. In the race I was always told that in architecture
and we will see the needs of a client, as that up to 100
%. But I think architecture stays about eighty percent. And I was looking
for several things until I found an interior diploma and then, that' s
where, I think, where I found my vocation, especially indoors. Not
that you say, that' s where you close 100% of architecture.
But I liked having studied architecture because you have a broader vision than if you
did not study the interior career. And then, with that vision, with
that part that reaches eighty percent and then with interiors that already reaches one hundred
percent, because you already have rounded up absolutely all this experience that you will
give to this person who will inhabit or who will live a space, that
will have an experience at best, in a restaurant, in a hotel,
in a store, in his house. No yes, he remembers, then,
because that' s what took me and I think I' m lucky,
not because many people don' t find many times, because they'
re very short ages that this one we face to see that it' s
going to be the rest of our lives. And I think I feel lucky
to have kind of found the way. Not now that father, and if
the truth is something that I am passionate and alive of this, that is,
it nourishes my soul and heart, not being able to work in architecture
and interior design. Wow, I, father, listen and how it was
that already, when you passed the college stage and already, I mean,
you already broke the bubble and you cooled down to reality, how were the
beginnings of German Velasco. I started working with my dad Ok and I think
a very important part is that I was working on a work between dregal that
was two thousand square meters and it was a house room look and the client
was very, very, very pik So he had or had, I don
' t know, a printing press, but a printing press of those.
As you know, I printed the bags of sabritas and blah blah blah Blabla
once touched me to visit her. Then he, the simple view, saw
how the machine was printing and there was a part that almost frozen the image
and of them it was printing. Good. Okay. So that also led
me to be this because very fixed in detail, because here the maximum error.
It was two millimeters and he saw it literally, so they said that
it' s snorting and Ton said no. I mean, how' s
pimp, he' s not chocho. Maybe they were a millimeter, no.
And in addition, they had in that house a stoneware workshop and a
carpentry workshop. Then what I designed I could see directly with the artisans.
Sure, that was a very important thing. So I' ve been working
with my dad for several years. One day I went to live in Queretaro
the years ah Mira, because work went out there. But then I saw,
I came to Mexico City and I saw that other things were being done
and I said no. And I need to go back to Mexico because I
want to do other kinds of things. And I told my dad. And
my dad, well, when you find a job, and two weeks later
I found a job in a construction firm. Then I started with several builders
and then it was from and why I' ve been a consultant. Obviously,
I had devoted more to seeing all that detail of construction, which was
also very important. And finally, after the years and so on, I
came to a place where I was allowed to start doing, that is,
not to be the long story. Let' s not say the Bahia group
with the architect Gilberto Borjas, and there I was asked to be in charge
of the Mandarin Oriental, of the Ribera MagiaÁndale, and that was Italy,
that is why also the salon on the mobile is so important to me
because there I met several designers, Paula Lenti, et cetera, et cetera,
et cetera. Don' t vegan them to Blasco. Then it was
very important, because all that kind of furniture was put in the East Mandarin.
And that' s where I said I fell in love with this hotel
and interior, I didn' t mean I said yes, it' s
my vocation then I got out of there and I got back to a builder.
Then I don' t know what you' re saying good. I
was in that contutu out two years doing things that I didn' t really
do wrong, but I wasn' t happy doing. It didn' t
fill you, it didn' t fill me. And finally there is a
moment where Jorge and I form red Moorish. From then on we started with
some houses on the capes and then they asked us to make a restaurant in
Santa Fe and from there they asked us for the brick and then it was
already making TVs, making restaurants and so on. I was on the red
wall for about five years and then I was given the opportunity to oppose my
office and I started with two houses too. It was the remodeling of two
houses. This hotel, or we had done it before, also gave apartments.
And so and today, for example, I' m still with the
interior part. I' ve been humming and right now, they' re
asking me. They' ve all been done. But obviously, when they
' re big companies, they often ask you to send them the Bible and
sometimes they don' t ask you to supervise them and then they come in,
they furnish it and then they tell you. Hey, we need you
to help us punch him because he' s missing accessories and so on.
Then I go to those same coils. I' m gonna do in every
building like seven apartments. It' s 35 apartments to give them potch ok.
Well, well, at least they didn' t realize it was needed
like improving it moral salt and aside you throwing it out were things. You
' re a real expert. Yeah, well, that' s what we
' re talking about. A while ago. I love it too, no
yeah yeah yeah, I' m making three roksy now three rox. Yeah,
we' re still on roxies with rock. What a father, I
thought there was already how they were bar No. No, no, no,
how nice this is in Lastlan now ah ok, the new park,
the new park is going to be two this ras and another one is going
to be in the park of Chapultepec. You don' t have to learn
them because they' re gonna be amazing. Wa. The new modality,
for example, is that in Lastlan there will be no furniture, no real
estate, that is, no, there is only ok shop and it is
modernizing a part at best, like law out and certain forms, but it
will follow you, you will continue to watch rocksy ah ok, then it
is very, very, very interesting. I' m very happy and I
' m going to score it with them. You' re also going to
make an apartment that you' re going to rent, that' s going
to go bigger roxy house and look at it a little bit with the concept
also as mit century aha This one that I' m good at, you
' re quite good at. Then I' m very happy. I'
m making some offices, too, and I' m making other departments that
I' m being asked to do. Oh, then, there we go
with those things. Very happy, like trying to go I' ve reinvented
myself. I have some projects that have not been published that in your ho
soon you will see it ah without restaurant in the East Rome, the department
of Guadalajara Este and a bar in exacritobal of the houses that have not been
taken from those photos. Like, because across are the egg pandemic several things.
So now I have to make it look like the order again. Order
again that they can be published clearly Listen, yes, because your work is
worth a lot. And I, the truth is that I never miss it
when they publish it, because I always learn a lot from you and I
think that you have always been a designer, an architect very very authentic and
always, that is, like what they asked you to do is put things
on. You do know, I mean. Is it like you? What
about you? What about you? It' s your thing, hey,
but it' s good that you' re still with ROX and for those
of you who don' t know it' s ROXY it' s the
ice cream shops, this ice cream store that' s been here for so
many years. Well, the first little girl was on the countess, which
is still in force. And well, she' s already taken out branches
and here' s my candle German, for for about seven, six years
or so, you' ve made branches for them. True. I'
m really glad about it, and especially in the new asplan park, it
' s exactly the novelty of the city. Hey what, Father, that
' s good, I' m really glad, funny, hey how it
was to face you,' cause it' s been a while since you
came back from Guadalajara. How was that change from Mexico City to Guadalajara Mira,
I think it was during the pandemic. So I think that change was
very good, okay, especially in my case, that, well, we
didn' t know what we' re dealing with at some point and then
it was like Mexico City never stopped then there were always people everywhere and I
lived in the street of Colima, where there are more people. Yeah,
well, for me, because I didn' t even want to get out
unclearly sometimes. So, it was a good experience, in a rat experience,
to be in Guadalajara. But I think it was made in Guadalajara a
little jealous of these people, especially that it comes from outside or what,
like what they think we are going to displace them, because to displace them,
or not so much to displace, but they think we are going to.
He' s turned something like that. So this one even though I
said that I was going to put my little sand ganito, that I wasn
' t trying like this one, to go and instruct them. No,
then, because it' s like if you' re a good match,
if you' re this one from Mexico City, that I fly to meet
you, but it' s there then, because there actually came a time
when I came to work in Mexico City. Then I stayed. It was
like that. No, I can' t leave next week, because I
have to see clians. Not even next week. Not next week, not
next week, not next week. Then it was like that. And I
' ve been here for ten months in Mexico City. And so the truth,
because I say I' m from here, then it' s not
like I' m something that' s different. Not maybe that I miss
from there. If I' m in the American colony, there' s
the apartment I' m talking to you about. The truth. If I
had three in the department, just like that, I' d be amazing
if it was for the best. This one. If the quality of life
is very different, the food is cheaper. Oh, yeah, oh look,
but, well, there are things that are cheap and things that aren
' t cheaper. Okay, okay. But this, for example, maintenance
is more expensive up there than depending on the buildings. But well, there
are always pros and cons. Not sure, I' m very happy to
have returned the truth how well yours, it was Mexico City. Yeah,
but I' m really glad you' re back here, because suddenly it
was like I wanted to interview you, it' s just that I don
' t live here exactly how or what not something is here, but it
' s amazing that you' re back and ten months. I mean,
it' s not that little anymore. It' s not amazing, either,
that well, it' s already more of a grown- up baby
who' s already a month old, a one- month- old baby.
Says you hear that father, I' m so glad to have you
back here. And the truth is, there' s something that intrigues me
a lot and I' d like to know that I also knew the audience.
It' s your design process, how' s your design process,
how you link it to get to the final project, because yours is unique.
Then yes, I' m quite intrigued. So, when a project
comes to you, you know the client. I think the most important thing
isn' t to know what the needs are that you have what it'
s about, what it' s going to be, a hotel, a
residence, an office, whatever. So I think that first of the most
important things is that the immediate context is not the same as San Miguel de
Allende, who is in San Cristofá de las Casas, in Guadalajara or in
Mexico City. Not to say, not to say more clearly, then I
think that each of these occasions or the location where the project is to be
located, is very different. Then you have to try the environment, the
knowledge of this, because what it' s going to talk about, because
I think it' s not fair that you come up with things like that
suddenly you see that an UFO landed, that they stop not that I say
it like I land an UFO is already different from everything else, but that
it has to dialogue with itself as it breaks the one. Everything else.
No. Now, obviously, that I do not characterize myself by this being
the one who most pampers himself with everything else. No, but I think
inside the place, there has to be the wol factor in each of the
spaces. Many would say like that intagrameable space, but I think I'
d like to say more like that surprise spaces. There doesn' t have
to be surprises in every place. Memorable and it has to be more memorable.
Kingstag grammeable well said, because that makes you catch people and make them
want to go or, at least, if you don' t come back,
remembers and recommends it to someone clearer. I think those are the most
important parts. Not because I have a tour that you remember certain things,
the one that you say where I saw I don' t know the swing
hanging in the lobby, where I saw the ostrich ostrich where, then,
they are things that you don' t forget. Of course, for example,
I don' t forget the time truz they say House that pacifice participated
and you don' t know how. How was this, how scary they
were at disign House for real. Oh, how they got away with certain
things until you say good. You say good. The lady from the Lomas
isn' t going to like that many times they' re supposed to say
" huse" was a little bit more than for the lady to like.
I saw the ladies of the Lomas drawing a smile on their faces. Then
you say good, at least what that doesn' t. That' s
also a result. That' s exactly what it' s gonna be like
to remember from the space he made me. Smile Yes, sure, because
that too is a result and the best will not call you, but you
caused a reaction in them. That too, that' s part of the
design. It causes reactions and I think you do it very well, because,
that is, your style, your way of running your projects, of
taking them to the end. If it' s very unique, so it
says, I know it' s yours, so it carries your signature 100
percent and in that design process with your team you do something as very very
important, as, for example, or alvaro if it is, for example,
you have before you start a project, always listen to the bugles.
I don' t know what you do before or during. I listen rather
to my aquil, very well, I think I am not one of those
who impongo, that is yes yes, I think it is important to talk
about them between everything irdar a direction because, obviously, there are many ideas,
of course, but I think those ideas are very important. That'
s why my team has been with me long enough and then we' ve
met and I think as valid is my idea as anyone else' s is
not father. Then I think you do have to mark the road, because
you' re the one who' s making a face with the client.
Or there are times when you say hijole, because care is better than the
one I gave is very, very valid. And it' s a good
thing we' re going over there now and this one, and then the
client' s already marking where he wants to go. Also no, because
I think it is important that you surprise the customer and give several options,
because we give as several options or within the same idea, that is,
look at this concept we saw this path or this path we like more this
by itself or as you see it, then maybe they will tell you,
no, because the one you are thinking is okay. Or say, son,
look, I think he that I looked for that address, so,
well, you try to go through the other address, first, try to
convince the client to be the other. But if not good, then you
have that option, b or w option, and then you' re already
looking at how to put the punch. No, of course, of course,
of course, to put it, that is, as your main characteristic.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no, no, no, no, no, no. Hey, there
' s Father. That' s good. I' m glad you'
re aware of your team' s voice, because it' s very important
to also give them a voice, because there are times when they also take
the hard work, not the same. With you it' s really lame,
that well, I' m glad to hear what we are five architects
that you admire the most. Inside them is Heather Wick, Thomas hethry Wick.
All right, I get a genius wow. The exact truth. It
' s okay that' s inside them, too, someone who takes risks
like you. Well, he' s risking, well, everything he'
s already got there. It' s or it' s not the same.
We agree. Or s but then yes, that is, yes,
he raided many things and entered very well the office that gives you it is
in force, but because it is not the same to have it there in
the representative. No, but he was someone like you, he broke a
lot of things. Well, sociano pot networks that also risk it. Oh,
yeah, and this who I think for ragan is also someone who risked
at his time, not that, he broke many rules, also especially in
the time when he was, especially that he is very, very different the
architecture he has in Guadalajara, which is the one that says here in Mexico
City, totally incredible. That' s good And now, to finish this
talk, the truth is, I' m really rich. It always makes
me very rich to talk with you and to me with you there are many
thanks. Thank you very much. What would you say to the new generations,
not of students, because I already asked you that, but the new
generations of archy that are about to take the step, as well as you
to make your own office. What would you say to them, because I
will tell them something that was not foreign to me, but that I experienced
it and that I think very important. When you' re already about to
step in, many times it' s done in a vacuum, then it
' s pour in, shut up in the water and nothing, because you
don' t have to order anything, and then it' s experimenting.
Be different, be authentic, be you and many times you have to hear
your inner voice, when you know that your inner voice is at peace,
at peace, you go on a right path, because many times, because
people, maybe they are expecting things they already know, but you will be
surprised when you see that what you are proposing, that is different, also
has validity, then I think that is the most important thing. And then
if you want to learn, well besides google things of trip that always look
at all the things of architecture, of design, of food and all that
are the most inspiring things. I mean, new ways of seeing life.
And then all that feeds you, makes you grow and you' re going
to be able to get a better result when you face certain opportunities at the
best you saw a project that looks like this or, that has certain characteristics,
also tropicalize it so that it' s not the Opnic, as we
said it would. Well, that' s wow. Well, thank you
so much for being with us again, for not spending seven years again so
that you' re here again on the radio, please, so that we
continue to follow your work, because you still have a lot to teach us
and, above all, also to publish, because to talk about those publications.
It is also important about your projects that are already consolidated. They'
re amazing always learning with you. Really. Thank you so much for being
here. Another thanks to YOU for the invitation really thank you very much.
It won' t be that long before we can see each other. No,
please. I mean, if we' ve seen each other in these
seven years, obviously, obviously, if we' ve seen each other but
you haven' t been here, we' ve sat down and talked.
Yeah, by the way, we' ve still got some on the slope
for seven years. Try to reform it. Yeah, that' s fair
and necessary, but it' s nice to have you here. Really.
Thank you so much and so good. I remind you to the audience that
you can listen on the radio podcasts, in Spotify, Amazon podcast Google Podcasts,
all the music streaming can find us there, so there' s no
such thing as that you miss us and they don' t find us there,
they find us like irradiation, so don' t miss them in this
new season, that we' re here in capo laboro, in San Luis,
potosí one hundred and thirteen, here in Colonia Roma, so give also
a little tour and we' ll be here in this new season of d
Radio. Thank you so much. Thank you, German Thank you very much,
thank you all. Say hi. Perfect hearing. Baby' s gonna be