Hey. How about a very good afternoon, I am Carlan Ramírez, and
we are in a more broadcast dedir Radio design in your ears here in the
new season of the year that we are recording with capo laboro here from the
street of San Luis, Potosí one hundred and thirteen, here in Colonia Roma
Norte. So come and take a little turn, see some high- design
furniture, because it' s really amazing. Come and take a little turn
to show room is always open Monday through Friday until 6 p m. So,
come and take a little turn. And I' m very happy because
today we have a guest that the truth, for a long time I already
wanted to be on R Radio, but we finally did it and he is
David Dana, David how you are very well, it gives me great pleasure.
Thank you for being here with us at last here on radio a pleasure.
Not really, thanks to you for having you here a pleasure and good.
I want to start the talk by asking you who David Dana is,
who' s real. This one' s good at interlining a little bit
of your question. M is part of who I am. I have been
wanting to communicate with people for a few years through my work, ok because
I am a very hard worker and we have been doing a lot of time
this exercise of sharing the creative process in planimetries, in axonometrics, in model
drawing and then documenting also the constructive process, because I feel that, as
artist architects, it is very important that the work speaks for itself. Sure,
however, Right now, I sit in a moment of my life with
my wonderful wife and my four children, surrounded by more friends than ever,
where I am delighted to talk to you a little bit about my experience and
also to nourish myself from the experiences of other people, as in this case
of Radio. Thank you. Oh, wow. It' s amazing and
it' s good. I really like it and, above all, that
you take so much into account your family is always present. Yes, of
course, how good and how is it that David Dana without architecture, at
what time he said, then this way Look. I am a person who
is very evident that my strongest hemisphere is the creative one. Since I was
very small ok this also my father is architect, developer and I had an
approach to the profession throughout my life. OK. And I do remember that
when it came time to decide the race, the first thing I did was
eliminate architecture, because I am a very analytical person, I am very committed
to what I do. I took my life very seriously and started thinking psychology.
I love psychology, I like a lot of things. And finally,
I was also given the opportunity to make a backpacker trip in that period of
time and I said there is no doubt that I want to be an architect.
There' s no doubt about it. The problem I have is that
the way I connect with architecture is different from what I have seen in my
dad over time. That' s when it started as this personal process of
how to start my career. OK, well, it was a relentless search.
But in the end you fell into architecture, yes, no doubt,
and it' s good that I fell into architecture. Oh, that'
s good and where you study architecture. I studied in Ibero, I loved
the bachelor' s degree, I liked the generation very much and we joined
a lot, because we talked to people from other generations who didn' t
integrate. Not others do we integrate. Throughout the five years many very beautiful
relationships are generated and we had a time in Libero where there were very good
teachers who influenced us a lot. Okay then, Ibero, great race.
You know where I confirmed it. When I went on trade. My first
test was in Australia, my boyfriend MIT and, of course, I was
nervous. Yes, of course I confess that I didn' t know how
to speak English very well. I went to a Hebrew school. I wasn
' t taught English at that school and the first semester was a challenge.
I don' t mean, I have to learn to speak English. Today
I speak it perfectly well, although I have lived a long time in the
United States. But it was a challenge and I wanted to prove myself and
I realized that any student of laiber would have put you for you with any
student of mit seriously, certainly the problem, certainly accurate. All right,
so that helped me understand myself in context. I had that, let'
s say that opportunity, that blessing, that gives you a lot of security,
because you say today I' m crossing the world. I come with
that restlessness to a very good university to know if I' m going to
be able to unwrap or not. And of course it is any student,
at least the Leiber, for how I compared the work we did in projects
against what she developed. Very, very even, very even. Wow.
Yeah, the Hiberra prepared us pretty well. How cute, what a father
that if the University did commit itself to in that way, it is compromising
to have very very, very competitive generations. Out there good and then I
lost the free lead. Luis de Villafranca was removed, and the selection of
teachers changed a lot. Today, I couldn' t tell you how she
is. But when they had them they were all WOW. Then it was
very good. And when I returned from the Master' s degree, after
I had been living outside Mexico for a while, I went back straight to
teach in free. I' ve been giving an urban planning workshop for 10th
semester students for two years it will have been and it was a beautiful subject.
I was demanding, as I say, demanding with me, demanding with
others, but we did a very good job and there was follow- up
with some of the students. Very well what a father and I am very
pleased to return to your soul ma already as a teacher that father was well,
but at the same time I got together with the start of my office
and at no time I imagined that it would be something as complex as it
has been. I' m telling you in complete honesty. Then the class
would come. It was four hours on Fridays, starting at seven in the
morning. Okay, but at a time when you start, when you have
to risk the most and when you have to commit the most. Then I
was already voiceless to the clear class, i e I literally arrived exhausted.
I' m saying back then I' ve been 27 years old. I
' m already thirty- eight, ten years ago you' re still young,
young, all your life. Hey now, well, tired marathon was
that then last semester. I confess that I could no longer do the activities
they did for teachers. I had a lot of champagne, thank God,
we were already saturated and it was a little bit bad for average leibero of
low and since then I haven' t taken that back. And well this
process opened up to me that I tell you to be very constant, to
share the work, to communicate with the work itself and that' s already
what has happened over these ten years. Ok practice yog very well. So,
when you got out of college, your incursion was later, then you
went to your office or you started with someone else or you threw yourself in
the ring, then I ended up applying to the master' s degree.
Okay, I went to America. I had a very competitive master' s
degree, very rich, very pleasant, unforgettable. He trained me as a
human being in my personal and professional values. And when I was done,
I realized they were missing a lot. Mexico missed me in the dunes,
my four strange dunes yesterday to David. Then I realized I couldn' t
live without Mexico. So I did decide to go back, because my heart
connects with Mexico and I love the United States very much, the Americans of
any state. I understand myself well with them. I lived there for three
and a half years. I don' t have a problem, but I
' m Mexico and besides, I missed the weather, I missed my language,
I missed food. Then I came back with the intention of starting with
the project and we basically started very well. What a father, how I
started. I recruited an intern who is a girl from Poland who was living
in Mexico and invited him to do the Alquine contest. It was my first
in two weeks that I arrived in Mexico. I was already literally teaching ibero
classes and I was already doing this project that we took second place. Yes
and hello, this girl from Poland was happy that we took second place.
I couldn' t believe it, really. I came back with a hearing
mentality. You have to win the contest because, because you have to position
yourself in Mexico, there is very good architectural level, very good artistic level
and it is an industry that is saturated. We have to be honest.
Yes, that is very saturated, the truth, but what a father,
that is, you arrived very active, then I arrived very artivistic. Hey,
what parents and how that transition has been in those changes of ten years
of abitana workshop so far, because the beginning was strong, I don'
t doubt it. And, now, how are we doing? We'
re going well, right now, I' m developing a shopping mall called
Forest Pavilion. We are developing a building in South Rome, in Medellín,
three, three, five. Not very well, we are developing a pethouse
in a building called Levia, an apartment in a building called Frondoso, and
we have a project also here in South Rome, which is on the street
of Puerto Mexico for moments on which we are focusing. And we also have
some other projects, but mainly that is the agenda of WAW fear projects,
because very active always. Super well, I remember that I went to college
and talked a lot about Vitana workshop always, always what they sent me to
the wedding ay cos who I' m giving you I' m hesitating who
you sent to scold him. I didn' t always grow up good at
the university training, because they always had us as very alert of who was
doing everything out there, No, because we also have to upgrade as students.
And then I was fortunate enough to have some teachers who made a lot
of effort into it and in the subjects and offices that mentioned them a lot.
It was a bitanal workshop that when I was almost out. Then,
because I would like to work with David, No, but look yesterday I
am interviewing you better hear and what would be like the jewel. I know
you' ve done thousands of things over ten years of your office, but
what would be the crown jewel, that is, of a project you said.
This would be the great Vitana workshop project. I say my mouth is
watered, because everyone, the architect crector, has dreams, has desires for
me would be a museum, museum wow. When I visit Tamayo, I
go crazy. Yeah, and I' m doing a lot of good here,
yeah, it' s a great museum, great museum, great place,
there' s no such places anymore. Great architectural project, totally true.
It was a great project and it is still because it is very latent
and I am very happy that they continue to have it in the constancy that
they have exhibitions and that it remains in everyone' s mouth. But yes,
it' s a project. And good thing it encourages you to say,
because I want to do something like that too, but you' d
like it here in Mexico. Yeah, yeah, you gotta go or in
Mexico City, cool It' s amazing, it' s, that'
s really dad. Hey and when you do what your design process is like
in your office. When he comes to you the client tells you I want
this, how he' s unfolding it until it' s done. Andredes
sure looks. Casually in recent weeks I have come up with this question with
other people. I' ve been doing the same creative process for ten years
now. We' re correcting it. The creative process is always I express
myself very well by hand, I draw. I' ve got tables.
My computer is a digital lifter and apart, I have two tables. So,
what I always do, undoubtedly in all projects is I request a model
three D of the current state or of the land or property that we are
going to intervene. And on that model three D, which is volumetric and
monopromatic, there is no project. I make screenshots, both of the exterior
facades and the interior spaces. And in my drawing table above that count giving
specification of material, of constructive procedure of everything not. And this is done
with a group of architects who are part of my workshop, who model it
in sketch. And in sketch it has been a tool that has worked for
us, because you can work with materials, you can work with textures.
Then the creative process jumps from my deed to three D. And then we
started working a lot on the three D. Of course we see similar cases,
of course we look at Pintress and right now what happens with the revolution
of artificial intelligence, which I don' t know if we' re talking
enough in Mexico, but it' s something that' s already arrived and
that' s going to stay. The creative process is going to change radically,
no doubt, no doubt, and but you are ready to adapt to
this. We put our batteries on and now, we are in the process
of rethinking the creative process. What I did was recruit a creative cell,
because right now there are contests, investor projects, private client projects that I
want to develop with them. We have already acquired four tools that we are
experimenting with and were greatly influenced by a video from a Dutch office that surely
knows your radioscutturs called vr DV. Sure well, they have a YouTube video
that I highly recommend to everyone. Or if not then I' ll send
it to you that the director of his company, who carries an umbrella of
artificial intelligence in many aspects of the office talks. How they implemented those tools
of their creative process and I found it excellent, because it is a process
that is already taking it to buildings that are being built. The result is
magnificent And one part that is very important is that they managed to make copyrights
theirs and use a program that is called parrot, that what you do is
that you teach it to produce architecture following a little bit of your architectural language.
So, when you watch the Enbiardics video, some geniuses, obviously what
they start exploring at the schematic level or that Pintrest replacement. Instead of going
to Pintrest, they already come to these tools that have a language of their
own and then they land it in revits and build it oh very well,
that is, spectacular shows sounds very ribla and apart something very complete, I
mean, yes, it complements very much with all the tools that are using
to make a projection. Yeah, I think I' m saying they'
re inevitable tools. I say I set the example when you were riding a
bike and you were going up a climb and I didn' t have speeds
and suddenly, one day you tried a bike with speeds and it was better
to suffer it wasn' t faster. Yeah, I feel like these tools
have a very direct analogy. Then you have to take advantage of them.
We have to get familiar right now in the office we are bidding where we
are forming a creative cell, where we want to rethink the creative process using
artificial intelligence tools. We want to see where this procedure gave us, always
maintaining copyright and always maintaining the architectural value and architectural thinking behind each of our
projects. That' s the main thing and that' s the first thing
they say in Virdty' s video. Ah. All right, well,
yes, send me Lengens ec already, very very interesting and it is something
that is already here, that is to say already arrived and to stay and
because you are very right, that is, it came to revolutionize many things
and, instead of stopping us from stopping and thinking about all the bad things
that could happen best, how we can acquire it to our design processes,
as you are clear. Look. It' s a discussion that I think
is going to start happening. If I go a little further, not that
when Ubert came clear, the first response in Mexico was today in taxi drivers
are going to run out of Chamba. Finally, today Huber is already in
place, is already implemented, generated jobs, generated opportunities and changed the industry
in a disruptive way. I don' t feel that changes are totally inevitable
when change is a good tool for something people take it when it' s
not a good tool. There have been thousands of failed projects that no one
will ever see again. I feel like the student doesn' t have to
be afraid of him. On the contrary, you have to understand that right
now a window of opportunity opens to rethink the profession, so that it is
more accessible to all, because they are very economical tools and so that they
can be better developed as artists and architects. I do not think they should
have a relationship with this change from a premise of fear. You have no
premise of clear opportunity and creativity and exploration, and you have to use the
tools yes clear. Of course, at some point it also happened to Irradia
when we broadcast live as if we were a normal radio station and suddenly the
podcast arrived. Now what do we do? Not sure, everyone' s
going to want to do it now, because I can do it wherever it
is and we' re going to take our shamba off. We' re
eight years old here. So it' s a question of adapting to changes,
of letting yourself flow and seeing a chance to say no. Not this.
They' re not gonna stop me. We will integrate, of course
not to make the most solid, stronger in our work. No. And
that' s good of you, because you' re at dawn on that.
I mean, it gives me a lot of income. And I do
remember looking at my first professional practice. Uh- huh I made it with
an architect. I won' t say a name, because I admire him
very much, I love him very much. It' s very close here,
but I' m going to sell it. That' s why I
don' t say no and he did tell me about the renders and I
didn' t come in. Ok was the new thing back then I told
the renders, I didn' t come in. I' ll take the
foil, with photoshop, with the collage, and I think it did and
it affected him. And today, of course, that uses it now is
an architect that I admire very much and that is very, very good architect,
but well, we' re not going to balconea it, but yes,
I mean, they were right. When the renders arrived, there was
just like me, when I got along, I was just as early as
the render era and yes, there were a lot of offices that still didn
' t make them and they had their renderers on the outside and they were
starting to have them. And now, for there is already the illustration and
even the rendering more than solid and to everyone it already does. And I
think the offices, I think absolutely all, as well as the architect,
that we won' t mention, adapted it, that is, I interested
him to avoid that horita like playing exactly when he came to play. It
was the same thing. Give the jump, the pull back to the exact
machine. It was the same thing. I mean, I think that the
evolution of technology goes a lot hand in hand and not to see it as
a problem, but to adapt the opportunity, an area of opportunity exactly.
I' m very pleased. Hey, you mentioned a subject that really fascinates
me. I, as an architect, do implement it in my office,
but I would like someone like you to tell me how important your office is
for you or for you, as an architect, to enter architectural contests.
Of course it' s a very good question, because look, we had
a wave of time where I took everything that came in. Everything that came
in, I grabbed very well. Right now, I learned after ten years
to be more selective and mainly with the intention of re- entering competition calls.
Then I come from a window of time where we stopped cor there was
one over here, one over there. At first we were more constant in
the contests and thank God we had, that is, we had results.
We had, like, three or four project contest results. You want me
to tell you about them. Sure, of course, well. The first
was Arquine, which I have, obviously, a very large sentimental value,
because the office was my computer, me and Ola, and we started talking
back then you had to do a rethinking of the housing project of German Miguel,
Mario Pani Occupy and obviously we said the first thing we have to understand
is that it has to be preserved, it can not be ground and we
have to give it an added value. So we started to investigate some hydroponic
systems in Cuba and it was a very attractive creative process, very rich.
And we took second place. All right, what other contests we have.
Jesus on the Mount invited us a developer by invitation. We propel against Pascal
architects, we take against three renowned architects and we win a project that we
develop the whole complete project. Now, right now, we' re enrolling
in the contest. Right now, which mother. So I' m already
leaving a window of my time so I can attend contest and not grab everything
that comes in. I' m changing that habit in my office right now.
All right. So, if you feel that it is a very important
exercise for an architect in tar this type of contests. No doubt in what
has enriched you, in research, in relapsing, in how it has helped
you in your office. The first thing is that you enjoy it. If
I don' t think there are some projects that stop us from sticking to
the money and then end up being the best projects where the money isn'
t by means they end up being the new projects. Also an important issue
is that it is an opportunity to test yourself. Sure, then, you
participate I didn' t win, I don' t know what honorable mention,
that I did right, that I did right, that I did wrong,
those who won, that made that I could have done better. Then,
instead of doubt, an opportunity to test yourself and to compete exactly.
I feel like it' s a great exercise. Unfortunately, I' m
telling you very honestly. At the beginning of dir Ryan we got lots of
calls and we published them all the time, especially in the summer. They
received many calls from all sides of architecture and design. And now, unfortunately,
for the past three years I have come well a considerable decrease that there
are not so many, no, but they already do. Right, no
doubt, well you saw Arkin, Ahorita had an excellent answer. Yeah,
sure. Yes, it also goes hand in hand with these changes that we
talked about, which has a lot to do with visualization and creative process.
Yeah, I want to think that it was because of the pandemic this low
of contests, but yes. I hope that I agree with your word that
there is a rise in contests, because yes, being something that is a
very important exercise. Yeah, one thing I' ve noticed is that there
are a lot of contests that have no cost. Right now, we signed
up for a contest in Helsinki that has no cost, which is for the
Museum of Contemporary Art, not Jorge so of Architecture, Museum of Architecture on
a site Enjercinki Beautiful, which had the challenge that you had that some member
of the team has to have passport of the European Union and mastery or of
the European Union or of the United States, and we managed to get someone
who, thank God is my wife. Ah very well, and the contest
does not have a registration fee. Also what we have noticed is that ten
years ago to do a contest involved the best and to hire a model that
took a cost to hire some renders that took time and cost half right now.
I think you can win a contest by being very creative without wasting any
weight. Yes, there are many tools available to express yourself creatively and you
don' t have to put much on your side. So, that'
s why you don' t give them that time to participate and it doesn
' t involve an additional expense. Of course, yes, exactly, only
the disposition of your time and want to do it exactly. Wow, that
' s amazing and, well, all the luck in the world for this
contest. That' s good. It' s good that your wife I
' m going to tell you,' cause I know the way in,
too. Yeah, yeah, wow, what a father hears, who are
your five favorite architects or designers or who have a lot of eyes on you
Now three would have David Hepperfield and I admire him very much while I was
in Japan right now, I had the chance to bless going to Japan and
I saw a lot of his work. Very much so that he has.
I believe that he is the architect who has reached the climax of what you
can do in this profession, for the amount of opportunities they gave him and
the number of places they offered him to work. Then, of course I
have him up to the top, for having visited his work a lot and
seeing what he has achieved and peter Suntor who is a Swiss architect, very
artistic, very emotional, who I admire a lot Mexican, I admire very
much Manuel Cervantes. He is a very good architect, he has an extraordinary
trajectory. Yeah, and I couldn' t tell you another Mexican. I
feel that Mexico has an admirable, intimidating level of architecture and has quite a
proposal. Then I could name you thirty architects, I mean, not one,
but it would be those three. Manuel, Manuel, I think you
have a very interesting proposal. Yes, I think it has stood out very
well, Manuel Cervantes. We' ll have him here very soon, here
on the radio, for our count. Yeah, sure, but yeah,
surprisingly, well, not surprisingly. Yes, it has been a gradual change
in Mexican architecture, where already more than one stands out and so yes,
that is not to say more than thirty. If I could tell you,
they' re doing it incredibly. No problem putting Mexico in the magnifying glass.
All right, very well, won and the truth is, well,
there' s a lot of talent, especially how good he hears and what
you' d say to him. I loved having you here on die radio
and I hope it doesn' t mean, it' s not the last
time you keep telling me that it' s still a clear bitana workshop and
how the implementation of artificial intelligence continues in your office, etcetera, that it
comes to you, no yes, I publish news Lette States yes, I
don' t know what comes to you. Tujets come to us and we
love to read the truth on the radio if it gets to us in the
mail, because if that is, as well as our newspaper of the day
you know, then the truth is that yes. I loved having you here
for the first time in radios, but it' s not the last time
you' ll keep telling us what your workshop is doing and I' d
like to finish this great conversation with you. What would you say to the
architects that, just as you' re throwing yourself at the wheel of making
your own office or that you' re already starting. What would you say
to them clearly look at the first thing they have. They have to answer
a question, being honest and without lying to themselves that the question they have
to ask is whether they are willing to sacrifice everything, because the architect who
wants to start a company, wants to start as an architect and is not
willing to sacrifice his hundred percent. It will not prevail, not prevail.
It' s a very competitive industry. There is a very high level of
proposal. So I' d tell the students what to say if they tell
you what I' m saying and you' re saying," Hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
hey, hey. And what you are looking for is to be part
of some architectural office, some architectural workshop or look for some form of collaborator.
But that' s what I said very well to me, so thank
you so much for being here. Conss thank you. Espudo has also liked
field work. Yes, for me to be less visited here all of a
sudden in the Shorro, and then how wonderful to have you. Really.
Thanks to Jorge de inclementh tayer because we brought David here and not to be
the last, please Jorge, I didn' t bring him to you anymore.
I want to get her and we' ll have a drink tomorrow.
Oh, no, that' s right, of course it is. That
' s already signed and they' ll hear it tomorrow. What a cost
that we did throw ourselves the dragon tomorrow and that with photo and everything,
with photo and everything, please, but yes. Thank you so much,
David, for being here with us and for not being the last time thanks
to the audience for listening to this new season of Irrradio. The other chapters
are not lost. We are already in the middle of the season and we
are already a few more guests to finish this season and we will see until
the fall that is not that long. Neither, and then remember that you
can listen to us on all music streams. We' re in Google,
Podcast, in Spotify, Amazon, deeazer Ihart, in everyone else. They
can find us. So there' s no fault. I say goodbye,
I' m kan Ramirez and thank you very much davitada, even later.
Bye. Bye. Well,