Prominent figure Interview with Enrique Sobejano and Fuensanta Nieto of the architectural firm Nieto Sobejano, winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2010 NIETO SOBEJANO HAVE TAKEN PART IN THE decisions start there: we don’t say “we want to use You are both professors. What EXHIBITION “CHILDHOOD MEMORIES. MEMORY IN concrete or stone or glass, etc.” but rather, for example: do you say to students who are DESIGN”. “a material that is smooth, or translucent, or heavy, etc.”. studying architecture? Does carrying out so many We teach them to think, to find their own path, and to You always state that one of your projects related to culture affect be aware of the responsibility they are going to have as main sources of inspiration is your the way in which you express architects to improve people’s quality of life. And we do this by transmitting that what we say in class is also what we do in personal memory. What role do your buildings? our professional life. We believe that to be the best example. childhood memories play when The projects related to culture that we have designed, Of all your works, which has been designing your works? essentially museums, art centres or those related to heritage, share two essential aspects. On the one hand, the most special? Why? All of us, not only architects, are linked to memories, they are related to memory, to the past, and on the other images, impressions that mostly originate from our hand they are almost always to do with defining public Perhaps the Madinat al Zahara Museum. It opened childhood and adolescence, modified by new experiences. spaces. Those two parameters – memory and public up many paths for us; the project relates to the place, As architects, that is without doubt a continuous source space – are probably the topics that interest us the most to history, it is an example of how to integrate modern of inspiration that manifests itself one way or another in as architects. architecture into the landscape and memory. our work. When you design, do you always do so recalling a previous experience? We like to think that the projects already exist in our memory, without realising it. They reappear unexpectedly based on strange associations which we are never fully aware of. In the process of any project, at some point a previously forgotten memory comes back – an image, a sound or a recorded phrase: an indicator that steers us towards a particular path. How can architecture reconnect human beings with their childhood? We design by selecting in our subconscious what we remember as sensations that we once felt: sounds, textures, smells and images that are sometimes vague which unexpectedly become clear again. Even without meaning to, we resort to our direct experiences – the best form of education – and to that archive of information we have received through journeys, conversations, reading, films and dreams. Can a material, a texture, a shape or a smell be the origin of an instinctive decision? For example, Fuensanta particularly remembers the smell of orange blossom (the flower of the orange tree) in her family home. Many years later, when planting orange trees in the patios of the Madinat al Zahara Museum we designed, the memory associated with the smell played an important part in the decision. On other occasions, light becomes the protagonist. Remembering a space for its light is probably one of the stimuli that influences our projects the most. Although all the senses participate, there is no doubt that visual experience is decisive. As for materials, childhood memories are mostly about the tactile perception we have of them: rough, smooth, wet, hard, cold, soft. Often, our project Roca Sanitario, S.A. Avda. Diagonal, 513 08029 Barcelona - Spain Telephone +34 93 366 1200 www.roca.com 7102 anolecraB .A.S ,oiratinaS acoR ©