dmake vs studioarch4

arkitektëza: Hello! You are the first studios to be part of this dual interview. Can we have a short presentation? Who are you? Why are you called Studioarch4/dMake?

Studioarch4: Hello! We are an architectural studio that made its first steps when we were still students. While we were working on a part time basis together, we realized that during those small hours we were actually doing what we loved the most: architecture. When we settled as a studio the ‘arch’ in front of everything was quite a trend. So, as we started off with 4 members, Studioarch4 sounded interesting.

dMake: Hello, we are 4 architects, and we have an interdisciplinary studio engaging in three main fields: architecture, design, art. Why dMake? d- stands for design. Make… well, I guess you can get that. 😊

arkitektëza: What was the initial dream when you decided to open your own practice?

Studioarch4: Well, we started to collaborate together when we were students. It was a smooth transition from a group of friends, to a group of colleagues. We certainly had a dream, but while on that journey it’s almost like you are forgetting it, enlarging it, starting to cruise towards another direction. If we turn back in time now, we didn’t actually have quite this big of an initial dream.

dMake: To leave a mark. Instead of leaving our country and trying a career abroad, we decided to create something of our own in Italy. It wasn’t just about architecture, since the very beginning. We wanted to create a hybrid space where three main components would merge- architecture, art and design.

arkitektëza: How was the ‘jump into the reality’?

Studioarch4: Our first problem was the confrontation with the market. We laced the machinery, infrastructure, even a space, the legal aspect, and so on. University teaches us a lot about architecture itself, but that’s not all about our profession. We could argue about the line weight on a panel, but in a real architecture studio, designing is a small part of the whole processes that you should undertake. School does not teach you that.

dMake: When you first open an office, you dream big. You aim to reach beyond what you can actually reach, especially in the beginning. Anyway, we are step by step getting our satisfactions, as we are engaged on many projects now, part of workshops, collaborations with other professionals and institutions. Our goal now is to recreate ourselves, to challenge the statics. This is the real challenge: trying to always be different.

arkitektëza: What about the market itself? How is the behavior of the market with a new studio? Which are the type of projects that enable the breakthrough?                                                                                                                                               

Studioarch4: Before opening up, we did believe that we had the abilities, but we lacked the self-confidence to open a studio. Well, we certainly made the right decision and here is why. In this strange country, you can start to work as an architect with a low or medium wage, and after you get a ‘somehow’ promotion and reward, you cannot go beyond that-invisible- limit in both prestige and financial reward. If you scan the market, you understand that it’s rather easier to build your own clients than to work for another firm. You jump in the market not 100% ready, but you work and learn at the same time. That’s what we actually did.

dMake: Hmmm… Interior. If the client is happy with your product, he will spread the word and the first projects will start to arrive. Restorations and interior design, have also the potentials to offer us the possibility to perform in arts as well. In restoration, the work itself is easier, the client has clear ideas, you know also what t do. We have been part of many competitions. They provide visibility, which is crucial in the beginnings, but they do not provide any economical result. The possibility to experiment in 3D printing has also had its costs. Design, as an integral part of our practice is still in its experimental phase, as it is still difficult to launch a product in the market.

arkitektëza: You are four (core) members of the studio. How is the design process in your studio? Do you design in group? Do you cover different aspects of the project? Is there a leader?

Studioarch4: We know the strengths and the weaknesses of each one of us, and we try to use the best of everyone. There is no hierarchy, all of us are involved, all of us are authors of the project. Apart from being colleagues we are good friends. This is a strong point, but it also becomes a difficulty when having to make decisions.

dMake: That is not fixed. Our design process depends on the project we are engaging in. Since the moment the project arrives, we try to decide who will be the main curator, relying on the characteristics of the project but also the availability of studio members. The leader is whoever has the most of the free time, so we are quite flexible on running the project, always collaborating and active in all of its steps.

arkitektëza: How are you creating your network of collaborators? What about media visibility, the virtual and physical impact?

Studioarch4: When we opened the studio, we used to read, study where our clients were, how could they learn about us. Each of the members worked with their connections in order to create the Studio’s network.

Competitions were an important mean of visibility nationally, as well as having an updated website, visibility in social networks, and so on.

dMake: If social networks are properly used, the studio’s works gain visibility not internationally. We are actively using Facebook and Twitter, our works were featured in Archdaily, GQ, but also in the national Television. Collaborations are usually a result of networks. Lamplants project for example was a collaboration through the friend of a friend. Till the studio grows and turns into a brand, the personal networks are those providing the first works and collaborations.

arkitektëza: Do you intend to create contact with foreign studios, big names, to collaborate and aim international market?

Studioarch4: We do think about going international, but it is not yet the moment.

We did however many collaborations with foreign offices. We aim to be part of the professionals that elaborate ideas with international visibility.

dMake: In our market, there is a hierarchic structure in which the large studios choose the young architects, ‘small studios’ to contract with parts of their projects. During this process, many of the used-to-be-small studios have grown that much, that they apply this procedure with small, young studios in the market. In Italy, you can collaborate with the big names only if you win a really important competition. Otherwise, it is almost impossible.

arkitektëza: Is architecture enough? Are you exploring other dimensions, projects, approaches to the market?

Studioarch4: Offering architecture only in the construction market is like offering shoelaces in the market that demands shoes. The client wants everything- the engineering project, construction, interior deisgn, details, everything. This is what we engage ourselves with- offering the full package.

dMake: We are currently working on architecture; restoration and designing interiors for many villas or bars in and outside Rome. However, we are exploring the artistic path of our studio. We do have an ambitious project- a Calendar with artists we directly contact, or new artists that approach towards a collaboration with us. More than an art gallery, we aim a Workshop space, where we can also be part of the creative process.

arkitektëza: Could you mention other than architectural projects you have engaged yourselves?

Studioarch4: We have been part of the academic field for a couple years; that leads us to the need to explore theoretically but also socially. “City without barriers” was a project in this direction. This project had a dramatical input- meeting people with disabilities made us realize that their accessibility in the city is almost impossible in real terms. Our role in this project was not only as architects, but as professionals wanting to make a social impact.

dMake: Industrial design, 3D printing, arts. Lamplants was one of the main projects regarding alternative fields. Lamplant was a Hydroponic Smartlamp, with an organic design inspired by the ‘50s, able to create life through technology. Tech Team were our collaborators on this project presented in the Maker Faire in Milan. Our last project was San Pietrone, another collaboration. A project combining symbolic art with 3D technology; the statue of a saint in 3D print, with the face of the artist creating it. By inserting a 2 euro coin the statue would cry. The Paid Miracle- that was the symbolic suggested by the artist; this was our first art event in the studio.

arkitektëza: Studioarch4/dMake, you are relatively small studios. Is growing up an aim, or you want to maintain your small scale?

Studioarch4:: Of course we want to grow! However, we want to maintain our philosophy regardless the growth. Since now, interns join our group and have the chance to become an integral part of the design process.

dMake: Yes, we want to grow, we want to expand our designing team. Collaborations and internships have provided this. (We are currently working with a French intern and next week another French intern will join…. France adores us! 😊 )

arkitektëza: A last question to each studio. Studioarch4, can theory and practice be combined in Albania?

Yes, they can be joined. What you implement from a project to another create certain patterns, practices and ideas that result successful. By combining them, creating an amalgam of your ideas, you create your so called ‘manifesto’. You don’t have to invent, but you can just join successful principles and practices.

We are our first clients, even before the client paying us. He doesn’t know what’s qualitative in our profession-we have to educate him.

Architecture nowadays is like food; you consume it fast, throw it away. It shouldn’t be like this. Architecture is physical, it stays there for a long time. Our cities are pitiful products of mistakes done in years, and it takes time for them to absorb new visions. Vision- that is not something short; it can take a lifetime.

arkitektëza: dMake, let’s end it with a typical feminist question. There are two women in your team. How difficult is it to be a women architect in Italy?

Oh, Italy is such a masculine country. You need to have balls to be a woman architect here. Imagine to tell a male worker in the frontier what he has to do. You have to show that you know always more about everything, or nobody will listen to you. Any professional relationship starts with prejudice. You need a strong character. You need to do double the work that a man has to do.