Great Designers
Pritzker Winners on Their Collaboration: It’s Much Like Jazz
In Japan to accept this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, the winning trio tell us how their unusual partnership works
In March, it was announced that a Spanish trio of architects — Rafael Aranda, Carme Pigem and Ramon Vilalta — would receive this year’s Pritzker Architecture Prize, often dubbed the Nobel Prize of architecture. After studying architecture at university, the three architects established RCR Arquitectes (the name comes from their first initials) in their hometown of Olot, a village in Spain’s Catalonia region. They have been practicing architecture based in Olot ever since.
While the three architects were in Japan for the May 20 award ceremony, Houzz spoke with them about their collaboration and creative process. As one member of the firm put it, “It’s like the interplay of a jazz trio.”
While the three architects were in Japan for the May 20 award ceremony, Houzz spoke with them about their collaboration and creative process. As one member of the firm put it, “It’s like the interplay of a jazz trio.”
With Pritzker laureates from Japan (from left): Ryue Nishizawa (SANAA), Tadao Ando, Kazuyo Sejima, Rafael Aranda (RCR), Glenn Murcutt (chair of the jury), Carme Pigem (RCR), Ramon Vilalta (RCR), Toyo Ito and Shigeru Ban. Photo from The Hyatt Foundation/Pritzker Architecture Prize
Every year, the Pritzker award ceremony takes place in a famous work of architecture. This year, it was held May 20 at Akasaka Palace, also known as the State Guest House, with the emperor and empress in attendance.
While the three architects were in Japan for the award ceremony, we asked them about the secrets to their creative process.
Every year, the Pritzker award ceremony takes place in a famous work of architecture. This year, it was held May 20 at Akasaka Palace, also known as the State Guest House, with the emperor and empress in attendance.
While the three architects were in Japan for the award ceremony, we asked them about the secrets to their creative process.
2017 Pritzker laureate Carme Pigem. Interview photos by Jimmy Cohrssen
Shared Creativity, Harmonious Breathing
Q. Congratulations on receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize. It is the first time the prize has been awarded to three people. What is most interesting about three people working together? And when the three of you work on a project, how do you move forward? In another interview you described it as being like playing catch, but, for instance, once a project is underway, does someone take the initiative, a leadership role?
Pigem: The architectural historian William Curtis asked us the same thing. How do three people do creative work? Our answer was that it is like the interplay of a jazz trio.
Aranda: As you can see, even during an interview, it is the same: One of us answers a question, the others listen, someone says something. There is no leader. It is a natural interaction.
Shared Creativity, Harmonious Breathing
Q. Congratulations on receiving the Pritzker Architecture Prize. It is the first time the prize has been awarded to three people. What is most interesting about three people working together? And when the three of you work on a project, how do you move forward? In another interview you described it as being like playing catch, but, for instance, once a project is underway, does someone take the initiative, a leadership role?
Pigem: The architectural historian William Curtis asked us the same thing. How do three people do creative work? Our answer was that it is like the interplay of a jazz trio.
Aranda: As you can see, even during an interview, it is the same: One of us answers a question, the others listen, someone says something. There is no leader. It is a natural interaction.
Ramon Vilalta
Vilalta: We often use the term “shared creativity” to describe our work process. By this, we do not mean that our creative activities represent the sum of our individual contributions; rather our work represents a fusion of the creativity of each of us. The creative process is achieved by fusing the feelings and ideas of each person and not by simply adding them up.
Q. Observing how you work brings to mind the Japanese expression aun no kokyu, which means something like “breathing in harmony.” It is an expression that describes the interaction of two or more people doing something together who are so completely in tune with the most subtle feelings and nuances of collaborators that they don’t even need words to communicate. When you work together, do you have this kind of unspoken communication?
Pigem: Aun no kokyu. Interesting! I have never heard the expression, but, of course, there is something like this kind of unspoken communication among us. Spanish does not have such a word. Aun no kokyu would naturally come about in a rather uniform and homogenous society like Japan, but Western societies are so individualistic that there is no place for it. Still, even though there is no aun no kokyu in our society, it exists among three of us! (laughs)
Vilalta: We often use the term “shared creativity” to describe our work process. By this, we do not mean that our creative activities represent the sum of our individual contributions; rather our work represents a fusion of the creativity of each of us. The creative process is achieved by fusing the feelings and ideas of each person and not by simply adding them up.
Q. Observing how you work brings to mind the Japanese expression aun no kokyu, which means something like “breathing in harmony.” It is an expression that describes the interaction of two or more people doing something together who are so completely in tune with the most subtle feelings and nuances of collaborators that they don’t even need words to communicate. When you work together, do you have this kind of unspoken communication?
Pigem: Aun no kokyu. Interesting! I have never heard the expression, but, of course, there is something like this kind of unspoken communication among us. Spanish does not have such a word. Aun no kokyu would naturally come about in a rather uniform and homogenous society like Japan, but Western societies are so individualistic that there is no place for it. Still, even though there is no aun no kokyu in our society, it exists among three of us! (laughs)
Rafael Aranda
Architecture Is Interior and Exterior Unity
Q. When explaining this year’s prize winners, the selection jury stated that in an RCR work, “the siting of buildings, the choice of materials and the geometries used are always intended to highlight the natural conditions and pull them into the building.” How do you view the relationship between nature and architecture? When conceiving a building, what is the most important thing for you?
Aranda: First off, when we build a building, we focus on sense of place. As an example, let’s retrace our process when we work on a project. First, we look at the program that we are provided, of course, and then we go and take a look at the location. All the things that we feel and see at the building site are important to the process. We take in the site through all five senses. Naturally, when the program is first presented, we acquire all kinds of data, but in the end, data is just data. Analyzing data is not the end of the process; it is vital to go to the site to get a feel of its sense of place with all five senses. We use our senses to get a grasp of what the place wants to offer us, what it wants to say to us, and from there, we work out the possibilities.
Turning to the connection between architecture and nature, we do not believe that architecture establishes boundaries between interior and exterior. We approach architecture as the unity of inside and outside. We think that architecture is a fusion of inside and outside. Nature is inside and outside, and architecture is its fusion.
Architecture Is Interior and Exterior Unity
Q. When explaining this year’s prize winners, the selection jury stated that in an RCR work, “the siting of buildings, the choice of materials and the geometries used are always intended to highlight the natural conditions and pull them into the building.” How do you view the relationship between nature and architecture? When conceiving a building, what is the most important thing for you?
Aranda: First off, when we build a building, we focus on sense of place. As an example, let’s retrace our process when we work on a project. First, we look at the program that we are provided, of course, and then we go and take a look at the location. All the things that we feel and see at the building site are important to the process. We take in the site through all five senses. Naturally, when the program is first presented, we acquire all kinds of data, but in the end, data is just data. Analyzing data is not the end of the process; it is vital to go to the site to get a feel of its sense of place with all five senses. We use our senses to get a grasp of what the place wants to offer us, what it wants to say to us, and from there, we work out the possibilities.
Turning to the connection between architecture and nature, we do not believe that architecture establishes boundaries between interior and exterior. We approach architecture as the unity of inside and outside. We think that architecture is a fusion of inside and outside. Nature is inside and outside, and architecture is its fusion.
The Anonymity of Beauty
Q. In another interview, Mr. Vilalta said that “beauty is essential for architecture.” Your works definitely have a distinctive beauty. What is beautiful architecture to you?
Vilalta: As we said a moment ago, we approach architecture as a set of given questions whose answers we work out at the site. And for us, architectural beauty is found in architecture that successfully bonds architecture and people together. When this beauty is absent, architecture fails to coexist harmoniously among people.
Aranda: We might also describe this beauty as a kind of harmony consisting of various elements, sense of place, interior, exterior and so on.
Vilalta: Beauty is found in many aspects and cannot be expressed in one phrase. But it is the presence of beauty that brings people together. Beauty is not something understood — it is felt.
Q. When thinking about architectural beauty, have you been influenced by the work of past architects or by works in fields other than architecture, such as philosophy and literature?
Vilalta: We think that beauty ultimately is anonymous in that it has no author. We are not influenced by anyone in particular.
Pigem: For instance, it may be that we have been influenced by Japanese aesthetics. We visited Japan for the first time in the 1990s as part of a project. The things we saw and the Japan we experienced at that time were truly beautiful. Living spaces, furniture, tableware and everything else we saw in Japan seemed to be things of beauty. We think that beauty cannot be described, that it can only be felt and not understood. Now, Japanese beauty is not something attributed to any particular person. That is what we mean by the anonymity of beauty.
Q. In another interview, Mr. Vilalta said that “beauty is essential for architecture.” Your works definitely have a distinctive beauty. What is beautiful architecture to you?
Vilalta: As we said a moment ago, we approach architecture as a set of given questions whose answers we work out at the site. And for us, architectural beauty is found in architecture that successfully bonds architecture and people together. When this beauty is absent, architecture fails to coexist harmoniously among people.
Aranda: We might also describe this beauty as a kind of harmony consisting of various elements, sense of place, interior, exterior and so on.
Vilalta: Beauty is found in many aspects and cannot be expressed in one phrase. But it is the presence of beauty that brings people together. Beauty is not something understood — it is felt.
Q. When thinking about architectural beauty, have you been influenced by the work of past architects or by works in fields other than architecture, such as philosophy and literature?
Vilalta: We think that beauty ultimately is anonymous in that it has no author. We are not influenced by anyone in particular.
Pigem: For instance, it may be that we have been influenced by Japanese aesthetics. We visited Japan for the first time in the 1990s as part of a project. The things we saw and the Japan we experienced at that time were truly beautiful. Living spaces, furniture, tableware and everything else we saw in Japan seemed to be things of beauty. We think that beauty cannot be described, that it can only be felt and not understood. Now, Japanese beauty is not something attributed to any particular person. That is what we mean by the anonymity of beauty.
Q. While we are on the subject of Japan, do you think that Japan has changed over the quarter-century or so since your first visit in the ’90s?
Aranda: Places all over the world, and not just Japan, constantly change with the times, so Japan, too, seems to have definitely changed. But not only Japan — we who perceive these changes are changing as well, so we cannot point to exactly what has changed or in what way.
For instance, when we first visited Japan in the 1990s, everything amazed us because we had absolutely no knowledge of Japanese culture. But this time, we got advice about what we should see in Japan from our friend Hisao Suzuki. Suzuki has lived in Catalonia for 30 years and is a photographer whose wonderful photos of contemporary architecture have appeared in the cosmopolitan architecture magazine El Croquis. One of the places he recommended we visit is the forests of Yoshino in Nara Prefecture. Seeing the dense forests of Yoshino and visiting the people who work in Yoshino’s lumber industry, as well as the region’s carpenters and artisans, took us to the roots of Japan’s traditional wooden architecture and made a deep and lasting impression. There was beauty there.
Aranda: Places all over the world, and not just Japan, constantly change with the times, so Japan, too, seems to have definitely changed. But not only Japan — we who perceive these changes are changing as well, so we cannot point to exactly what has changed or in what way.
For instance, when we first visited Japan in the 1990s, everything amazed us because we had absolutely no knowledge of Japanese culture. But this time, we got advice about what we should see in Japan from our friend Hisao Suzuki. Suzuki has lived in Catalonia for 30 years and is a photographer whose wonderful photos of contemporary architecture have appeared in the cosmopolitan architecture magazine El Croquis. One of the places he recommended we visit is the forests of Yoshino in Nara Prefecture. Seeing the dense forests of Yoshino and visiting the people who work in Yoshino’s lumber industry, as well as the region’s carpenters and artisans, took us to the roots of Japan’s traditional wooden architecture and made a deep and lasting impression. There was beauty there.
Watercolor by RCR from The Hyatt Foundation/Pritzker Architecture Prize
Q. While we are on the subject of beauty, you use watercolor for your conceptual drawings, and they are very beautiful. Why do you do your drawings in watercolor?
Aranda: We want to convey concept, not form. A watercolor painting is painted with a paintbrush and watercolor pigment, and does not limit form. That makes it a very effective way to convey concept.
Q. While we are on the subject of beauty, you use watercolor for your conceptual drawings, and they are very beautiful. Why do you do your drawings in watercolor?
Aranda: We want to convey concept, not form. A watercolor painting is painted with a paintbrush and watercolor pigment, and does not limit form. That makes it a very effective way to convey concept.
RCR’s office in Olot, Spain
Global and Local Act Upon Each Other
Q. All three of you returned to your hometown of Olot to establish your office, and you have remained based there for the 30 years that have passed since that time. Olot is a small Catalonian town of 30,000. Please tell us why you decided to continue working from Olot instead of moving to a cosmopolitan city that attracts more capital and information.
Pegam: First of all, Catalonia is the place of our birth. Graduating from school and returning to our hometown to start work is for us an entirely natural choice. What’s more, with the spread of the internet, we do not at all feel that our work is limited to a particular locality. So we have never felt any problem whatsoever about being based in the little town of our birth instead of a cosmopolitan metropolis.
Global and Local Act Upon Each Other
Q. All three of you returned to your hometown of Olot to establish your office, and you have remained based there for the 30 years that have passed since that time. Olot is a small Catalonian town of 30,000. Please tell us why you decided to continue working from Olot instead of moving to a cosmopolitan city that attracts more capital and information.
Pegam: First of all, Catalonia is the place of our birth. Graduating from school and returning to our hometown to start work is for us an entirely natural choice. What’s more, with the spread of the internet, we do not at all feel that our work is limited to a particular locality. So we have never felt any problem whatsoever about being based in the little town of our birth instead of a cosmopolitan metropolis.
Q. Please tell us a bit more about your views on the phenomena of local and global. Globalization has advanced in the last 20 to 30 years, but in the last several years, and including Japan, we are seeing among the young generation social activities that emphasize the importance of regional character. What are your views on architecture and regional character? When we look back on the history of modern architecture, we can describe it as fundamentally aiming for an international outlook in opposition to a local one, and from that perspective, is basing your practice in Catalonia, or young architects in Japan developing their careers in regional communities, a move back to the past? Or is it a move in a new direction?
Vilalta: It is not going back. When we look back on this history, I think we can divide it into three phases. The first phase was an era with no concept of “global”; “local” was the only concept. In the second phase, the world was linked together by the advance of globalization, modern architecture emerged, and “homogeneity” became part of the shared language of modern architecture.
In the third and present phase, we are in an age in which we can look at the unique aspects of local things — and there are so many wonderful things on the local level — from a global perspective. We believe that we are in a time in which global and local act upon each other in a way that achieves prosperity both globally and locally.
More: The Pritzker jury chairman tells us why this firm won the prize
Vilalta: It is not going back. When we look back on this history, I think we can divide it into three phases. The first phase was an era with no concept of “global”; “local” was the only concept. In the second phase, the world was linked together by the advance of globalization, modern architecture emerged, and “homogeneity” became part of the shared language of modern architecture.
In the third and present phase, we are in an age in which we can look at the unique aspects of local things — and there are so many wonderful things on the local level — from a global perspective. We believe that we are in a time in which global and local act upon each other in a way that achieves prosperity both globally and locally.
More: The Pritzker jury chairman tells us why this firm won the prize
The three architects were not well-known before the announcement of their award, and some in the media were surprised by the choice of a firm instead of an individual. The New York Times wrote that the selection suggests the era of star architects has come to an end.
When you learn more about their work, it’s not such a surprise. RCR Arquitectes’ use of recycled materials, such as iron and wood, and its designs, which harmonize with the landscape while aging beautifully, are based on the firm’s understanding of the profound relationship among architecture, nature and sustainability.
2017 Pritzker Architecture Prize Goes to Spanish Trio