Today, we travel to Zurich to meet Emanuel Christ, who, together with Christoph Gantenbein, founded Christ & Gantenbein in 1998.
With them, I learned that “form is communication”. As Aristotle would say it as a syllogism: “Form is language. Language is communication. Therefore, form is communication.”
But can we truly communicate if we invent our own language? Or if we aim for anonymity in the forms we use?
For Emanuel Christ, a good building speaks, “a good building speaks with other buildings; a good building speaks about other buildings.” Architecture, he argues, is a civic art, “it belongs to everybody. So please speak a language that can be understood by the majority of people, and at the same time, make it surprising, make it fresh, make it original.”
“Form is never an isolated thing per se.” It is typological, compositional, tectonic - a synthesis of thought and construction. Each project contributes to the evolution of a type: “the best projects have a clear typological principle that produces exceptions and frictions.”
For Christ, architecture is dialogue between past and present, the general and the specific, the universal and the local. Always familiar, yet always new.
Guest: Emanuel Christ (Zurich, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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This week, let’s travel to Rotterdam, Paris and Zurich to meet André Kempe and Oliver Thill, two German architects who founded Atelier Kempe Thill in 2000.
Talking about simplicity can be a complex task — but today, we take on that challenge. For Kempe and Thill, architecture is “the creation of order in the world of chaos.” “The world is already too complex,” they say, “and a piece of architecture can create a moment of order.” Yet simplicity, for them, is not effortless — “it takes a lot of effort to do something that at the end looks rather simple.”
Typology stands at the core of their thinking — “in typology there is a lot of collective knowledge.” The plan, followed by the section, becomes a tool for clarity. Their architecture resists spectacle: facades are rigorous, interiors quiet, and repetition reveals rather than hides logic.
Ultimately, “there is an order — but one that can always be a little bit stretched.” Between reason and softness, their work searches for balance — between the ideal and the real.
Guests: André Kempe + Oliver Thill (Rotterdam, Paris, Zurich)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Lugano, Switzerland, to meet Enrico Sassi — architect, landscaper, teacher of Urban Design at USI in Mendrisio, and editor of “archi”, a Swiss magazine of architecture and urban planning. From his studio in Lugano, he navigates the blurred lines between inside and outside, architecture and landscape.
“It’s not so important to make a distinction between inside and outside,” he says. What matters most is to “produce good living spaces.” For Sassi, “space is our specificity,” and materials are alive with possibilities: “each material has an expression… you can take out energy or beauty or interest from each material.” Nothing is ever wasted: “you don’t throw away a piece of stone. Keep. Keep because it is always useful.”
His work unfolds like an archaeological reading, where “you show stratas” and let the story be read over time. Theory is important, but it cannot remain abstract: “if we don’t have something in our head we are not able to do something with our hands. But only theory… it’s theory.” Construction itself is part of the story, and “you need to be ready to change your mind during the process because the story is moving and new things appear.”
Maybe it’s an opportunity, it is not a problem.
Even bridges, pavilions, and infrastructures carry care and emotion: “color is adding joy to a piece,” he says, recalling a bridge touched by blue and yellow. “We don’t expect a bridge to transmit happiness.” But maybe we should.
Guest: Enrico Sassi (Lugano, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Zurich to meet Maria Conen and Raoul Sigl, working together since 2011 under the name Conen Sigl Architekten. Their practice is rooted in curiosity, precision, and a constant questioning of how architecture belongs - to its place, to its people, and to its stories.
“How is this building grounded in the neighbourhood?” they ask. Every project begins with observation - reading the place carefully, understanding “what do I look at in this project?” and leaving space for multiple answers. “Maybe there is not one answer, maybe there are a lot of answers.”
Drawing plays a special role - not as documentation, but as reflection. “Drawing as a synthesis is more to keep in mind our thoughts for the project.” These synthesis drawings are not about technical detail, but about memory and pleasure - “the things you are most interested in.”
Architecture, they say, should be precise yet open, allowing life to unfold in unexpected ways. “Not always the best materialisation or the best concept of colours makes a good space. Sometimes it’s the people.” Beauty, after all, is “so multilayered” - it shifts, resonates, and tells a different story each time you look.
Guests: Maria Conen + Raoul Sigl (Zurich, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Zurich to meet David Klemmer - an Austrian architect working in Switzerland, running his own office since 2017. In 2022, he founded Studio Diode, an independent satellite dedicated to digital images, where he acts as a digital photographer, constructing and staging virtual portraits of architecture. Two poles define his practice — one introverted, one extroverted — both essential.
David understands architecture as an instrument. “An instrument is something that cannot work on its own. It needs a human being.” And like instruments, his buildings are expressive, their structures “exposed, not hidden.”
From guitars to satellites, he finds resonance in objects that connect the intimate and the distant. “Musical instruments are the closest things to us… satellites are the most far away.” Yet both shape how we perceive and imagine space. “When I work in 3D, I feel an astronaut.”
For David Klemmer, reality is not absolute. “Plans, sections, or even conversations can reveal something I cannot experience when I go there.” Drawing, image-making, and design merge as acts of understanding.
Guest: David Klemmer (Austria + Zurich, Switzerland)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Venice and Arzignano to meet Marcello Galiotto and Alessandra Rampasso, founding partners of AMAA, a “Collaborative Architecture Office For Research and Development” as they call it.
They have recently stated working form New York, as they thought that would be a good pretext to be closer to Donald Judd’s aura.
“Instagram fully fills our mind, so it’s not easy to select”. Therefore, they’ve developed their own toolbox, the "AMAA box” - which they progressively disclosure on throughout the episode. “To have a proper selection is important, so we do our selection of a lot of things”.
At the end, “all these influences create a language.”
There are 3 main pieces: a site, an architect and a client.
“All these 3 things need to work together”.
“To be trustable with a client you need to be a storyteller, thats the first thing. But you also need to be humble and practical. (…) The client needs to be with us for the research, for the process, for the after”. The process is good, but the after is the best part, they claim.
Let’s not for get about the site, as that is the place where they best express their way of thinking. “We really love to dirty up the situation”.
On one hand, “we need to be thinkers but at the same time we need to be builders”.
On the other hand, “from a functional problem you can find a way to be also aesthetic”.
What goes around comes back around.
“The reference is giving to you the power of detail, the power of keeping up your way of thinking and your intuition.”
Guest: Marcello Galiotto + Alessandra Rampazzo (Venice + Arzignano, Italy)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Santiago, Chile, to meet Iván Bravo whom back in 2002 has founded Iván Bravo Arquitectos, now alongside his associate architect Martin Rojas.
Once upon a time Iván noticed he was really interested in the process of the work…even more than its outcome. Polemic.
Isn’t it curious that “in art, ”obra” is the final work” (obra de arte /masterpiece) meanwhile, “in architecture, “obra” is the process” (construction site).
“It was really interesting to understand that one final work, which we call “obra”, is all the process, including the end”, he says.
But can an “obra” (as a construction site) even become an “obra” (masterpiece)?
After all, their clients “are not clients that want architecture, they just want a house.”
Maybe this is all about getting “lebre por gato”.
In other words, “to get something better than you expect to”.
Maybe its about cousins who spot Toblerone’s in architecture projects.
“We are constantly mixing rationality with intuition, of course.”
“The publication of an architecture, the final photos, are a fetichism of the whole process.”
Guest: Iván Bravo (Santiago, Chile)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to Dublin, Ireland, where Ryan W Kennihan - originally from Chicago - has established his practice in 2007.
Ryan is much more interested in an architecture of resonance then in one that is completely self-involved. “Whatever “non-referencial architecture” means, it is the complete opposite of this”. An architecture of resonance is a certain sense that arises from using forms that exist all over the world.
Their practice is about a constant meaning giving. “We want as many as possible, a proliferation of references”.
At a certain point we might find ourselves questioning if we are taking part in the evolution or just continuously extending a mistake. One cannot be sorry, “its very much about looking forward and looking back, trying to be old and be new; to be refined and be awkward.”
“What’s interesting to me is not the framework itself but actually the variations within the framework.
Guest: Ryan W Kennihan, Ryan W. Kennihan Architects (IE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to London, United Kingdom, to meet Adam Khan, founder of Adam Khan Architects since 2006.
Adam aims to take architecture where it doesn’t normally go. “We have a lot to toggle, as architects, without having to leave our discipline”.
But how can architecture extend elsewhere solely through architectural means? It's about doing it through the discipline of architecture, “not using architecture as a way to illustrate some other thing.”
But then… how do you incorporate the program, context, and situation without compromising its autonomy as a discipline? “There is much not under your control, you are kind of riding a runaway horse.” Architecture is such an imaginary guess, sometimes.
The most amazing thing is noticing that “someone actually bothered doing that.”
Guest: Adam Khan, Adam Khan Architects (UK)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Let’s travel to germany to meet the architectural practice Heide von Beckerath, today represented by Verena von Beckerath.
Housing has been a never-ending topic in their practice. “When we started working with collective housing projects it was something new. (…) lately,I found out, collective housing is something that everyone is talking about”.
They are not claiming to be the pioneers of the attention now being given to the housing issue. However, they have long been aware that certain aspects have either never been applied to housing or have been forgotten in the discussion. Using their words: “Its not something that we have invented, its something that is there but maybe has never been applied to housing in that way.”
Sometimes “a single word can change the acceptance of an architecture approach.”
Sometimes, its not very clear who has to water the plants.
Every time, “as architects, we always have to be a little ahead of things.”
“Housing…I mean…this is probably what we have to do in the next years.
But this does not mean that there is change in what we see that is built.
That is the next step.”
Guest: Verena von Beckerath + Tim Heide, Heide von Beckerath (DE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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CREDITS
Two Houses
2019, 38 min
Director: Verena von Beckerath
Assistant directors: Niklas Fanelsa, Momoko Yasaka, Maximilian von Zepelin
Camera, Sound, Editing: Jens Franke
Produced by: Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Verena von Beckerath (ed.), A Room with a View, Monroe Books, Berlin 2023
with contributions by Andrew Alberts, Ludovico Centis, Lawrence Hoque, Albrecht Kastein, Oda Pälmke and Yvonne Matijas Seguso
In this episode we travel to both Greece (EL) and London (UK), where we can Neiheiser Argyros, this time under the voice of Ryan Neiheiser.
Repetition and diference is a long-time interest of theirs.
They don't bother looking at things over and over again, “there is something about repetition that might lead to something unexpected”. However, in other to find the unexpected “you have to completely invest yourself in an idea and totally believe that it can exist in the world”.
“A big part of finding new ideas is about copying interesting ideas”.
Interesting, I might copy this idea myself.
Once we explore the idea of “reuse”, Ryan brings a new, and more precise, word to the table: spolia. “We have been trying to make use of the word “spolia” to nuance the idea of “reuse”.” And they will keep on doing it over and over again.
Guest: Ryan Neiheiser + Xristina Argyros, Neiheiser Argyros (EL + UK)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop: Portugal, to meet Maria Rebelo and João Paupério, whom together in 2019, have founded Atelier Local.
Have you ever though about gosht writing applied to architecture? Maybe its more common than we think.
What is style?
Maybe, “style is what allows you to go further (…) if you repeat a same way of addressing an issue, your mind gets liberated to address other issues.
“Your own limitations travel with you wherever you go. Maybe that is what style is. (…) that’s the only way you know how to solve a problem.”
“Style is a limitation”.
Maybe.
“Once you start to reflect upon that, you start to use it more properly.”
For sure.
“We know a little bit about Palladio but we also know a little bit about ugly kitchens from our grandmothers.”
The real question here is: how local is Leroy Merlin?
Guest: Maria Rebelo + João Paupério , Atelier Local (Valongo, PT)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Massachusetts (USA) were we met Willian O’Brien Jr, who has been developing his architectonic vision under the name WOJR since 2013.
They understand their work more as an intellectual project that has a kind of business by-product. “We think of architecture first and foremost as an act of cultural production”, they say.
“To rehearse” is probably one of their favourite activities. They rehearse ideas over and over, as they are “hoping to find an aspect of that project that helps [them] do something that [they] wouldn’t do otherwise”.
“What is unique about a thing becomes the lens which all decisions get made.”
Metaphorically speaking, something very similar to pealing an onion and finding a new layer every time. “We hope those ideas find their way into other projects.”
But is there space for “rehearsing” during construction?
”I don’t think there is a 1-to-1 correspondence between the visualisation and the built work. One is aspirational and projective and other is, let’s say, much more opportunistic and discoverable.
“That’s something I have been thinking about a lot. What is the status of the visualisation once the work is built.”
Nevertheless, keep in mind that “it can be iterated, it can be rehearsed.”
Guest: William O’Brien Jr. , WOJR (Massachusetts, USA)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Zurich (CH) alongside Piet Eckert, whom together with Wim Eckert founded E2A.
Can a building ever be abstract? Can an idea ever be concrete? What about a model, how abstract can a model be? “The abstraction of a thought leads to an architectural strategy, we can produce a model that keeps this abstraction.”
With such a wide range of thoughts…how to keep our focus? Piet says he as “found a way to deal with many conditions and not have the obligation to always think everything through.” He explains it further: “for example, a plan, is more abou how a space is organised; a model is about how a structure is creating synthesis; an image, for example, can accentuate our attention a space.”
It’s about method and about methodically taking the best out of it.
Nevertheless, for E2A, it’s important to emphasise that "the built work is always the synthesis, otherwise we have done something really wrong”.
“Its about definition and tolerance.
It’s about defining the world but making it free to be discovered.”
“I am not trying to limit things. I am trying to enable.”
“Liberty itself is not a quality.”
Guest: Piet Eckert, E2A (CH)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Today we travel to Ghent (Belgium) to meet with Jasper Stevens and Karel Verstraenten whom, together have founded FELT architecture & design, back in 2014.
FELT favors the 'in between', creating objects and projects that oscillate between between architecture and design, scale and scaleless, between function the fiction. They “see scenography as an architectural commission”, what about vice-versa?
Sometimes they re-scale buildings to stool-size, other times, they skate stools to building-size. “This exercise of re-scale is something we do with almost everything we make.”
They believe in the importance of not ending up “with a grey, basic architecture”. Are you a believer as well?
“We are liars. We like to lie. We lie to tell a different story”. As it should.
Sometimes it is about adding sprinkles on top of frozen yogurt. (Yes, you need to listen to the episode to understand this reference.)
“There is a reference for those who wan to see it."
Guest: Jasper Stevens + Karel Verstraeten (Ghent, BE)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Next stop, Zurich (CH) alongside Ron Edelaar, Elli Mosayebi, Christian Inderbitzin. You might better know them for the short-form EMI Architekten.
The conversation starts on a high, discussing the difference between “concept” and “narrative”. Were you aware that there was a difference between one and the other?
On one hand, “the concept, goes back to a very heroic era of architecture”.
On the other hand, “the narrative, allows for richness and multi-diversity (…) it Its more about diversity, richness, heterogeneity, tentacular, contradictions”.
Therefore, “the narrative is also a critic towards the concept. But if you don’t know the concept anymore… it is difficult to recognise the narrative. (…) I think. In a way, it would be good to have a consciousness for both”.
“Do we cover the project with the story or do we develop the project in the story?”, they wonder.
“With our floor plans, we are trying to overcome preconceptions in housing.”
Successfully, I think.
We talk about mirrors that are moon eclipses.
We confess our obsession for doors. “Its all about doors.”
“Architecture is always very serious.”
“Architecture can be quite humorous.”, it is like a joke that can be told serval times, not a one-liner.
Guest: Ron Edelaar + Elli Mosayebi + Christian Inderbitzin (CH)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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For our 33rd stop, we’re going a bit all around the world with KOSMOS, an architecture practice whose tone is set by Leonid Slonimskiy and Artem Kitaev.
KOSMOS don’t do architecture as one is supposed to do architecture. Yet, they claim they do nothing new…everything they do “already exists”.
Rather than abstract statements, they focus on the specific issues within surrounding conditions, aiming to create architecture that reflects and subtly shifts these realities.
For KOSMOS, less is more…in the sense that “the less we propose to do with our project, the happier we are with it.”
“To us, it is very important to see the project as something that is not possible now/today, but something that is possible in a year or two. It should be very real in these terms.”
Using their words, “Innovation [is] introduced by requirements, not by our subjective vision.”
To them “like life without humor,” architecture without life “doesn’t make sense”.
They are right, I guess.
Guest: Leonid Slonimskiy + Artem Kitaev (www)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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In our 32nd episode, we travel to Hamburg (Germany) and Tokyo (Japan) to meet Kawahara Tatsuya and a Ellen Kristina Krause, the minds behind Kawahara Krause Architects.
Kawahara Krause Architects explores the subtle ways architecture can bring people together without rigid boundaries. “We are living together, and this togetherness should be architecturally staged.” “If things are separated from each other there is still a way to think about how they direct to each other.”
For Kawahara and Krause, each project is an invitation to endless “ways of reading.” Spaces should offer “stimuli without defining too strictly”. “We wanted to show people how enjoyable architecture can be”
"The more experience you have, the richer your intuition gets” and their rich intuition makes them wonder “what really needs to be defined”, after all?
Guest: Kawahara Tatsuya + Ellen Kristina Krause (Tokyo, Japan + Hamburg, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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On our 31st stop, we are travelling east, direction Brussels (BE)…or rather, to “ouest” to meet Stephan Damsin and Jans Harens, the duo behind “ouest architecture.”
ouest architecture thrives in the spaces left unfinished and unsolved, " there is a room for unsolved things and for a bit of ambiguity”. In their vision, not every problem has to be be fully solved. “We are interested in ways to repair stuff without hiding that it has been repaired,” they explain, a philosophy that calls for embracing the imperfections rather than smoothing them away.
Their approach invites a rethinking of architecture’s role in urban life.
How far can one question the brief? Can we question it so much that the kitchen ends up to be left out of the program?
“What are the opening hours, what is the price of the coffee? All these things are so important for how the building works in the city.”
“How to make a building as a swiss knife?”, they ask. I do too.
What does adobe’s strategy on “progressive discloser” has to do with architecture? Maybe nothing.
“Color pencils and excel tables” are all you need to do architecture.
Guest: Stephan Damsin, Jan Harens (Brussels, Belgium)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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Our 30th stop is in Berlin (Germany), somewhere between a reconverted building and the next building to be reconverted. In fact, that is were we find B+. In fiction, we might also find them beyond the building, in station.plus. Olaf Grawert will take us through that.
To warm up, Olaf identifies 2 big groups of architects: both aim for “values” and “speculation” but their understanding of these terms is fundamentally opposite.
Should our honoraries be measured out of a percentage of construction costs?
What if “there is more then just building as an answer”?
What if climate crisis are good news for the market? “In our current economic system, a natural disaster is a fantastic thing because the moment you have a natural disaster and things get destroyed, the market grows.”
Is there a correct answer? Are we just giving better wrong answers over and over? “We need to speculate. (…) “Everything that is new, unknown or experimental is not interesting to those who have to sell it”
Sometimes an observation can become a question, and then a movie, and then a publication, and the an exhibition and then a building, and then a law.
Or not.
If you are still thinking about the words “values” and “speculation”…you should listen to our conversation.
“Its pure fiction.”
Guest: Olaf Grawert, b+ (Berlin, Germany)
Host: Ana Catarina Silva (Porto, Portugal)
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