panels can be prepared by anyone without the need for any special procedures. To do that work Jean Nouvel used the best technology, and I used waste and labor from the suburbs of Paris. When Mr. Nouvel asked me about it, I told him: I really appreciate the work you did, how you built the building here around this magnificent tree, and how you surrounded it with architecture. Well, I wanted to do work that would be close to all this despite being made with the cheapest material, which is considered waste, and with the most versatile technology and protocol possible. Q R What would be the most versatile protocol possible? SB R To be sure that it is built without having any skills to do it. Be- cause even to lay a brick you have to know about levels, plumb lines, etc.; but to put a panel on the ground, that's it, there is no further dis- cussion. Well, what is this all about? You can be in an Italian city when an earthquake shakes it and, if you are lucky enough to survive, you come out and find that the whole city has collapsed. One can look at it and say: 'I am left with nothing' How can you be left with nothing? The same stuff is there in a different form. Hence, we need new ways of visualizing and understanding... At the Cartier Foundation, it is super relevant to raise this issue because it is a platform to talk about potentially using the minimum amount of resources to meet the maximum demand. Paris is a seismic zone where that eight-meter-high, four-centimeter-wide wall, required calculations, and safeguards to stay up... and to show that it was there. It's not that I had special permission from God not to let it fall down, but it specifically means having exposed myself, having failed enough times to be able to take on those challenges, and for the wall to stay standing. Q R Regarding what you just said, what is your impression of architec- tural education in Latin America? Are we teaching what you say, that we should take advantage of what is on hand to design, build, and solve social problems? SB R I think that today it is no longer a question of teaching, but of fa- cilitating learning. In addition, the most important thing is to be able to attain the knowledge that each student learns; not the knowledge that is taught, but the knowledge that the student is capable of revealing. Thus, the focus is no longer on building expertise around the architec- tural object, but it is on the formation of an architect as an interesting individual to build a better society. It is time to stop teaching marketing and teach philosophy. Societies are good to the extent that the people in them are good. Q R You mentioned more than once this obsession with embracing failure. What are some of your failures and what are some of your great achievements? SB R I have not yet had any great achievements, but I can give a detailed account of how and why I failed. Undoubtedly, I failed to the extent that the expectations that I had created for myself were not attainable. I dis- regarded what was the initial pretence of what I should be to start being what I can be, beyond what I should be. So, maybe my only attribute is to persist and see how far we can push these types of ideas and how many people will join in… Q R Where do you think architecture is going? SB R In some courses, I have reflected on the possibilities of material, no longer called upon by chemistry or physics, but by biology, based on the discovery of the human genome. Another possibility is robotics and the infinite capacity to reproduce certain actions. I was interested, at that time, in studying the robot sandfish, a kind of small robot with the nose of a sandfish, which is a fish that sinks and swims under the sand. Imagining that it could move like a drone, but underground, I would ask the robot for things that I can't do and that would fulfill my vision about the things that can be done or not.
As far as material is concerned, I think that in the next few years, we are going to witness an absolute transformation, because we are already closer to having a brick farm than a brick factory. Because to consolidate a block of dirt, we will likely no longer need chemistry or fire... We will probably take a little bit of dirt, throw in a bacillus pasteurii (*), and transform that dirt into calcite in eight hours. If that happens, we are going to have bacillus production farms to do that kind of thing. So, no avenue is closed. What does exist is the need to reduce the amount of material used to protect us; this is what pertains to a planet that has limited resources and an exponential increase in population. Thus, there is no such thing as good material and bad material. However, there is the possibility of committing the least amount of resources and, to that extent, reducing the levels of carbon dioxide or any other gases that we produce. We have to be able to reinvent ourselves, maintain a more open perspective of reality, and dare to imagine a different destiny than the one that has been laid out by previous generations.
Note * This is Sporosarcina pasteurii, a bacterium capable of precipitating calcite, the basis of cement. !
GUEST ARCHITECT
ALBERTO MOZÓ
By: Pablo Altikes + Soledad Miranda + Sebastián Rozas
This architect, who is also a builder, manufacturer, furniture designer, and businessman, is known for his resilience, which is one of his most notable personal characteristics. Mozó's Gap System, created to produce prefabricated housing, has been patented in Chile and is awaiting approval in the United States. On December 15, 2018, Alberto Mozó Leverington was granted the Chilean patent for VAP, the prefabricated housing system he developed - this is not a metaphor - with his own hands. He is currently waiting for it to also be patented in the United States, a process that could happen
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