Hello, good afternoon. Good afternoon and not good morning as it’s probably very true that getting up early is as good for economic productivity as it is bad for human self-esteem. Anyway, after such modest pontificating, a faint attempt to draw closer to self-assurance of the Madrid character from the edges of the Iberian peninsular, we’re going to try to convince them that the factors which define us are unique and surprising to such an extent they generate paradoxes. We claim they are actually not paradoxes, or if they are accepted as such, then they are false.
The Time Factor: The Three Scales and Paradox Number One
The Time Factor is related to the desire for the design-production process to be continual. To this end our strategy is to work on Three Scales at the same time, namely, architecture, industrial design and jewellery. Such a dynamic seeks to be clear and not mystical, although the unit is divided into a trinity in such a way that when events slow down in one of the three, we may continue to move forward in one of the others, thus keeping things going. We benefit from their different completion times as the processes are put to the test in different contexts and dimensions, that is to say different scales. Time appears to be one of them, a series of minutes, seconds or whatever unit, but architecture, industrial design and ornamentation consume these in their own way. Our objective is to make good use of such a divergence as if it were a factory with different work shifts.
Paradox Number One is directly related to the Time Factor and its use of the Three Scales: A small team and a whole range of disciplines? A paradox which proves to be a false one when thinking more of intensive work rather than one covering many areas. A clear strategy enables us to look at a chair, the sun which lights it up and the flea which may be able to jump over it one day – with the same two eyes and belonging to just one person. The effortless nature of the process not only makes this melee possible, but also the fact of working in three different disciplines at the same time is a way of reinforcing the process itself.
The Space Factor: The Place, its moment and Paradox Number Two
The Space Factor is related to the benevolence of being here, but also in other places. It is our will to be close to production centres, the places where reality makes the full circle and discovers once more those ideas which we have re-developed and re-understood on re-reading the very same reality. Being in a place is important in order to learn about implementation processes and the skills of those asked to carry them out. The human factor is fundamental. Such immediacy is valid for both industrial processes as well as architectural and urban planning ones. Once the right decision has been made after much persistence and resolve and we manage to be in the right place, where things happen and where things are accomplished, our responsibility focuses on making the moment be the right one. We may not know how to build a piano, but it is no less true that we are sure to have learnt something – if not the art of playing, then the ability to press the keys.
Paradox Number Two is directly linked to the Time Factor – A small office with big business strategies? A false paradox as the big business strategy is copied, but with something else in mind. The basic motivation is not economic in nature, rather it’s a case of ambitions and professional rigour – se è non vero, è ben trovato. That is to say, the challenge, commitment and also the ambition consist in being where architecture is, in its most operatic of forms that is sometimes urban planning. This is being applied to urgent requests. Rigour is the commitment to production and to keeping design and production unified, defending integrated work between designers and producers.
In short, the big news – we are going to Mandarin China, officially Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo -when abbreviated, Zhong Guo. To this end, we are adopting the Columbus 1492 strategy – you seek to go to one particular place, but you end up somewhere else. Although you may be annoyed on first arriving, things turn out to be even better. To do so we have had to do without the dogmatism typical of a virtual age such as ours – namely, excellence in communications networks are no substitute for actual physical presence. We believe direct communication to be fundamental for being able to talk and think with the people who will have to actually manufacture the products.
China is such a large country, state, association or tumult. The place where many others have already managed to demonstrate what can be expected of it. It will depend on us whether our arrival coincides with just the right moment. Pretension, in just the right measure.