June 2017

124 BUILD / June 2017 , sustainable development. Additionally, the global trends affecting the construction industry show strong impact through computer and communication technologies as well. The current society is characterised by ambiguity, contradiction and infinite complexity. And the information it produces grows every day exponentially. The big data issue is not problem only for IT world and everyday life. The architects are overwhelmed with information and data they need to process in daily practice too. Just to understand different concepts and technologies of cooling or heating systems of the building connected to the energy- efficiency issue (low energy, passive and active house, etc.) developed itself to own science. The reason why the financial crisis happened is that many experts have understood the new complicated products and procedures for themselves, but they didn’t quite understand their interconnection and how these influence each other. Compared to this situation we have similar problem in architecture. Good news is that we don’t have to understand anymore what these things mean per se (because we cannot), but we must understand how they are interconnected through their lifecycle. With other words, how everything is connected to everything. That is a moment when ‘Architecture of the networks’ comes in. It describes methods, strategies and tools how to deal with such complex issues in more productive way. So, innovation in architecture is not anymore about finding something radically new, but figuring out how the things we already have are interconnected and what is then their performance. This of course changes architectural profession and the current mind set. How do you make sure you create innovative solutions to maintain your success as an architect? As Libeskind said there is no space at its place. We are all in one way or another Ortlos (without place, placeless). We are all more nomadic then we think. This condition is not connected to our physical movement. The big deal of our living and working environment is built out of information. Information is a new brick. I believe that the future of the architecture is in dematerialisation. This is not only because we did enough (build enough) to the world and now we need to be careful about the resources which are left. But it means that architectural practice will (need to) be changed. The current way of doing architecture is simply said dried out. On the other hand, the expectations on architecture for solving problems are very high and at the same time the common sense in public about architecture as cultural or socio-political phenomena are very low. However, there is no other discipline which can be more beautifully schizophrenic in combining and orchestrating the things almost impossible to unite. So, we need to be confident that a new fields and new opportunities will open for the profession. Therefore, we need new methods, strategies and tools to cope with future requirements and development of our physical and virtual environments. What has been your most successful project to date? What has been the most important thing you have learnt from working on this? This question is not easy to answer, simply because I constantly change my mind. That is reflected by our architectural practice. If you would check our website www.ortlos.com you would find a huge diversity of projects presented with no emphasis on style. A very crucial moment and the milestone happened at the beginning of our practice – our first appearance at La Biennale exhibition in Venice in 2000. It was not only the first showing of our work on the most important international stage in architecture, but it also coined our approach in architecture, the way how we conceive architecture as kind of manifesto. What does the future have in store for your industry? How do you see your market changing over the next 12 months? Beyond the traditional notion of the architect as a designer of forms and functions for the buildings, the architects need to become designers of eco-systems. These systems of both ecology and economy are maintained not only by the flows of people but also by the flow of resources like information, energy, waste and matter. They also incorporate the human consumption patterns into our natural environment. We need to provide pro-active solutions in search for future developments, which are not only limiting and restrictive to the current life-style to achieve the sustainability and the human-nature equilibrium. Another big issue would be: virtualisation through digital transformation. Especially in the automotive industry topics such: ‘smart factory’ and ‘Internet of Things’ are crucial for the new markets architects need to address. We are looking at mathematical and computer science models for architecture and urban design, to better understand and more successfully describe the complex processes of collective behaviour in urban environments. We are facing challenges for which we need help of advanced models so we can partially predict actions of so called ‘collective intelligence’ and feed our simulations with this data. The classical tools of urban planning such master planning and zoning are happening to be insufficient and even obsolete in 21st century. Land use dynamics and fragmentation of settlements is a crucial question for urban planning. In the general framework of sustainability objectives, the policies that control a suitable process of urbanisation increasingly involve a deep knowledge of complex criteria of location chosen by the different agents. Planners realise that it is crucial to understand and provide the best possible explanation for the observed spatial distribution of urban activities. What are your future aspirations for your company? Do you have any plans or projects you would be willing to share with us? Currently, we are working on some very interesting projects for the car manufacturing industry, which has been in many cases the frontrunner in embracing new visions and ideas for the future. ‘Smart factory’, ‘automatisation and sensors in spaces’ and ‘future of the working space’ through augmented realities are just few of current issues. There are several strategic projects for renowned multi-national companies in the pipeline. We see big potential in Building Information Modelling technology as well.