I believe in a holistic way of approaching architecture design, with the principle that all sectors of our living systems are interconnected. The demands of modern society can be met if we consider all the elements involved in our interactions with the built environments we create.

Architecture as a translation of human relationships.

Human relationships change reflecting new technologies, new beliefs, new economic environments, and new events in history, new demographic numbers and many other aspects of our society, such as social behaviours and cultural conditions. Architecture goes along with these changes, transitioning in its different languages or different ways of expressing itself. Architecture echoes the views of a society and possesses in its hands the power of conveying what sometimes is only possible to be explained by the words of poets and philosophers.

I look at architecture as a sensitive instrument capable of giving life to dreams as well as capable of translating imaginations into architectural spaces and moreover, capable of enhancing the experience of existing by bringing new perspectives to humankind. In a sense, I believe the beauty in architecture matters, as someone said: people living in beautiful places become beautiful people.

After all, the architect must also be versed with knowledge of anthropology and psychology, math and geometry, arts and history, politics and economy, philosophy and spiritualism.

For there’s a reason why certain images are so appealing to our eyes; we feel captivated, for instance, by the image of a foggy forest at the very first rays of sunlight because, in a certain way, we would like to be taken from the material world and brought to a sublime level of existence; through evolution we found ourselves desiring not only to satisfy our material and social needs but also our spiritual needs. In architecture everything that portraits this perception gives us the emotion of joy and a certain shift to imaginative reality. Our perceptions of space, even if unconscious, are truly connected to our aspirations, beliefs, and memories. I believe the sensitivity of perceptions should reside in architecture as an intrinsic condition of being, which is also immediately related to its context.

The architect must then detach himself from his ego and get immersed in the context of the place and people where he is designing for. Nonetheless, the knowledge of materials and technology is as essential to achieving the sublime space as it is the awareness of how architecture influences human being.

As per my personal experiences, all the people I met and all the events that occurred in my life made me dream of another level of existence and question about human relations and what is it that make us who we are. I read about psychology and spiritualism in an attempt to understand the origin of my beliefs, emotions, and personality. As a child, I was a dreamer, who would create imagined places in my imagined world; ten years old and I already knew I wanted to become an architect. I used to draw plans of a perfect school and place sheet above sheet representing the different floors of the perfect school, my drawing skills were never of an artist level, but I had an eager of creating places that were better than the ones I was experiencing. This emotion drove me to fly and visit other places, other countries, other cultures and in a sense, I hope I will never stop flying and never stop imagining better places for people to live. That is the reason why I strive every day to expand my knowledge in architecture, and in the human being.

By looking back into the history of architecture, we find references to base our arguments when the creation of something original is no longer possible; the great examples of architecture become almost engraved in our memories influencing our design.

If I could cite one building, I would cite Tadao Ando, villa Koshino, Kyoto, 1979-81. He said: “What I have sought to achieve is a spatiality that stimulates the human spirit, awakens the sensitivity and communicates with the deeper soul.” I think If I could I would take his words as mine and make this as my personal goal as an architect, his intention towards light, wind and flow in architecture makes me wonder if what is beautiful about a place is what it’s been built with or all the subtle substances that are there, but not really built. A place to instigate memories and the occupants’ awareness of the spiritual and secular within themselves.

Tadao Ando believes that architecture can change society, that “to change the dwelling is to change the city and to reform society”. I also think that as an architect I would like to have a deeper social approach to my design, having the end user in mind to create something flexible for the next generations, self-sustainable and that emphasises simplicity, intensity and a sense of expression.

Caroline Mazaro | LinkedIn