About the importance of visions, architecture, and art, about space and light with Michal Kutálek - Part 2

<<  Part 1 of the interview

The Reality of Practice: Parameters of Limits, Limits of Parameters

You've been running your own studio since 2008. You completed a short internship at Eva Jiřičná's studio. How did school prepare you for practice?
I jumped into the water and learned to swim, and along the way, I took some serious "gulps." I had no idea how managing a project worked, what type of contract to have, what to include in it, how tough to be toward clients, craftsmen, and subcontractors. For several years, I built connections with capable professionals and collaborators and also tried my hand at various trades. School and a short internship in an established studio don’t really prepare young people for real practice. I realized that I'm not the type of architect who would want to detail "foreign" projects, especially if I am not involved from the beginning. I probably wouldn’t be able to be a contributory employee.


At the beginning of your practice, you had already completed 35 projects. How did that reflect in the "real" life of a young architect?
It certainly helped me a lot that I started earning some money through small commissions while still in school. I also participated in many student and some architectural competitions. Occasionally, I received awards that I would then use to impress clients. It's tough to gain trust as a "student novice," as one investor sarcastically labeled me after a heated exchange of opinions. And then, of course, he didn't pay. I felt that the number of projects I had completed entitled me to step into the world of practicing architecture. I jumped onto a train that was already in motion and didn’t have to be an employee.

One of your first projects was the interior of a lingerie store. Was this project a "springboard" or one of several?
Even though I worked on my own projects during my studies, nothing interesting was realized. Silvie Underwear was the first project after school, where I managed to maintain the principles, materials, and forms as I had envisioned.

How do clients approach you?
Mostly through acquaintances or referrals. In several cases, I was invited to internal architectural competitions and subsequently selected.

Do your clients understand your approach?
It varies. In several cases, the investor didn't trust a specific principle, but fortunately, he trusted me as the architect and let me work. For some, I'm indigestible because I don’t work much with so-called "warm materials." Especially in housing, it's always a battle. Everyone is used to living in wooden interiors. Many times, they ruin the outcome themselves because they decide to incorporate an element, material, or principle they saw on vacation in Provence or at a friend's place, but in totally different contexts. Or they have hidden advisors who come up with "beneficial" ideas that I then have to counter. I would say designing family homes is particularly stressful and challenging to maintain integrity. When it comes to housing, people have little imagination.


In 2008 you made a name for yourself with the Café Bar in Old Town...
It was the first project where Viktor (Viktor Johanis is a close collaborator, classmate from the Faculty of Architecture at CTU - author's note) and I managed to implement a design conceived through parametric design. We needed to hide a bizarre concrete piece of staircase that jutted out from the ceiling. That was the impetus to work with an organic porous shape in a limited, quite narrow space. I got involved in the project at a stage when construction work for the renovation was already underway, and I had to act very quickly. The investor had the idea that everything should happen even faster and concluded that we were just complicating and prolonging the project, so he dismissed us. After we developed a "precise" schedule for the trades, he gave us another chance, and we could continue refining the script, which at the beginning still didn’t work well. I showed the investor hand-drawn drafts and claimed that we were "already generating." Once the script started functioning correctly, we were able to generate more and more shape variations that we tested in visualizations. Given the ongoing development on the construction site, we could dimensionally specify the structure and always generate new drawings for the latest version. This was the main advantage of using parametric design. It was a case where the client didn't believe that anyone could produce and correctly assemble an organically wavy structure from linear elements. He kept reminding us that he still had a drywall installer in reserve who could save him after us…

Then came the Bar Aquarium for the same client...
In this case, we had a completely different position. The investor, after being satisfied with the outcome of the Café Bar, gave us free rein and trust. One of his requests was to "place an aquarium." We had the largest possible glass dimensions made. To get the glass panels inside, we had to break through a wall. After inserting the heavy stones, the aquarium was glued directly on site.
The windowless space needed to be softened and made more attractive. This was achieved through a parametrically designed structure of light-conducting fibers, representing a geyser of water, with the fibers creating a variable light level. The idea of the spraying water was derived from the bar’s original name, "Fountain."


What interests you about working "digitally - parametrically"?
The digital approach to design opens new possibilities in the way of thinking, creating a concept that can be based, for example, on mathematical, physical, or static principles. Of course, this goes hand in hand with material and construction optimization.
Working with parametric design is liberating to a certain extent. The shapes we are able to create, we otherwise wouldn’t be able to realize, and at the same time, we couldn’t even conceive or imagine them. But it’s not just about the richness of forms or the exhibition of complicated shapes or structures. The main advantage lies in the ability to more easily realize unusual morphology.
In every project, there isn't always room for the use of parametric methods. I try to apply this approach where I see sense and benefit in its application. For example, in the project of the Medical Plus Clinic, the parametric design was used to create decorative wall prints. To create hexagonal forms representing cellular structures, we used a Voronoi algorithm. Thus, a unique design was created for each wall.

Light, White Color, Monochromatic Space

You pay great attention to light. You use light as another important means of expression, and in some projects, it is an integral part of the whole...
Light is a very important and often overlooked tool, whether natural or artificial. I love the kinetics of spatial composition caused by the movement of daylight. When using artificial lighting, there’s also the possibility of accentuating specific places, changing brightness intensity, or an overall change in lighting sources. The interior scene can thus change significantly and not become mundane.


We arrive at your next interest, which is monochromatic space, everything in white...
My first and yet most recently completed apartment was my own "White Apartment." I wanted to test in it the principles I had been contemplating and wouldn’t be able to apply in such a degree anywhere else. I approached it as an experimental monochromatic space. It turned out that radioactivity works very interestingly in the interior. For example, when the sun shines on the colored bedding, the whole bedroom takes on a striking color-stimulating hue. It works similarly to how hidden colored LED strips would light up a room.

It’s interesting how ordinary people reacted when mentioning a completely white interior. No one could imagine a completely white living space. Their complete misunderstanding, bordering on contempt, transformed when they visited the apartment after completion. Distrust generally turned into admiring acknowledgment, even though very few would actually want to live in such an apartment. In reality, the interior isn't that distinctly white; someone would use the synonym "cold." During the day, the sun variously "warms" the space, changing its chromaticity. The ongoing daily movement of light in the space creates spatial, spontaneously moving geometric compositions with an accentuation of various surfaces. The atmosphere of the apartment is rather gray or beige than white, even though the untrained human eye perceives quite dark gray as still white. It's more the brain than the eye that, marked by experiences from perceiving the world, knows what color it should be. In the case of sunlight in the afternoon, the color of the interior changes to ocher to beige, and thanks to colored surfaces of inserted objects, it can occasionally transform into colors of the entire spectrum.

When working with light, do you rely on your experience, experiment, or use experts?
Working with light relies on good imagination, intuition, and also experimentation. Although today, a light seller can calculate the required lighting for a work surface or corridor using sophisticated programs, the resulting visualizations aren’t always entirely realistic for more refined tasks. The effects of rays, the widths of cones, the boundaries of light impact, etc., can be inferred, giving us an idea. However, reality is always different. For some projects, I collaborated with a lighting designer who performed lighting visualizations for us. In the project of Parametric Structure No. 2, Filip Müller was an inseparable part of the team. The individual generated structures were subjected to simulations of light flow and light dispersion. Thanks to the parametric model, we could relatively easily change the morphology of the structure and use each subsequent version for a new simulation. Ultimately, we selected the version where the structure was best lit.


The largest light experiment we conducted was during the realization of the Bar Aquarium. Experts told us that light-conducting fibers could not be reliably defined in software and thus simulated. We were worried about the weak emission capability of the fibers, and the resulting overall dimness of the interior. In the end, the result exceeded our expectations. Particularly the kinetic shift of light passing through the individual fibers is captivating for visitors. We recently completed the ethnographic exhibition of the Slovácké Museum, where Viktor and I realized our largest parametric structure to date. Filip Müller and I meticulously fine-tuned the selection and placement of each luminaire. Dynamic lighting is programmed here into different light scenes that will be used for various occasions.

Design, Graphics: Escape from Reality

So, it can be said that in your work, the connection between architecture with art and design functions. In 2003, you received the Graphic of the Year award for your graphic "Battle for the Wall" - an honorable mention. In 2005, you received the first prize for the work "Analog vs. Digital II." Do you still engage in graphics?
With decreasing free time, less and less. I regret it because drawing and graphic work have always excited me. It’s a liberating escape from a reality full of restrictions. One can be free at least for a moment. It’s a similar, yet frivolous escape as with visionary architectural projects. I became acquainted with traditional printing techniques from my childhood thanks to my grandfather, who was a sought-after printer and also an honorary member of the graphic society Hollar. At the Faculty of Architecture, I learned depth printing techniques under Doc. Vilhelmová and transitioned to computer techniques under Doc. Ševčík, which were closer to me. Initially, I used drawings that I modified and completed in software ("Battle for the Wall"). Gradually, I elaborated on them using 3D techniques ("Analog vs. Digital I.") until I finally transitioned entirely to 3D.

The graphic "Turbulent Linearity" is based on the parametric structures for interiors that you created.
Yes, the same script was used as in the Parametric Structure No. 2 project. The structure was subsequently visualized and refined in another program. In the work "Taming," part was generated by the script that was used in the Philips LED Stand project.


Do you use your graphics in the interiors you design?
I occasionally use graphic works in my designs, whether it's just placing some of my graphics like "Erosion" in the Bar Aquarium, the White Apartment, or I directly account for graphics tailored to a specific space. In the mentioned rheumatology Clinic Medical Plus or the beauty salon Darea Beauty, some walls are decorated with custom-designed wallpapers again using parametric design. This method allows for relatively easy creation of various always different artistic compositions while maintaining the artistic integrity of the interior. I am currently working with Mirek Dvouletý on a graphic treatment of walls in the "office" in Holešov, which is just about to be completed. If the investor approves, the fencing of the site and the entrance sculpture on the wall will be resolved in the same spirit.

You are indeed adhering to the line of architecture, art, and design. Is there anything you would like to deepen further in this respect, to let it develop more, to fulfill the intention of this transcendence, if possible?
My main focus is on liberation from traditional forms - experimenting with space, light, constructing a different morphological structure than the classical orthogonal ones, which is always a challenge. The result often stands on the edge between architectural element, sculpture, or design artifact. In my eyes, the ideal embodiment of the connection between these fields is the possibility and at the same time the capability of creators to design a building, including complete furnishings from furniture sets, through integrated sculptures to daily life elements. It would be "total architecture." Today, it is a utopia, but we can draw inspiration from the completeness of some projects by F. L. Wright or even Arne Jacobsen. And we don't need to look far; we have examples of famous villas in Prague or Brno…