VSA: "We strive to do it in a way that nothing is forbidden..."

If we want to map the young Slovak architectural scene, we cannot overlook the architectural studio Vallo & Sadovský architects (VSA). VSA holds the position of an unusually successful and frequently published architectural office here. Just three years ago, they graduated from FA STU in Bratislava, and they are already riding the wave of the Bratislava construction boom, which recently caught the attention of the magazine Týden. We were interested in how they managed to realize several buildings in such a record short time after finishing school, even a street, or succeed in architectural competitions (Slovak National Gallery 1st place, Wenceslas Square in Prague 3rd place in a team with art2architecture from London). The VSA studio was founded by two classmates and bandmates in the band PARA, Matúš Vallo and Oliver Sadovský. We talked to Matúš Vallo about their architecture and music. Oliver was working, after all.

---

How do you think it is possible that you became an established part of the Slovak architectural scene or the real estate market in such a short time after finishing school?
(laughter) ... we certainly don't think we are an established part of the scene. It's very simple. It's also about luck, but it all started when we participated in a competition for row housing in Slanec, Bratislava, where we performed relatively well. We invited our colleague John Bosch from the Netherlands, with whom we not only always "party" well but also do architecture together. There we clicked with a developer who was just starting out and assigned us the project "row houses 21". This developer gradually grew, and it turned out that suddenly he gave us other projects, and later it began to accumulate, and just tomorrow, the construction of apartment buildings near that "row house" starts. When this developer started, there were about 5 people moving in their office, and now we have realized an interior for them where we designed about 80 workspaces. I'm afraid to speak about it out loud for fear of jinxing it. But of course, it was also about the decision right after school to go work for ourselves since there was no architect we wanted to work for. We wanted to work only with two studios where we also worked - HPA and KSA, with whom we are still in contact.
And maybe it's also because architecture is not a business for us; it's one big hobby, and we give absolutely everything to it. It's similar to music.

You are primarily focused on housing. Your biggest realized project so far is row housing in Bratislava Rača – Slanec. The development taking place in this location seems to seek an answer to the problem of suburbs. How do you perceive this problem? Do you address it in your projects? It is clear that the primary reason for the emergence of suburbs is the garden. In your work, it seems you are imitating the characteristics of a garden. You work with greenery, greenery, terraces, patios...
Exactly. Whenever people move away from the city, they do so because they want more intimacy and all the positive things associated with it, they want that garden. It's certainly an interesting question as to what attracts them to it. I don't know if I will answer it well, but in Slanec, it's "row housing"; it was supposed to be more like apartments, so that concept of a family house is significantly suppressed even though there is a little garden. We rather called it a grilling spot.

We were thinking about, for example, a penthouse on Dostojevského road, which seemed like a literal transfer of a family house with a garden to an urban roof landscape.
Yes, I agree. There it is completely evident. I lived for 4 years in an apartment that had a huge terrace, and we used it a lot, and that's why I think it's still attractive for people, that contact with the outside. Rather, we are always dealing with the biggest cliché - the blurring of the interior with the exterior, but it is probably the truest. Because for me, the most attractive thing is to be in a house and have greenery, have contact with the outside, see the sky. Maybe it's that in this fast, crazy world full of stress, greenery is the opposite of that; it’s something peaceful. And sitting on the terrace is simply the best.
In the apartment building we are just starting to build, those flower pots were originally supposed to be small gardens where you could plant herbs like basil, mint, and so on. I, for example, grew strawberries on my balcony, which died. But there must be something to those gardens; it’s true. That contact with the outside is fundamental; everyone is still dealing with it.

This is precisely about the suburb. The problem is in setting urban density. How to set urban density so that a person does not feel the need to move to the suburbs?
That’s an excellent question. So that what happened in America doesn't happen. In America, their cities completely collapsed.

Do you believe in Slovak competitions?
Right after school, we won a competition with Ilja Skoček for the reconstruction and extension of the Slovak National Gallery, and that round was completely canceled or rather another round was announced, in which we couldn't even participate because it was only for authorized architects, so there is a certain bitter feeling here.
The competition for the residential complex "Slanec" was announced by a private investor, and we had the feeling that when a developer hosts a competition, they do it not to just waste money but because they genuinely want to achieve a certain result.

You are members of a quite successful band Para (www.para.sk). Is this an advantage for you? Your faces are relatively familiar to potential clients from the media, which can create a sense of trust.
No, we keep that a secret from every client because when I go to a fifty-year-old client who listens to the radio at most, I won’t tell him that I play in a band because he will think: oh, this guy plays in a band, he’s going to neglect my project. The client wants to see that the architect is dedicated to it, that he is working hard on it. But it should be said that the band is a hobby we've had since high school, and we don’t want to give it up yet.

But surely there will be a group of clients who find that appealing.
Yes, on the other hand, it does not hurt us with clients who know about it. But one thing is clear: thanks to music, we can communicate with people. Recently, we were at a discussion where the first question was about communication, and communication was probably the only tool we had at the beginning. We come to the client a year after school, we do have good design in hand, but we don’t know anything about all the rest. So communication is the only tool there.

So how do you transfer communication from music here?
We've been playing for 10 years; we know how to stand on stage when 1000 people are looking at me; I have no problem with that, and when 5 clients are looking at me, I have no problem with that either. I’ve already experienced a series of architects who fumble and turn red, and that never helps a presentation.

Both of you have experience in a renowned foreign studio (John Bosch, David Adjaye). You also have experience from local studios. How do you evaluate these experiences in hindsight? Are the methods of these foreign studios applicable here?
My stay there greatly influenced me. By the way, currently there is a project by David Adjaye on the front page of the Architecture Forum - Rivington Place. It was a project I was working on at that time. It was a competition where Jan Kaplický finished second, and Adjaye won it, and now it is completed. It was certainly a great experience for me; that’s for sure. He is Black, and you could feel that. We arrived raised on functionalism, and he didn’t address that. It was something completely different. So relaxed, lots of colors, that’s where I learned that color is amazing, material... But I also figured out how PR works in architecture, how client relations work, and he was a great magician in communication and presentation. But of course, everywhere abroad it is normal that studios present themselves, they push themselves, they even hire people for that. When I was there, there were 25 people; now there are 40. Now they even have a branch in America.

David Adjaye is a native Englishman?
David Adjaye is the son of a Ghanaian diplomat, so he is originally from Ghana; that’s where he was born, but he has lived his whole life in London. He studied at the Royal College of Art, where he was classmates with Chris Ofili, who is a big art star and won the Turner Prize in 1998. He often appeared in the studio, and even worked with Adjaye on several interiors. I was there for 8 months; I even got an offer for further collaboration, but they did not grant me work visa. I mainly did visualizations there, which hardly anyone was doing at that time; so I was in constant contact with David.

It can be said that your work bears a certain handwriting. Graphic design, print surfaces, green color, grass... Why these signs?
We strive to do it in such a way that nothing is prohibited, but taking into account the financial context of the Slovak Republic. It was clear on those garages in Slanec. Suddenly, there were 21 large white surfaces facing the street. Originally there was to be vines as a symbol of it all, but in the end, grass ended up there. We were a bit shocked when they put it there, but it’s okay.
In the café of the Trnava Gallery of Ján Koniarik, we created people on the walls. There are several explanations for that. The central theme of the whole assignment from the gallery was the question of what the purpose of art is, and we answered that it is people - they are the "art," and another explanation is that the visitor actually becomes an artwork. Not an artwork surrounded by people as usual, but the opposite; you are a person; you are the artwork. And then the owner says he never has empty space there. On the other hand, it was a cheap thing. It was a "lot of music for little money" kind of deal. But that café no longer exists.

Do you not fear the temporariness related to these "trendy" phenomena present in your work?
I can't imagine that someone would stop liking green. Green is just a color just like blue or red. We liked it before; we still like it now. It’s just green; it can’t help it. I am interested in transferring nature into architecture; that's probably where it comes from. That’s where the gardens and those pots come from. But we would definitely like to avoid trendiness and can say we mock it when we see how some Slovak architects are still riding the "zebra" wave and it’s evident which magazines they have flipped through. We call it "Slovak minimalism." We like minimalism, but we seem to have moved past it. Trendiness is not important, but sometimes it's nice.

The topic of the façade is very prevalent in contemporary architecture. What do you think is the reason for this? What should the façade articulate according to you: reflect the internal programs or be their independent envelope, a shell?
We have never asked ourselves whether the façade should or should not project something, nor do we feel that the façade is currently in any more trend than before. Quite the opposite. The façade has some importance, and the inside also has importance, as does the detail's importance. But of course, the façade is the first thing a person sees; the façade is the first perception of a building unless you are entering a subway station, for example. We have encountered buildings that had a totally meaningless façade, and inside they were superbly crafted and vice versa. I’ll point to a yellow house in Šenkvice by Japanese architect Hiroshi Fukumori, which was painted yellow by locals, shocking me, but certainly also the architect. Inside, the house is wonderfully thought out and simply excellent, so in that moment, that strange yellow façade is completely irrelevant. The façade must be excellent, and the interior must also be excellent.

In your work, a certain shift can be detected. Do you look back critically at your architecture?
A shift, as in music and architecture, is certainly important for us. We are very pleased when a shift is evident in architecture, and we look at our old things as if they were our old songs because every time we do something, we put in 1000%. And if that doesn’t happen, we deeply regret it, and that angers us. We certainly want to keep moving forward.

You intensively use architectural "networking" or presentation in "lifestyle" and architectural media. You participated in meetings organized by the Young European Architects forum and contribute to the Wonderland statistics. What do these still unusual activities bring you?
The Young European Architects meeting in Amsterdam was excellent. We were still at the very beginning then, and what was good about it was that we saw that no one has it completely easy. That behind every nice photo in the magazines is a lot of hard work. The primary purpose of the meeting was probably the joint discussions.

You have been in magazines so often lately; it could be part of your architectural strategy.
In Slovakia, I often feel that words like ambition and promote are pronounced as insults and are often grouped with the word arrogance. I feel that when we utilized the opportunity to publish something somewhere, some colleagues looked at us as if we were doing something criminal. But I think that’s just another Slovak problem because everywhere abroad it's totally normal that when I do something, I want to present it. But it's also a matter of how to present architecture to non-architects. People deal with architecture a lot; a lot. Let’s not pretend they don’t. And I still feel the expanding range of commercial magazines for people with good architecture. It’s the same as with music; everyone who says they don’t want to play for people is lying a bit.

You are currently recording a new album with Para. What is more for you, music or architecture? Or do the methods of making music and the methods of making architecture intersect in your work? Do you use music composition methods in architecture? (sampling, remixing, live...)
Certainly, the creation of a song and creating architecture intertwine for us. And I know a lot of musicians who studied architecture, whether they are AIR, the singer from the band SUEDE, or others. For us, architecture is clearly a priority; it’s like a drug for us; we really enjoy when it comes to life, you visit it. And music is a hobby. It’s like when that heart surgeon goes fishing and suddenly pulls out a hundred-kilo catfish, and is suddenly photographed in a magazine with his catch. The difference is that when you catch a catfish, the fishing union learns about it, but when you make a good song, everyone knows about it.
The question of composing is about structure. Just as in a song when you come up with the main motif, the structure follows, which is also very important for the song's success. Similarly, in architecture, the initial idea is the starting point, from which the structure, so to speak, the layout unfolds. As for the methods of sampling and remixing, we often use them whether we know it or not. There are times when we were excited about how we created some great thing, and six months later, I see exactly the same thing somewhere in a magazine, and it’s certainly the same in music. In music, I have no problem quoting someone; it’s a remix, it’s a sample, but I would be very careful with that in architecture. We have a great desire, which is probably not yet fully fulfilled, to be original, to come up with something original. Still, the foundation is to create a perfect space.

Thank you for the interview.