Interview with Javier Olmeda Raya

Constructo is a design-build studio which offers an array of services related to design, mainly product design and prototyping, custom furniture and interior spaces. A blend of creative, intellectual, and technical skills mingle to deliver not just high quality designs, but we also build them.

A way perceiving problems as opportunities for solving everyday needs.

Ultimately I’ve been designing a lot of furniture. I like the timetable for that particular type of projects. It’s scale is manageable, and they don’t take too long from conception to completion.

A custom-built desk for a musician/producer.

I’ve worked a lot with wood and plastics, using CNC milling machines, Nowadays I’m very interested in working with metals.

A any given point of the day, sometimes when sleeping, sometimes during the rush of a deadline, specially when pressure builds up...

Geometry, ergonomics, the human scale, materials, and constructive possibilities.

I feel passion, we love what we do and do what we love.

I feel a sense of gratitude whenever I see a client happy with the final outcome.

The right combination of materials, scale, and most importantly, its relevance, that is, whether it makes life better and/or easier.

The design field is evolving towards a user-centered approach, where designers can quickly incorporate consumers’ feedback quicker than before. New materials and technologies are providing designers with newer skills that in turn makes them push the limits of not only what can be done but how can be done.

It was last November, during an international Design Fair held in Ponce, Puerto Rico, were Constructo showcased some of our most iconic works to date, mainly furniture. I’d love to exhibit on an international venue in the near future.

I’m struck with how Nature has come up with such a variety of shapes. The intrinsic geometries lying underneath it have always inspired us in our design process. Being a designer has helped me to observe and recognize patterns, formations and arrangements that can be geometrically described.

Living and working in the Caribbean (San Juan, Puerto Rico) can be very challenging. Limited resources and high operation costs can sideline you at any moment. A shrinking economy makes everyone to be more cautious, but it is also a wonderful opportunity to foster creativity in previously unimagined ways. Our cultural heritage weigh a big deal over our designs because the way our society interact with design will definitely affect how our design approach will be. We always try to relate our designs to the region’s idiosyncrasy, so customers can understand and appreciate something they can relate to easily.

Work as hard as you can to become a better designer. Try to get a job in a workshop and learn to build and not stay too much in the computer.

Positive aspects are the creative and ingenious ways we develop to solve problems, not just design-wise but in everyday life. Negative aspects may be poor managerial skills and an unwillingness to get involved in other “non-creative” aspects of a design object or product.

There’s a geometric underlying structure for every design, nothing should be left ad hoc.

Drawing skills are the most important. Technical drawing and 3D modeling skills help a lot. Verbal skills and public relations are also important.

Pencil and paper are always better for a start. We search for references over the internet, sometimes not from design fields but from other fields as well. Then we go to the digital 3D modeling softwares like Rhino, Grasshopper and Cinema 4D. Later on, digital drawings are transferred to G-codes for CNC milling machining or go straight to the workshop, where they are assembled and finished according to design specifications.

I try to keep track of everything in my agenda. Maintaining daily schedules and to-do lists are paramount to meet deadlines.

Well, it depends on the scale and complexity of the object. Furniture designs usually take between 3 and 6 weeks from beginning to end.

Can you do this for yesterday?

In 2011 we designed and built the ceiling of a fine dining restaurant in downtown San Juan called Il Nuovo Perugino. There, we had the opportunity to prove our digital design and build workflow to an unprecedented level, in which design, fabrication and installation phases were done simultaneously.

We have various types of clients, roughly classified in these categories: 1) design professionals like architects, interior designers, industrial designers, engineers, contractors and visual artists; 2) particular and/or casual clients for custom-built projects; and 3) Commercial and/or institutional companies like restaurants, communications agencies, and government agencies.

I enjoy a lot designing in a parametric and/or associative environment, where we can set up geometrical associations between parts and wholes and the final outcome is almost a living creature, an animated object that is not fixed in space and time but rather may evolve within the environment and lets us explore many possible outcomes before entering into production phase.

I want to travel the world, showcase my designs on international venues. Back home we have the idea of elevating our workshop to another level, establishing a creative design hub where an array of related design services are at our clients’s disposal under the same roof.

I usually start running ideas by myself and then share them with my design and construction teams. Then I work upon the feedback generated through discussions. So it’s basically a healthy feedback loop between designers and fabricators.

We’re currently designing several proposals for various clients, mainly custom furniture. A wooden TV Unit/Wall partition for a loft apartment, a stainless steel/glass executive desk for a client’s home office, and furniture for a Tourism Information Center.

By email javi@constructodigital.com, through facebook: Javi Olmeda, through Instagram: constructopr, or by phone: +1-787-220-1242

Not at all.