Interview with Zooco Estudio

In the Architecture School in Madrid ETSAM, the teachers taught us how to face any challenge when the design is the key factor, from a piece of furniture to a construction detail.

ZOOCO ESTUDIO tries to project with fine materials and simple shapes to achieve a timeless and functional aesthetic. We always search for neutral spaces and projects that last over the years. With this objective, we combine the research into new materials and systems, with the knowledge of traditional processes.

In a personal lever, we feel satisfaction when we see that something you have thought previously is made reality. How the design is turned into reality and how it solves all the needs.

As I mentioned previously, the vocation that the university taught me how to answer the client's needs.

After winning the architectural competition of The Civic Cultural Centre in Soto de la Marina (Spain) in 2008, we founded Zooco Studio.

Any beginner who likes and works for his or her dream, can make it true and they can live from this job.

The development of each project, regardless of scale, is based on the generation of a previous concept. This is the aim we chase along every successive decisions that make up the design process. The initial concept is a response to the specific requirements of the custom and the characteristics of the environment, identifying the project from the beginning and serving as a constant guide during its development.

Nuestro día a día es trabajar con el equipo, reuniones con clientes e ir a las obras que tenemos en marcha Our day to day is a mix of working as a team, clients' meetings and site visits.

We keep up to date with the last proyects through internet web pages that are specialised in architecture, interiorism and design. We don't believe so much in the temporality of fashions, therefore we prefer atemporal designs that last in time.

Good design is the atemporal one, the design has to answer the clients' needs, It has to reflect the aesthetics of the project as the leitmotiv.

In this day and age, the temporary urgencies of the client mark the end of the project, but for us a design is ready when it responds well to every need.

Our biggest work is the Verín Arts Center, which is a building located in Galicia, in the northwest of Spain. It is a complex of granite volumes that includes an auditorium with capacity for 400 people, classrooms, cafeteria, exhibition hall and rehearsal room.

We do not have any favorite designer but we do like the work of architects like Herzog and de Meuron or Sou Fujimoto.

We like to be interested in the new things that appear in the design, from a good restaurant to travel

ZOOCO ESTUDIO´s philosophy is facing each project, from interior interventions to large structures building, through the same creative process.

To respond to the needs that our clients pose to a greater or lesser extent

Surround yourself with people who have the same interests as us

Achieve solutions for necesities.

I choose it.

Any design whenever we are able to develop a complete idea.

Try to do it.

There is no good or bad designers, the very design is what it is great or not and decided if the designer has done a good job.

When a design has funtion and aesthetic in its maximun expression.

A gret design will make lifes easier and better.

A museum or a jail

To be fathful in what I believe.

Great architects.

'Torres Blancas' in Madrid, Ronchamp of Le Coubusier and Thermal Baths of Peter Zumthor.

Study and work in great projects.

Any other creative work

There is never enough time, enough budget and sometimes the client could be an obstacle.

There is no only one way, there are a lot.

A single-family house in Torrelodones.

The Arts Center of Verín

They except the best solution for a necesity without forgetting that this solution has to be attractive.

Because it is the solution of many problems, issues and makes our lifes easier.

Every project has the same process and all of them are exciting.

It depends on many facts such as the size, the client, the budget...

Most of the times, working in the studio, but sometimes the best ideas occurs in someplace out of the context.

Funtion, aesthetic and timelessness

I do not believe in trends, a great design must not follow them beacuse it has to last in time.

Technology helps design and makes the creative process easier.

Drawings, 3d models..

It is a very important part in the design but not the main one.

I try to analyse it and learn from it.

Architects

Our team.

Building our projects. Making real what it is in my mind.

I feel motivated when I realised that the idea of the design has sense and it is going to be a fact.

Who knows that?

Zooco Estudio is all about funcional and timeless design.

To create 'something' (objects, spaces, etc.) with a purpose and aesthetic.

Anything that involves the transformation of a space.

It is impossible for me to choose just one thing.

A single-family house in Madrid

I do not believe in favorites. It all depends in how they respond to what they are made for.

I do not have an special moment.

All of them are important but if I would have to choose one, I would say the initial concept because it is the generator of all the rest

The desire to keep designing and to improve it.

When all the pieces work and fit together.

Funcionality and aesthetic.

Try to make lifes and all around society better.

Designing is always a necesity, now and in the future. Everything that is created, it is designed

Last exhibition was in the COAM (College of Architecture in Madrid)

First of all, the inspiration comes from the necesity, the characteristics we want to get. Creativity is fed by others designer's works and by all around us.

Funtional and timeless style.

Madrid. I do not think that the culture of my country affects so much in the designs but the education I have received is a true reflection of the designing process

Collaborating with other experts in issues that architects do not dominate

Normal life, I work 8 hours a day and the rest is leisure time.

Where there is a will, there is a way.

Funcionality and timelessness

Attitude in what we love.

It depends on many facts. It can last 2 days or many months.

My own experience.

Anything that involves the transformation of a space.

To improve in what I do

As a team.

Our fisrt single-family house. We are very excited.

www.zooco.es Our phone number is 0034917355490